DVD Review: Billions (Season Five)

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The COVID-19 pandemic has changed up we do things over the last two years. People have learned to work around various safety rules in order to minimize the spread. They’ve changed up the way we interact at work. We’ve also been dealing with various disruptions to the supply chain. Even in a fictional world, these changes happen. Such is what happened during the production of Showtime’s Billions during Season Five. The show began production before the outbreak arrived, but was only able to complete 7 episodes before the Lockdown struck. Fans of the show had to wait over a year for the final five episodes were able to be safely made. The DVD for Billions: Season Five won’t have you waiting that long to see all 12 episodes.

The fifth season keeps the pressure going in the world of massive hedge funds and the government investigators. Taylor Mason (Orange Is The New Black‘s Asia Kate Dillon) returns to Axe Capital, but reveals quite a few things to Bobby Axelrod (Homeland‘s Damian Lewis) that lets him know the investigative pressure isn’t close to being off. The main person investigating him enters a new level of pressure when Chuck Rhoades (American Splendor’s Paul Giamatti) has a serious falling out with his wife Wendy (Sons of Anarchy’s Maggie Siff) during a wedding. But don’t think that a messy separation is going to distract Chuck since he has opened up a new investigation into Crypto currency linked to Axe Capital. There’s a lot of Crypto currency action during the season including a reminder of how much energy the “mining” operations suck out of the power grid. Billions might be more informative about Crypto than anything you’ll watch on business news channel. The show is at least more truthful than those ads featuring Tom Brady and Matt Damon that have been airing all month.

The second half of the season does take place in a fictional world that’s dealing with COVID. In this case we get Axe dealing with where to invest and exploit to keep the money rolling into the fund. There’s also a more tender time with Chuck as he deals with a major health crisis in his family. The five episodes were worth the wait.

Not to spoil Billions, but this is the last season that Damian Lewis plays Axe since his contract had expired. In the midst of all that’s been going on in the world, he wanted to spend more time in the United Kingdom to be close to his family. The Sixth Season of Billions just debuted on Showtime so the show does go on because money doesn’t stop. Billions: Season 5 gives you a final chance to enjoy the Axe coming down.

The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The picture looks good as you see all the details of the billionaire life before and during the Pandemic. The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1. You can hear the crypto action all around your room. The episodes are subtitled.

No bonus features.

CBS DVD presents Billions: Season Five. Starring Paul Giamatti, Damian Lewis, Maggie Siff, Kevin AuCoin and Asia Kate Dillon. Boxset Content: 12 episodes on 4 DVDs. Rated: Unrated. DVD Release Date: January 11, 2022.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.