Axe ripping up his office looking for bugs is a reference to the final scene in Coppola's The Conversation.

The final scene seemed like something out of a comic book - overly dramatic good vs. evil.

Watch the scene in The Counselor about grief for rock your world good vs. evil dialog.

Also, Damien Lewis's accent is getting very annoying.

OK, I'll give credit, that was a very good finale. I like this show, it's good entertainment. The writing is up and down, but there's enough good stuff to sustain the great actors.

Glad I stuck it out through the season, that was a satisfying finale.

thought the finale would have been great 1 week earlier

I weirdly thought one of them was going to offer to take the original settlement deal that was almost signed off on...was leaning toward PG given how much havoc ripping up that check had caused in his life.

Meh, I agree with midas, I couldn't help but chuckle at that ending scene. EVIL VS GOOD, oOoHhohohohHooohHh

Also 90% of Axe's arguments about "what he doesn't isn't that bad" were to the level of a 12 yo rich kid. They could have done better.

<yelling at cloud> The most annoying thing about this series for me is the huge number of scenes of people speaking with their mouth full. If any TV screenwriters are reading this: please don't do this because IT'S DISGUSTING. Thanks

I Just marathoned the season and liked it overall. My only gripe is lots of times when it switched scenes I kind of zoned out and sometimes had to rewind a few minutes to make sure I didn't miss anything. Not sure if that is my fault for being inattentive, trying to watch too many shows in a row, or the show's for not maintaining enough interest in transitions... maybe some of each.

Also anytime someone was reading a text message I was never able to read it the first time it was flashed on the screen, I always had to rewind, sometimes multiple times to actually be able to read the full text.

Overall I enjoyed it, just minor gripes, definitely a better than average show as far as I am concerned.

Pretty slow but finale really picked up the pace and if they push this in the right direction might end up being pretty good. Reminds me a bit of the sons of anarchy pace before the quality nosedived

season 2, ep 1 is available online.

season airs beginning Sunday, Feb 19.

Nice, thanks for the heads up.

Great 1st episode. Any show that has harness racing and viagra is in my top 5. Mrs Ax gets more and more annoying. Showtime is the nut low in female casting .

Just watched the first season, woot, so good!!!. Can't wait for season 2 2night yay!!

Is it supposed to be even somewhat believable that the chess hustler picked up two pieces at once? Come on...

Good first episode, but yeah that was awful if that's indeed what happened.

Idk I think that's kind of a weird nit. Magicians palm lots of stuff, it's the kind of thing a chess hustler might want to do to prevent losing and he pointed out that it took practice to pull off. He took a knight off though that's pushing it it's hard to argue that a whole knight wasn't on the board at all. Taking off a key pawn would've been more reasonable granted. Not that it was some irreplaceable metaphor either but...

Much better nit: Axe said he would bet when he knew the horses were well rested and when the drivers were well rested too. "Holy **** I got the inside track that Bill got a full night of sleep last night. Bombs away."

Meh. I think my nittery is more justified. Hardly anyone who's ever played chess seriously enough would fail to notice a missing piece. Even lots of beginners keep a numerical count (pawn=1, knight=3, etc) to roughly approximate one's material advantage/disadvantage.

Maybe a beginner would indeed fail to notice a missing pawn, but if he's a beginner, then the hustler isn't going to need to cheat to win. The logic doesn't hold up.

The insider info of knowing which horses+drivers are rested is at least a tighter analogy/metaphor than what Rhodes was trying to demonstrate with the chess story.

I'm sure it's been said elsewhere, but this show has great acting - it's a shame the writing is not great. Indeed lol Showtime.

Palming a Knight is a complete joke in that spot. C'mon man

Seemed like more of the same from last year, a little cheesy and not top-notch but also somewhat fun and entertaining. Hustler was GM Maurice Ashley btw.

this show basically boils down to who can come up with the best animal metaphor power speech

Wags is awesome.

Billions is the best trashy drama. And I fkn love it.

This is my favorite thing on TV right now. Wags + the new Axe psychiatrist is solid gold. Slightly over-acted but in a delicious way.