S06.E03: STD

[paigow]

Air Date: Feb 6, 2022

Prince works to secure a key supporter in his bid for the games but faces an unexpected challenge when news leaks that another player is honing in on the NYC bid. Chuck investigates a mysterious run on the NYAG land bank. Taylor is forced to weigh a different kind of cost when old friends get caught in a business crossfire.

[paigow]

Chuck works for the Governor... any Olympic bid is beyond the financial capability of any city... state and federal support is required. Chuck will be fired tomorrow if the Governor wants the Olympics in NYC.

[aghst]

Chuck automatically decides to ally with Krakow when he finds out that Prince is making a rival bid for the Olympics.

There is nothing illegal about trying to bring the Olympics to the city.  Now if he did illegal things like bribe the fictional ICS he could investigate.

But the NY AG has time to pursue personal vendettas rather than deal with legal matters pertaining to the state?

Chuck may be sore about Prince buying out Axe on the sly and letting him escape.  But if there was a prosecutable crime there, he isn't bringing a case.

So when he does his populist thing on the street while literally stomping on the cars of the little people he supposedly is championing it's ridiculous.  Just as bad as when Axe held a news conference on the sidewalk below Chuck's office.

First of all most residents don't have a very strong feeling about the Olympics.  Have we ever heard of any grass roots campaign stopping a city from making an Olympics bid anywhere?  Sure many will be upset at the prospect of bad traffic but it's only for 3 weeks.  A lot of property owners will look at the opportunity to make big money turning their homes into Airbnbs for the event.

Generally, Olympics hasn't been a make or break moment for politicians.  So Chuck's populist appeal on the streets is ridiculous.  First of all, most people don't recognize the AG of a state unless they're involved in a case which gets a lot of media coverage and he or she's on TV all the time.

Chuck also comes from a privileged out bringing.  Yes plutocrats can be populists but it's still absurd for Chuck to be railing at plutocrats and "billies."

The show just goes to ridiculous lengths to have this feud between a prosecutor and some rich guy.  Over the years, Chuck has had personal ties or run-ins with Axe and also with Prince.  So if he did bring a case against either of them, he'd often have to recuse himself.  Certainly when he was married to Wendy.  Before Axe left, he was working in cahoots with Prince to take Axe down so again a conflict of interest in any future cases he would prosecute against Prince.

 

So the former Axe employees are on board with the Olympics thing -- not clear how it make a lot of money for MPC -- yet Ben, Taylor and Wendy don't want to see their former coworkers and friends get crushed by backing a rival bid.

They have to find a way to get Dolla Bill and Mafee's money back and then they go to High Plains Capital to grovel to be friends again.  Taylor is desperate to resume their weekly dinners with Mafee, who compares her to a robot having some compassion program installed.  Yet they're only too happy when Mafee says the dinners are back on.

Pathetic.

As Wendy notes, at Axe capital, they never cared about what happened to losers as long as they were on the winning side.  But since they know Dolla Bill and Mafee, who both abandoned them, they feel bad.  

Have they gone soft?  Do they no longer care about winning at all costs?

But doesn't matter if Prince changes the culture to be more kindler, gentler.  They still have to win and Chuck will always have an axe to grind -- pun intended.

[dmc]

We're back Mortimer!

I love a Trading Places reference...

I think this episode was slightly better

I want to care about this Olympics plot but I don't...I don't even care about real Olympics except for gymnastics and figure skating...and fine sometimes skiing.  

I feel like the worst part of this show are the two leads

Chuck's purpose is now going after billionaires which would probably be more apt if he wasn't some rich kid with a trust fund.

Mike Prince is legit the most boring character ever created.  

Since most of the plot surrounds people I do care about, let's get to that

First Mafee tells Ben about a position he's taking that directly goes against the Prince list and I feel like you have suspend disbelieve that Mafee is this big of a moron here....these people are now the competition

Ben tells the crew at formerly known as Axe Cap in the middle of the night...no one calls Prince who is tracking them all and shows up. Which I feel like also suspends belief why would Prince a billionaire boss in his own right keep groveling for the respect of people he can replace

They all agree to take down Mafee and Dollar Bill but feel badly so Taylor and Wendy come up with a way to save these two.  Taylor, I believe.. she legit has one friend and its Mafee.  Wendy I am ehhh on, she used and abused Mafee before...and has no attachment. I cannot undertsand why she cares.  Axe didn't even care about Mafee.

Wendy's place on the show is tenuous at best...because she and Chuck are now divorced and have yet to interact.  Even though I feel like things were left badly at the end of last season....Her and Prince don't have any sort of real interaction so...I guess her investment  money is the only thing keeping her there.  If Prince was willing to buy Wags, why not Wendy?  He actively offered to buy out Wags why not buy out Wendy?

I feel like the show hasn't made a convincing argument on the following:

Why Mike Prince wants a company full of people loyal to someone who screwed him over and he has to track to trust?  Seems like he would just bring on new people?

Why a lot of the Axe Cap people are still there?  Wendy, Taylor and Wags have money they don't want to lose.  But what the eff is keeping people who could legit work anywhere working for someone they all seem to not be on board with...

Why Chuck is so against Prince?  Like this worked with the Axe dynamic because Axe was crooked and because Axe/Wendy but now it seems just nonsensical?

 

 

Edited February 6, 2022 by dmc

[paigow]

52 minutes ago, dmc said:

They all agree to take down Mafee and Dollar Bill but feel badly so Taylor and Wendy come up with a way to save these two. 

This is similar to Wags helping Rask- failing to maximize profits on the short. However, DB & Mafee were already dead... and Prince might need them in the future as an independent front... 

[dmc]

1 minute ago, paigow said:

This is similar to Wags helping Rask- failing to maximize profits on the short. However, DB & Mafee were already dead... and Prince might need them in the future as an independent front... 

Agreed

[dwmarch]

I liked the dynamic between Wags and Scooter in this episode. They're kind of mirrors of each other except that Wags chooses debauchery while Scooter chooses to be straight edge.

Hall (the dirty work specialist they mentioned but dismissed as too extreme) is still at least theoretically on the payroll for MPC? I guess he is a mercenary but I always thought he had some special connection to Axe beyond the paycheck.

I lol'd at Wendy hanging a lampshade on herself when she said she hasn't been making anyone feel better lately. Yes but Wendy, you've figured out how to get rich while not actually adding value! That's the real American dream.

This episode was unfair to Dollar Bill and Mafee. They never did anything, they just reacted to stuff. Wasn't it Krakow who made that crack at Dollar Bill in a prior season? Something about him being "over there, with his thumb up his ass"? Does "High Plains" Capital mean Mafee is high and Dollar Bill is plain? Charging forward heedless of risk was not Axe's style so if they want to be like him I think they need to do more acting than reacting.

[aghst]

They bonded over Cats in the Cradle?

Well they have a healthy budget for music rights at least.

They've been playing a lot of well-known music but they actually talked about Harry Chapin's big hit.

Edited February 7, 2022 by aghst

[chocolatine]

I just can't suspend disbelief enough to buy Chuck grass-rooting yet another protest. Has any AG ever behaved that way? Hard to believe that anyone still takes him seriously.

Also, all of those machinations about who gets to buy the real estate for the Olympics bored me to tears. It was good to see Mafee and Dollar Bill, but then they ended up looking like schmucks.

Here's an idea, Mike Prince, if you're worried about your employees stealing hard drives in the middle of the night, why not hire 24-hour security? His system is BS because if someone really wanted to steal their hard drive, they'd be in and out before Prince got there.

[Marley]

I miss Axe. I know he wasn’t the best but Prince has no charisma.

What is Chuck even doing anymore. Is there not actually crime he should be dealing with. He’s a rich fuck himself lol.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Marley

[l star]

Prince’s constant spying is creepy. Does the man not sleep?

I realize that Ben Kim did not intend to tell Prince the news like he did, but I still liked Wendy calling out his ‘inadvertent’ nonsense. He felt bad because he screwed over his friend and spent the whole ep looking for someone else to fix it. If he felt that strongly about it, he should have warned Mafee. 

I think Wendy got involved because she still carries a guilty soft spot for Mafee and part of her wishes she’d followed them out. Part of her wishes she had been, as she said, that ‘loyal to Axe.’ 

Mafee and DB were idiots. I get that Mafee let his past with Wendy color his opinions, but DB should have shown more sense. Hopefully they took Wendy’s object lesson not to swing above their weight to heart. I missed them. 

Wags showed some refreshing self awareness about the office even if it was really a play. He was literally sitting on his ass all day, playing on his phone. Scooter should have said fuck it and kept the office.

When is Sacker going to give up on Chuck? He is not some working class hero. He is not ever going to put an issue above his own gain. He’s just a ridiculous asshole, and she should get that by now. His megaphone plan really topped even his standards though. That was idiotic and no way do I believe he would be met with applause. 

9 hours ago, dmc said:

I feel like the worst part of this show are the two leads

…

Wendy's place on the show is tenuous at best...because she and Chuck are now divorced and have yet to interact.  Even though I feel like things were left badly at the end of last season....Her and Prince don't have any sort of real interaction so...I guess her investment  money is the only thing keeping her there.  If Prince was willing to buy Wags, why not Wendy?  He actively offered to buy out Wags why not buy out Wendy?

First, YES. Neither Chuck nor Prince is interesting enough to carry the show. 

Second, I agree. Wendy needs a real purpose. I don’t think it’s an issue of buying her out though. I think it’s a contract issue with her. She already asked to be let go, and Prince refused.  He wants her there. I don’t think it’s actually about her skills or job. I think he’s afraid that it will further destabilize the company to lose her now. Plus he seems to want to ‘try out’ her coaching skills. 

14 hours ago, aghst said:

So the former Axe employees are on board with the Olympics thing -- not clear how it make a lot of money for MPC -- yet Ben, Taylor and Wendy don't want to see their former coworkers and friends get crushed by backing a rival bid.

They have to find a way to get Dolla Bill and Mafee's money back and then they go to High Plains Capital to grovel to be friends again.  Taylor is desperate to resume their weekly dinners with Mafee, who compares her to a robot having some compassion program installed.  Yet they're only too happy when Mafee says the dinners are back on.

Pathetic.

As Wendy notes, at Axe capital, they never cared about what happened to losers as long as they were on the winning side.  But since they know Dolla Bill and Mafee, who both abandoned them, they feel bad.  

Have they gone soft?  Do they no longer care about winning at all costs?

But doesn't matter if Prince changes the culture to be more kindler, gentler.  They still have to win and Chuck will always have an axe to grind -- pun intended.

I think the cracks are forming because Prince isn’t the powerful figure Axe was. Ben Kim never had to question or second guess before; he just did as he was told and rode the wave to glory. And if discontent ever crept in, Axe scared it back out. Prince in comparison is soft. Without that guiding force, even Taylor is crumbling and Wendy is adrift. They need Prince to set the tone in a way that they can trust. Right now it’s just talk. 

15 hours ago, paigow said:

Chuck works for the Governor... any Olympic bid is beyond the financial capability of any city... state and federal support is required. Chuck will be fired tomorrow if the Governor wants the Olympics in NYC.

This. The show is presenting it like Prince is going to be personally hosting and funding the Olympics. That’s not how it works. 

Edited February 7, 2022 by l star

[SnapHappy]

I can never see Todd Krakow and NOT see Jonathan, the dork from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".  He's still the miniature dweeb that creeps everybody out.  

I knew Scooter would start growing on people.  He's the anti-Wags.  

Why do they keep calling Ben Kim by both of his names?  Is his full name something like Ben Kim Il-Sung?  Or is there another Ben we don't know yet, and they do that to differentiate them?  

Taylor ordered Bok Choy dumplings.  I'm intrigued.  

7 hours ago, l star said:

I think the cracks are forming because Prince isn’t the powerful figure Axe was.

I think the team can't SEE the power, because unlike Axe, MP doesn't keep strutting through the shop screaming and ranting about how powerful he is.  

[aghst]

Looks like bok chow is usually mixed with other vegetables and chicken or pork.

Like most potstickers or gyoza or won tons.

Taylor is suppose to be vegan or vegetarian?

Maybe they found a place which makes them without meat.

[chocolatine]

6 minutes ago, aghst said:

Taylor is suppose to be vegan or vegetarian?

Maybe they found a place which makes them without meat.

Vegan. I'm sure plenty of restaurants make dumplings without meat; you can even buy frozen veggie dumplings at the grocery store.

[Carolina Girl]

17 hours ago, dmc said:

This is similar to Wags helping Rask- failing to maximize profits on the short. However, DB & Mafee were already dead... and Prince might need them in the future as an independent front... 

One can't help but think that they realize now that their scorched earth approach in the past affected real people, now that the process is affecting people with names and faces that they know and like.  

[aghst]

They're rare around here if they offer anything like that.

I haven't visited Chinese restaurants in NYC but with high rents, maybe they don't cater to rich clientele because they wouldn't have big places so they'd jam many tables into them.

I've walked by Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and they didn't look upscale.  They wouldn't have the huge table or booth which only Taylor and Mafee would occupy.

The show is filmed in NY so maybe they've found such places but that could have been a set, not an actual restaurant which would be full of patrons and not have rooms for a big production crew taking up space.

[aghst]

2 minutes ago, Carolina Girl said:

One can't help but think that they realize now that their scorched earth approach in the past affected real people, now that the process is affecting people with names and faces that they know and like.  

They alluded to that but who knows if they will take it up again?

Prince is willing to accept that other people will lose when he wins.  In this case, he helped DB and Mafee out because his employees wanted to.

Krakow was willing to accept a lower profile position to Prince, even though he wanted to be the head of the Olympics committee.

I would imagine by the end of the season Chuck blocks Prince from getting the Olympics since we know they will not be in NY in 2028.  That might make Prince more willing to cut corners going forward, like the "black ops" that he rejected in this episode.

 

[Carolina Girl]

8 hours ago, l star said:

Chuck works for the Governor... any Olympic bid is beyond the financial capability of any city... state and federal support is required. Chuck will be fired tomorrow if the Governor wants the Olympics in NYC.

I believe that the AG office is elected just as the governor's is, so the governor cannot FIRE him - but he can be pressured into resigning in the wake of bad press/scandal.  Prince, for instance, knows that land developer Chuck's daddy isn't going to get a piece of the building of the Olympic Village (the housing) so it's going to hit him where he lives.  He can then use that and some really good PR and social media to tell "the people" about Chuck's hypocrisy in going after the rich (when he's one of them*) and this is all because his Daddy was burned out of a land deal he was going for himself.

* I seem to recall that Chuck's trust fund took a huge and heavy hit when it was illegally invaded to purchase shares in that vitamin water/juice deal.  I can't remember if Daddy found a way to replace the funds.  But we know he also got some serious bucks from Wendy in the divorce deal.

[Carolina Girl]

2 minutes ago, aghst said:

Chuck blocks Prince from getting the Olympics since we know they will not be in NY in 2028.  

BTW - can someone tell me why L.A. was removed as the host city for 2028?  I think I blinked and missed it.  

Also it kinda strains credulity that since notice is so short that the IOC would give it to a venue that would need to start from scratch and instead would award it to a City that already had most of the infrastructure in place.  

 

[txhorns79]

26 minutes ago, Carolina Girl said:

I believe that the AG office is elected just as the governor's is, so the governor cannot FIRE him - but he can be pressured into resigning in the wake of bad press/scandal.

Yeah, the AG is its own office.  The Governor has no power to fire Chuck.  I think we did previously see that the Governor can work to limit Chuck's office funding and through that, limit the kind of work Chuck can do. 

[paigow]

3 hours ago, SnapHappy said:

Why do they keep calling Ben Kim by both of his names?  Is his full name something like Ben Kim Il-Sung? 

• He is the single Demolition Man shout-out, where everyone was addressed using their full name [Good Morning John Spartan]
• He loves Star Wars, but nobody else does... They refuse to call him Ben Kenobi / Solo

[paigow]

2 hours ago, txhorns79 said:

Yeah, the AG is its own office.  The Governor has no power to fire Chuck.  I think we did previously see that the Governor can work to limit Chuck's office funding and through that, limit the kind of work Chuck can do. 

Mea Culpa... There are 7 states where the AG is not elected by popular vote. I heard that Governor & Lt. Governor also are separately elected in many states... occasionally the offices are split between parties... I never thought that a potential party split between the AG & Governor would be enshrined in state constitution...

[Carolina Girl]

2 hours ago, paigow said:

Mea Culpa... There are 7 states where the AG is not elected by popular vote. I heard that Governor & Lt. Governor also are separately elected in many states... occasionally the offices are split between parties... I never thought that a potential party split between the AG & Governor would be enshrined in state constitution...

Governor and Lt. Governor are separate elected offices in California.  For Democrat Jerry Brown's first two terms, he had a Republican Lt. Gov. - Mike Curb; Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger had a Democrat Lt. Gov. - Cruz Bustamente.  

[yourmomiseasy]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:45 PM, dwmarch said:

I liked the dynamic between Wags and Scooter in this episode. They're kind of mirrors of each other except that Wags chooses debauchery while Scooter chooses to be straight edge.

 

I think they were the best part of the episode for me.

 

16 hours ago, aghst said:

They're rare around here if they offer anything like that.

I haven't visited Chinese restaurants in NYC but with high rents, maybe they don't cater to rich clientele because they wouldn't have big places so they'd jam many tables into them.

I've walked by Chinatown in Lower Manhattan and they didn't look upscale.  They wouldn't have the huge table or booth which only Taylor and Mafee would occupy.

The show is filmed in NY so maybe they've found such places but that could have been a set, not an actual restaurant which would be full of patrons and not have rooms for a big production crew taking up space.

100% you can find vegetarian and vegan dumplings in NY as well as Chinese restaurants at varying price points and seating configurations. 

 

17 hours ago, SnapHappy said:

I can never see Todd Krakow and NOT see Jonathan, the dork from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".  He's still the miniature dweeb that creeps everybody out.  

I knew Scooter would start growing on people.  He's the anti-Wags.  

Why do they keep calling Ben Kim by both of his names?  Is his full name something like Ben Kim Il-Sung?  Or is there another Ben we don't know yet, and they do that to differentiate them?  

Taylor ordered Bok Choy dumplings.  I'm intrigued.  

I think the team can't SEE the power, because unlike Axe, MP doesn't keep strutting through the shop screaming and ranting about how powerful he is.  

Totally on Jonathan.  Every time he's on I'm like "What's the nerd trio up to now?"

Re Ben Kim, some people are just two name people.  I'm a two name person.

16 hours ago, Carolina Girl said:

BTW - can someone tell me why L.A. was removed as the host city for 2028?  I think I blinked and missed it.  

Also it kinda strains credulity that since notice is so short that the IOC would give it to a venue that would need to start from scratch and instead would award it to a City that already had most of the infrastructure in place.  

 

It was mentioned in the fallout of the sportwear thing, but I didn't fully catch it and what I did catch did not make sense and I was going to go back and watch to figure it out, but didn't care enough to follow through because I'm sure whatever it was would not be worth it.

 

All I could see during Chuck's big protest was how he was fucking up the cars and I was mad on behalf of the fictional people.  That kind of thing makes me super irate.  One time I was stuck in a mob and someone got stabbed on my car, but it didn't leave a dent.  I've seen people jump on cars during various riots and uprisings locally and it always makes me irrationally mad.

Edited February 8, 2022 by yourmomiseasy

[Carolina Girl]

10 hours ago, yourmomiseasy said:

I didn't fully catch it and what I did catch did not make sense

I went back and read a review of the episode which cleared it up.  Supposedly they took it away from L.A. because the sportswear company being exposed was a "sponsor."  And you're right.  It absolutely did NOT make sense.   The IOC would simply tell the L.A. Olypmic committee that they need to find another sponsor.  There would be plenty out there.  

[paigow]

1 hour ago, Carolina Girl said:

The IOC would simply tell the L.A. Olypmic committee that they need to find another sponsor.  There would be plenty out there.  

Bezos was unreachable at sea... Branson was in orbit... Zuckerberg was under indictment

[Starchild]

Chuck may be rich but he is not in the billionaire class.

That protest in the street made me laugh. When he shouted his slogan and people joined in, I thought, would randoms on a Manhattan street really start shouting in unison like that, even if they agreed with the sentiment? These days I figure they'd do what I would do, which is shake my head in pity and walk away.

[aghst]

If he's ever going to run for higher office, he's going to need billionaires, unless he thinks his populist rhetoric will make up for not having tens of millions for a TV campaign should he run for Senate or Governor.

Whatever happened to that, Chuck Sr. grooming him?

If Sr. has significant NYC holdings and Chuck stands to inherit a big chunk of that, it would be well into 8 figures at least, nothing to sneeze at.

Hell he has a nice home in Manhattan and now an upstate farm.  That's at least $5 million in real estate.

[paigow]

1 hour ago, aghst said:

If Sr. has significant NYC holdings and Chuck stands to inherit a big chunk of that, it would be well into 8 figures at least, nothing to sneeze at.

Jr. is frozen out. His toddler half-sister is getting all - if not most - of it...

[yourmomiseasy]

On 2/8/2022 at 10:42 AM, Carolina Girl said:

I went back and read a review of the episode which cleared it up.  Supposedly they took it away from L.A. because the sportswear company being exposed was a "sponsor."  And you're right.  It absolutely did NOT make sense.   The IOC would simply tell the L.A. Olypmic committee that they need to find another sponsor.  There would be plenty out there.  

Yeah, that's some lame BS.  Thank you for checking into it.  I would have been mad to have gone back and watched for it to be that.  

[paigow]

Chuck will find more endangered animals and drop them at all the Olympic construction sites.

[Joimiaroxeu]

What's with all the Dad Rock this season? Is it cheaper to license?

Ehh, inadvertently bad timing IMO on Chuck deliberately creating a road blockage, given what's been happening IRL with truckers. And walking on people's cars like he did? Hope he was prepared to get sued for the damage.

Quote

He was literally sitting on his ass all day, playing on his phone.

There's a fan theory afloat that Wag's in fairly constant communication with Axe. Axe is living in exile in Switzerland, where the IOC is based. He could wreak havoc on Prince's plans.

Quote

First of all most residents don't have a very strong feeling about the Olympics.  Have we ever heard of any grass roots campaign stopping a city from making an Olympics bid anywhere?  Sure many will be upset at the prospect of bad traffic but it's only for 3 weeks.  A lot of property owners will look at the opportunity to make big money turning their homes into Airbnbs for the event.

Not all property owners are wealthy though. NYC already has a very troubled history of displacing populations primarily composed of poor and middle class people to build freeways, parks, and other non-housing buildings. The people Chuck is trying to appeal to will either be directly affected by the Olympics-related construction, or will have previous generations of family members who were harmed in the past.

[paigow]

9 hours ago, Joimiaroxeu said:

There's a fan theory afloat that Wag's in fairly constant communication with Axe.

Axe likely got betrayed by Wags... He wwould be buying Rask all the way down because Wags had a guaranteed rebound set up... then Wags decided that working for Prince was OK and Rask went to 0...

Edited February 13, 2022 by paigow

[grommit2]

The Olympics in New York City?  Eh?
The first decision seems to be to build a really big stadium, in Manhattan, perhaps on the waterfront. 
Ok.  Makes sense...especially since the nearest football stadium is over in Jersey.
But, tell me where there is enough space for a stadium, plus parking...in any of the 5 boroughs. Hmm...maybe Staten Island.
Decision #2...build athlete housing in NYC.  Then turn it into apartments and condos for residents. 
Cool.  But, again, tell me where you can find the space for thousands of units.

[AriAu]

Would it have been too much to let the Colin Drache character have the first name Boris!!!! After all Campbell Scott is clearly using his accent from Royal Pains for this character too.

As to traffic concerns in NY, if they could figure how to make it work in London, somehow they could make it work in NY, especially for all that money, that could be used to improve so much NY infrastructure, particularly the decaying subway tunnels and the bridges!

[michelec]

Super duper late to the Season 6 party, but I have to say this may be the episode that pushes me squarely in the hate watch column. I'm surprised I saw as much of the episode as I did for all the times I rolled my eyes.

Granted, I don't know all the ins and outs of awarding an Olympic Games to a city, but I  know this ain't it. A 2032 bid storyline would have been much more plausible.

Chuck Rhoads, Man of the People...gimme a break. Kate, it's okay to tell him he's full of shit, you know you want to.

The only redeeming storyline was the budding bromance between Scooter and Wags.

I've invested so much time in this show that I have to see it through, but it's gonna be tough.

[Ottis]

On 2/6/2022 at 11:49 AM, aghst said:

Chuck automatically decides to ally with Krakow when he finds out that Prince is making a rival bid for the Olympics.

There is nothing illegal about trying to bring the Olympics to the city.  Now if he did illegal things like bribe the fictional ICS he could investigate.

But the NY AG has time to pursue personal vendettas rather than deal with legal matters pertaining to the state?

Chuck may be sore about Prince buying out Axe on the sly and letting him escape.  But if there was a prosecutable crime there, he isn't bringing a case.

So when he does his populist thing on the street while literally stomping on the cars of the little people he supposedly is championing it's ridiculous.  Just as bad as when Axe held a news conference on the sidewalk below Chuck's office.

First of all most residents don't have a very strong feeling about the Olympics.  Have we ever heard of any grass roots campaign stopping a city from making an Olympics bid anywhere?  Sure many will be upset at the prospect of bad traffic but it's only for 3 weeks.  A lot of property owners will look at the opportunity to make big money turning their homes into Airbnbs for the event.

Generally, Olympics hasn't been a make or break moment for politicians.  So Chuck's populist appeal on the streets is ridiculous.  First of all, most people don't recognize the AG of a state unless they're involved in a case which gets a lot of media coverage and he or she's on TV all the time.

Chuck also comes from a privileged out bringing.  Yes plutocrats can be populists but it's still absurd for Chuck to be railing at plutocrats and "billies."

The show just goes to ridiculous lengths to have this feud between a prosecutor and some rich guy.  Over the years, Chuck has had personal ties or run-ins with Axe and also with Prince.  So if he did bring a case against either of them, he'd often have to recuse himself.  Certainly when he was married to Wendy.  Before Axe left, he was working in cahoots with Prince to take Axe down so again a conflict of interest in any future cases he would prosecute against Prince.

 

So the former Axe employees are on board with the Olympics thing -- not clear how it make a lot of money for MPC -- yet Ben, Taylor and Wendy don't want to see their former coworkers and friends get crushed by backing a rival bid.

They have to find a way to get Dolla Bill and Mafee's money back and then they go to High Plains Capital to grovel to be friends again.  Taylor is desperate to resume their weekly dinners with Mafee, who compares her to a robot having some compassion program installed.  Yet they're only too happy when Mafee says the dinners are back on.

Pathetic.

As Wendy notes, at Axe capital, they never cared about what happened to losers as long as they were on the winning side.  But since they know Dolla Bill and Mafee, who both abandoned them, they feel bad.  

Have they gone soft?  Do they no longer care about winning at all costs?

But doesn't matter if Prince changes the culture to be more kindler, gentler.  They still have to win and Chuck will always have an axe to grind -- pun intended.

Actually, Denver residents polled strongly against the Olympics. People hated waste of the “investment” more than the traffic. It was enough to sink a bid effort.

At this point, tho, I agree, Chuck is just Axe in a different role. He isn’t nearly as smart as he thinks he is, and he lets personal grudges get in the way of doing his job.

This show has no moral compass.