*** Season Two review *** "Black Monday" (S02, 10 eps, 1/2hr, Showtime) continues the wacky zaniness of season one. The aftermath of 1987's Black Monday meltdown on Wall Street again brings out the worst in our characters who are now largely driven by revenge which in turn drives the backstabbing, double crossing, and betrayals - wow, the writers had to have had so much fun designing the plot! However, unlike season one's finale, there's no hook for a third one, so I thought this nicely tied up the characters' storylines and was going to end, but surprisingly, it's been renewed for a third season. Not sure where they're going with that, but maybe they'll skip to the DotCom implosion of 2000.
*** Season One review *** I really liked Don Cheadle in Showtime's "House of Lies" and he similarly drives this dramedy of 1987's Black Monday stock market dive. It's full of over the top, high octane Wall Street Type-As who are more caricature stereotypes but it's fun that way. I mean, Cheadle's character "Marauding Mo" is driven in a stretch Lambo - insane. The screenplay is full of all types of manipulation, double-crosses, and at the end even more dbl-crossing. The final episode is a crazy mishmash of all that and nicely recalls the opening scene of ep 1. This first season ties up storylines pretty nicely but leaves some things open enough for a subsequent season. Showtime isn't like Netflix or Amazon who kill off good original shows, so I'd expect a several season run for "Black Monday", though admittedly it's kind of tough to base a long-running series around a single event and its aftermath, and I'm really not sure I care about the characters after this point.
Review of Black Monday
