A midseason reboot has enabled Billions to sustain its Season 3 momentum

The Ringer

The Showtime series is the perfect example of the upside of discarding storylines, says Alison Herman. "Billions unabashedly operates in the tradition of a soap opera, which is what gives the show part of its subversive charge—a saga of masculinity and men shaped into a template typically marketed toward women," she says. "Besides the Oedipal struggles and operatic smackdowns, what Billions borrows from this influence is a willingness to burn through stories at a disarming speed, keeping the audience on its toes and invested. Crucially, though, (creators Brian) Koppelman and (David) Levien never go so fast that they deprive Billions of meaningful stakes."