As is the case with film, television remains in an odd state as the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes continue. Who knows how long the strikes will continue until studios agree to fair wages and compensation and job security or how long it will be until we see a severe thinning of the upcoming release slate. For now, August remains as complete as it might usually be, with plenty of returning series — and quite a few final seasons — as well as new, exciting debuts for some of the longest-running sagas from “Star Wars” to “One Piece.”

READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ Trailer: Rosario Dawson’s Jedi Series Launches August 23 On Disney+

There are quite a few adaptations on the docket as well, from the aforementioned “One Piece” which looks to enlist a new wave of fans, to the second season of the much anticipated “Heartstopper,” there’s no shortage of books and graphic novels being brought to life on screen.

Continue reading 11 TV Shows To Watch In August: ‘Reservation Dogs,’ ‘Ahsoka’ & More at The Playlist.

This year marks the end of one of premium cable’s most successful series about uber-wealthy white people and their drama. No, we’re not talking about “Succession,” but that also qualifies. We’re talking about Showtime’s hit series, “Billions.” 

READ MORE: Showtime Is Hoping To Create “Billions” & “Dexter” Expanded Franchises With Multiple Spinoffs Planned

As seen in the trailer for the seventh and final season of “Billions,” it looks like its all hands on deck for what is bound to be an explosive end to the acclaimed drama.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Final Season Trailer: Showtime’s Acclaimed Financial Drama Ends Its Run Later This Summer at The Playlist.

Yes, Marvel Studios really kickstarted this idea of a “cinematic universe” more than a decade ago, but some of the most popular versions of this idea have sprung up in various other genres. Perhaps the most recent example is the absolute behemoth that is “Yellowstone,” which has been nothing but a huge success for Paramount and its streaming service, Paramount+, and spawned about a half-dozen spinoffs that are either already released or in the pipeline.

Continue reading Showtime Is Hoping To Create “Billions” & “Dexter” Expanded Franchises With Multiple Spinoffs Planned at The Playlist.

Is Brian Cox on a tear this week or what? The “Succession” star had tongue-lashings to serve for everything from method acting to Showtime‘s “Billions” this week. That’s not surprising for an actor known to dole out barbs against his fellow thespians, but two Cox takedowns in a day? That’s a gift that keeps on giving.

The first story comes from The Hollywood Reporter, which reports that Cox had some brusque words about method acting during a post-screening Q&A at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Continue reading Brian Cox Dismisses Method Acting As “American Sh*t” & Disses ‘Billions’ As “Past Its Sell-By Date” at The Playlist.

Screenwriters, directors, showrunners, and filmmakers Brian Koppelman and David Levien like to look at the world around them for inspiration. For their Showtime series, “Billions,” they looked at the cutthroat world of finance, hedge fund managers, and the real-life prosecutions of financial crime by federal authorities that have made major headlines worldwide. Before that, they famously looked at the world of poker and gambling for “Rounders,” the film that launched their career and made them go-to writers for people like Steven Soderbergh, John Dahl.

Continue reading ‘Super Pumped’: Joseph Gordon Levitt Stars In Showtime’s New ‘Battle For Uber’ Series From The Makers Of ‘Billions’ at The Playlist.

Showtime‘s “Billions” is back with all-new episodes. Bobby Axelrod and Chuck Rhodes have been unscrupulous adversaries and underhanded allies. Still, nothing has prepared them for the ruthless machinations of billionaire Mike Prince, who’ll use everything – and everyone – at his disposal to come out on top. As alliances get ripped apart, and new enemies rise, everyone gets roped into the conflict, and consequences be damned.

READ MORE: Duo Behind ‘Billions’ To Develop A New Showtime Series About The Real-Life Drama At Uber

Paul Giamatti (“Sideways“) and Damian Lewis (“Band of Brothers“) star in a complex drama about power politics in the world of New York high finance.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 5 Trailer: The Game’s Not Over For Bobby & Chuck at The Playlist.

It takes a hell of a lot of work to reach the top, regardless of the industry or service. And when that goal is reached, every effort has to be taken to ensure nothing changes that. At least two questions—however—may emerge. One: how long until the competition finds a way to do something easier, faster or more efficiently? Second and—perhaps—most important: how much do you trust your employees to remain faithful to the company? Such predicaments and others like them look to figure into Season 5 of “Billions.”

READ MORE: COVID-19 Concerns Lead To Massive Spike In Streaming Sign-Ups With Disney+ Leading The Way

The team of Brian Koppelman, David Levien, and Andrew Ross Sorkin are the creators of the show, and all three also serve as executive producers.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 5 Trailer: Damian Lewis & Paul Giamatti Reignite Their Rivalry As New Enemies Emerge at The Playlist.

We love shows about the cutthroat business dealings of wealthy people, or at least it looks that way whenever memes about “Succession” and cousin Gregg invade social media. The HBO show takes more of a satirical approach to the world of the 1%, while Showtime’s hit drama “Billions” has been showing us the back-stabbing dealings of New York’s uber-rich power players. And soon you can see Julianna Margulies, Frank Grillo and Corey Stoll join the cast in the trailer for the upcoming season 5.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 5 Trailer: Showtime’s Show About Uber-Rich Tripple-Crossing Is Back at The Playlist.

“Billions”
on Showtime already has a heavyweight cast among its members, but in
season five, two more heavy hitting character actors are joining the ensemble: Julianna
Margulies (“The Good Wife”) and Corey Stoll (“House of
Cards,” “Ant-Man”). Created by showrunning writer/directors Brian
Koppelman and David Levien (“Rounders,” “Solitary Man”),
“Billions,” in case you’re unaware is drama about power politics in the world
of New York high finance.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 5 Trailer: A Vicious Rivalry Is Reignited at The Playlist.

We’re finally picking up speed after two relatively slow-paced months (although they did grace us with “Russian Doll,” which was a welcome surprise and an early contender for Best of 2019). This month’s premieres run the gamut of returning favorites, new oddities, and devastating exposés. It’s a big month for streaming services and HBO, with the latter releasing two returning comedy favorites, including the final season of “Veep.” April marks the return of “Game of Thrones” for its final season so, if you want to get a word in edgewise about any show that isn’t the HBO behemoth, now is the time to hurry and binge as many non-dragon and ice-related series as possible before the discourse is overwhelming dominated by nothing else.

Continue reading 11 TV Shows To Watch In March at The Playlist.

Enemy of my enemy is my friend. That seems to be the running theme of the upcoming season of Showtime’s hit drama series “Billions.” Whereas the first few seasons saw Bobby Axelrod and Chuck Rhoades at each other’s throats, trying to bring the other down, Season 4 turns that premise on its head.

As seen in the new trailer for the upcoming season of “Billions,” the former enemies are now friends (albeit still not pleased with each other) as both stand to gain something from this new alliance.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 4 Trailer: Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend…Maybe at The Playlist.

It was, as we’ve discussed already, a great year for movies (The 25 Best Films Of 2018). It was perhaps a less great one on TV, at least on the surface. There were more scripted shows than ever once again, but with some heavy-hitters skipping a year, and a few high-profile disappointments (Hi, “The Romanoffs!”), it was hard not to feel that the ageless TV vs. film debate came out of 2018 with a point on the movies board.

Continue reading The Best TV Shows Of 2018 at The Playlist.

Odds are, you either love Showtime’s hit series “Billions” or you have yet to watch it. Of all the shows that end up getting recommended during this era of Peak TV, few come close to the number of times I’ve heard “You watch ‘Billions?’ You really should!” And now, as the series enters its fourth season, with a premiere date now known, it would appear that I have enough time to binge the series and be part of the conversation.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 4 Trailer: Bitter Enemies Join Forces For A Common Goal In Showtime’s Acclaimed Series at The Playlist.

You’ve read our Best Films of 2018… So Far feature, or you will (you will!) and now it’s time to move onto the small screen, and as we know the quality of television has jumped leaped and bounds in the age of Peak TV (Ridley Scott just said this week filmmakers should be careful because Television is catching up with movies, which still very debatable). There’s a zillion shows out there, it’s impossible to keep up and all of it is exhausting frankly.

Continue reading The Best Television Shows Of 2018 (So Far) at The Playlist.

No, I haven’t watched a single episode of “Billions” yet, but that’s entirely my fault. Heck, I only just got through the first season of “Halt And Catch Fire” so cut me some slack. In any event, Showtime‘s series is a critically acclaimed hit from two of our favorite writers and showrunners, Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Continue reading ‘Billions’ Season 3 Trailer: Take Power at Any Cost at The Playlist.

It’s always difficult to tell ahead of time which of our year-end lists will prove the most divisive among the usually harmonious Playlist team. But perhaps reflecting the inarguable explosion of quality TV over the past decade, and therefore the fact that not any one of us has seen everything, and every one of us has their favorites among stuff that no one else saw, this year that dubious title may just fall to the feature you are about to read.

Continue reading The Best TV Shows Of 2017 at The Playlist.

If there isn’t already, there ought to be an improbably long German compound word to describe the slightly panicky, drowning feeling of overwhelmed anticipation that is one’s natural state when contemplating just how much good TV there is out there — and that’s even before additional shows like this week’s “GLOW” and “The Mist” have been piled onto the queue. Add in an appreciation of just how few hours there are in a day, and just how much “other stuff” one is supposed to be doing with one’s life, and the prospect of even making a dent in the mountain of unwatched Golden Age TV can actually trigger a full-blown panic attack.

Continue reading The 25 Best TV Shows Of 2017 So Far at The Playlist.

When it premiered at the start of 2016, you might have been forgiven for overlooking “Billions.” At the time when the term Peak TV was becoming inescapable, it was another prestige cable TV drama centered on white dudes in a world of wealth and privilege. Even the cast seemed to be recycled from other acclaimed shows: Damian Lewis from “Homeland,” Paul Giamatti from “John Adams,” Maggie Siff from “Sons Of Anarchy,” Toby Leonard Moore from “Daredevil,” David Costabile from “Breaking Bad,” Jeffrey DeMunn from “The Walking Dead.”

READ MORE: The 30 Best TV Shows Of 2016

The territory — big money on Wall Street — felt like it had been well-trodden recently on the big screen too, with the success of “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and “The Big Short.” So all told, it felt like it was destined to be overshadowed by other shows like HBO’s “Vinyl,” which debuted around the same time (“not quite as smart or as good as it hopes it is,” our review from January 2016 read).

Continue reading Why ‘Billions’ Could Turn Out To Be The Defining TV Show Of The Trump Era at The Playlist.

We have to say, at a time when we desperately need somewhere to escape to for 30-60 minutes just to give our brains a rest, so-called “peak TV” hasn’t been massively delivering. The first month of 2017 has had a few shows debut, but they’ve either been disappointing (looking at you, “Taboo”), or too brief (“A Series Of Unfortunate Events”), or too “The Young Pope.”

READ MORE: The 30 Most Anticipated New TV Shows Of 2017

February looks more promising, with “Santa Clarita Diet,” “Legion,” “Crashing,” “Big Little Lies,” and “The Good Fight” among those premiering, along with the final season of “Girls.” But the return this week of Syfy‘s “The Expanse,” a show we were late to discovering the quality of, reminded us that it’s still very easy for good shows to slip through the critical net, and so to stave you over ’til the big dogs arrive, and to complement our list of the Best TV of 2016 from a month or two back, here are 15 underrated or undersung recent shows that you can binge right now, that you might not have seen.

Continue reading 15 Great TV Shows You Might Have Missed at The Playlist.

If you’re an Oscar watcher and starting to come out in hives at the lack of awards speculation between now and the festival season kicking off at the end of August, you’re in luck, because this week sees the announcement of the 2016 Emmy Award nominations. With TV increasingly threatening to take the pop culture limelight from the movies (if it hasn’t already), the small-screen landscape has changed a fair amount over the years, but the Emmys still don’t quite seem to have the same glitz level as the Oscars.

Continue reading Predictions For The 2016 Emmy Award Nominations at The Playlist.

It’s Emmy season, and we’re just a week away from the Television Academy announcing their 2016 nominees, and as has been the case in the last few years, they have a wealth of stuff to choose from, with “Game Of Thrones,” “House Of Cards,” “Orange Is The New Black,” “Downton Abbey,” “Veep,” “Transparent,” “Silicon Valley,” and “Fargo” all expected to bring in mighty hauls of nominations.

Continue reading 25 Performances That Deserve Emmy Nominations This Year at The Playlist.

At the midway point of the year, we recently took a look at our favorite movies of 2016 so far. But unless you’re a total big-screen, 35mm purist, your favorite movies of the year only tell part of the story of your viewing —these days, the cultural conversation around quality filmed entertainment revolves just as much around TV.

Indeed, the era of peak TV continues, and barely a week goes by without a new show debuting on networks, cable channels or streaming services that demands attention.

Continue reading The 25 Best TV Shows Of 2016 So Far at The Playlist.

Review: Showtime's 'Billions' Pits Paul Giamatti Against Damian Lewis In A Battle For Power And Money

Continue reading Review: Showtime’s ‘Billions’ Pits Paul Giamatti Against Damian Lewis In A Battle For Power And Money at The Playlist.

Watch: There Can Be Only One In New Trailer For Showtime's 'Billions' With Paul Giamatti And Damian Lewis

Continue reading Watch: There Can Be Only One In New Trailer For Showtime’s ‘Billions’ With Paul Giamatti And Damian Lewis at The Playlist.

Watch: Paul Giamatti And Damian Lewis Follow The Money In First Teaser For Showtime's 'Billions'

Continue reading Watch: Paul Giamatti And Damian Lewis Follow The Money In First Teaser For Showtime’s ‘Billions’ at The Playlist.