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TAYLOR: You know the rider in the bicycle movie who, just when he has victory in sight, takes his hands off the bars and just holds them out like this, taking in the sun, gliding, letting all the other racers whiz by him just because? AXE: No, I don’t. What fucking movie is that? TAYLOR: I always want to be that biker. AXE: Yeah, but you’re not. You and I don’t get to glide. We churn, and we don’t get to become friends with people we play cards with, but that’s the sacrifice we make for being able to see what we see. TAYLOR: I know you believe that, but I choose to take a different lesson. AXE: It’s not a choice. Now go back down to that table. And if, when you see Krakow, you think that maybe he will become a friend, then go ahead. Take your hands off the bars and let him ride on by.
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TAYLOR: Why are you out of breath? LANGSTRAAT: Bike ride. I have a recumbent. Great for the hills out here. TAYLOR: Of course. More aerodynamic.
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TAYLOR: This is untenable. We are ready to make the descent at the Col d’Allos, and you put training wheels on our bikes. PHILIP: We need the ability to make moves.
2x03 optimal play // 3x06 the third ortolan // 7x05 the gulag archipelago
#the theme: Give Taylor A Bicycle#billions#taylor mason#bobby axelrod#oscar langstraat#philip charyn#2x03#3x06#7x05
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Oscar was such a clown and I can't believe that him getting laid was the reason I came out to my boyfriend
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Taylor and Oscar are such fucking losers like omg I love you so much but OH MY GOD you losers
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‘Billions’ Season 3, Episode 5 Recap: The Family We Choose
This week on “Billions,” romance is in the air. Who’da thunk it, right? Sex, sexuality, the rewards and compromises of long-term relationships, even the eroticized thrill of spectacular professional success — these themes are never in short supply on this show. But the pangs of infatuation that make your eyes widen, your heart quicken, and (with any luck) your clothes melt away to the tune of Echo and the Bunnymen? That’s … unexpected.
Even more unexpected? The young lovers involved. The casting of comedian Mike Birbiglia added an uncharacteristically mellow presence to this high-strung, hard-charging show. If you predicted that this addition was a prelude to an affair between Birbiglia’s Silicon Valley “venture philanthropist” character, Oscar Langstraat, and Bobby Axelrod’s handpicked successor, the tightly wound gender-nonbinary genius Taylor Mason, congratulations: Your powers of prognostication outstrip even those of Axe himself. Yet from the moment these two very different visionaries make a nerd-love connection in defense of a supposed “Star Wars” plot hole, it makes sense, retrospectively, that they would hook up. It just feels right. (Granted, I’m slightly biased in that I agree with their reasoning — “What material could withstand the heat expended from that mammoth sphere?” “Plus, it was fortified with gun turrets!” — but only slightly.)
Predicated on a trip to San Francisco designed to further the connections between Oscar and Axe Capital, the story line is successful mainly because of how exciting it feels to see Taylor, well, excited by something. Asia Kate Dillon’s portrayal of this blue-eyed brainiac is rooted in a Spock-like blend of ironclad logic and an outsider’s insight into the prevailing culture. To see the flush of a crush on Taylor’s face, melting that resolve and reserve, is a beautiful thing. The subsequent sex scene between the two characters is sweet, hot and groundbreaking in equal measure. You’d be a fool to ignore any one of those three indissoluble elements.
I reviewed this week’s marvelous episode of Billions for the New York Times.
#billions#asia kate dillon#taylor mason#mike birbiglia#oscar langstraat#flaw in the death star#sean t. collins#new york times
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TAYLOR: When we spoke this morning, you were in California.
OSCAR: Too much? I’ve been dealing with this with my performance coach. I can be… unreserved, a quality others have found off-putting.
TAYLOR: I don’t. Not in the least.
Oscar hands Taylor a bag full of candy.
TAYLOR: Twizzlers, Bit-O-Honeys, Juicy Fruit.
OSCAR: Standard coding provisions.
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Ingredients: Corn Syrup, Sugar, Skim Milk, Hydrogenated Coconut Oil, Almonds, Whey (from milk), Honey, Egg Whites, Salt, Modified Soy Protein, Natural Flavor, TBHQ and Citric Acid (to preserve freshness). Packaged in the same facility as peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, soy, and milk products.
3x06 the third ortolan // official ingredient list for bit-o-honeys. imagine flying across the country unannounced in your private jet to hang out with your vegan significant other and bringing them candy with multiple obviously non-vegan ingredients. it’s in the NAME
#oscar was a terrible boyfriend and i'm sure he and prince would get along fabulously#billions#3x06#oscar langstraat#taylor mason
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billions season 7 concept: oscar comes back into the picture and somehow gets entangled with prince cap, and all taylor will tell philip about him is that he was an investor in tmc who pulled his money when taylor returned to axe cap and who later became a business rival of sorts, so philip does not learn about the [we dated and it fell apart, mostly thanks to axe but oscar blames taylor and maybe taylor blames themself too?] part of the picture until he’s stuck in a room with the two of them watching them snipe at each other
#open to variations on the theme of course. i just think philip witnessing [taylor and an ex have to interact] would be entertaining#billions#oscar langstraat#taylor mason#philip charyn#this is also assuming that this relationship wasn't publicly known to people outside axe cap / tmc. can never be sure who knows what#taylip
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☕️ lol how about taylor and oscar's whole relationship arc from their meeting to his last appearance. as in of course like, you can get granular about how you feel about various stages or elements, not just your Overall Feeling abt the Overall Arc. much to consider
here are some questions i want answered about that relationship:
why did taylor visibly dislike oscar from the moment he walked in on them & axe in 3x04? did they have any idea who he was? were they annoyed by him interrupting their first talk with axe in two episodes? did they just hate his vibe? (understandable.)
why did they then fuck him one episode later??? does getting their star wars reference and knowing the rules of netrunner somehow give him undeniable sexual appeal?
what, exactly, did taylor say in telling oscar about axe trashing his deal that caused oscar to take the position of “well clearly you did that to me On Purpose and now i hate you for it”? does taylor also blame themself for that / agree with axe’s assessment that they did it on purpose?
were taylor and oscar having regular conversations throughout all of season 4 just offscreen, so that oscar ducking taylor’s calls for four months would be noticeable?
had taylor practiced their impression of oscar prior to using it to make him look stupid in front of the marithane ceo?
is taylor romantically Over oscar by now, or is it one of those situations where the love & heartbreak have curdled into lingering resentment but they can’t say they don’t care about him at all?
is oscar the first cis person taylor’s ever dated? (i don’t expect the show to answer that, but i think it’s both plausible and funny.)
(send me a ☕️ and a topic and i’ll talk about how i feel about it)
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I also think the [music] choices are unconventional, like, they’re not exactly super obvious. Like, I thought a key scene for you, I think it was in the last season […] the tryst that goes on involving Taylor. The track that you chose was The Killing Moon by Echo & the Bunnymen, and there was actually, there was a conversation between the characters about that song and how they both connect to it. Which wouldn’t be the first song I’d say when, you know, like, you’re gonna have a romantic moment, you know? […] It struck me, like, wow, that’s cool. Was that, so are you making those musical choices and then writing the scene, or does the scene sort of inspire the song choice? How does that work?
I remember that. So Dave and I have a writing staff, some of whom write the first draft of episodes and some of whom write episodes. And the writer of that episode had written that scene based on, you know, us all outlining it together, and he’d written the draft of the scene and then wrote “And a song plays that Brian and Dave will pick.” […] And I remember sitting with David, and we were kicking ideas back and forth, and I said, “Killing Moon,” and Dave immediately went, “Yes, oh my God, Killing Moon!” And then we played it in the room, you know, and read the scene while — we rewrote that scene, and then as we did and we put Killing Moon on in the room, it was just, like, clear. And then, you know, we had to find the perfect turntable. So then our prop person went and searched out the perfect, the perfect turntable. And then, yeah, we wrote that dialogue where they’re talking about, “Can I put this on?” “Yeah, it’s exactly what I would have chosen.” And we just had this feeling that then that song would suffuse that whole episode with a certain tone and a certain mood. […] And it plays at the end of the episode, too, and it really works.
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it’s always sunny in manhattan, or: episodes of billions with iasip-style titles
bonus:
#billions#let's tag everyone. why not#bobby axelrod#donnie caan#lara axelrod#taylor mason#oscar langstraat#ben kim#douglas mason#chuck rhoades#winston billions#rian billions#riawin#lauren turner#taylaur#sometimes i make things#1x03#1x10#2x07#2x11#3x03#3x05#3x10#4x07#5x04#5x07#5x05
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3x10 redemption // 5x06 the nordic model
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taylor & oscar in 3x06 the third ortolan
#🥺 look at them... in casual wear... a twizzler dangling from their mouth... At Ease#billions#taylor mason#oscar langstraat#3x06
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this shot of wendy checking her phone late at night because she can’t sleep (and her subsequent conversation with chuck) being followed by taylor and oscar staying up working on their laptops, still at night... these crazy kids are awake at half past two in the morning when they may or may not have work the next day. go to bed!
#this does nothing to answer my question of ''if taylor is always nearly first into the office and nearly last out‚ when do they sleep?''#billions#taylor mason#oscar langstraat#3x06
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elon musk and grimes breaking up has made me more certain than ever that the old foe taylor will try to enlist in 5x11 is oscar. i will elaborate only if i turn out to be correct
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alright everyone. does oscar langstraat (left) look like neil peart in his early 20s (right) or am i completely imagining things
#searching ''mike birbiglia neil peart'' on twitter yielded no helpful results whatsoever#and looking at these photos next to each other i get it#but then WHY was i struck so strongly by ''he looks like oscar'' the first time i watched the fly by night music video?? hm???#billions#oscar langstraat
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TAYLOR: You’ll do this every time we go head-to-head.
LANGSTRAAT: It’s my new mission.
TAYLOR: This isn’t how you normally do business. Or speak.
LANGSTRAAT: You’re exceptional. You merited an exception. I have learned, in dealing with people, to be disarming. I smile, I’m polite, because I was loved as a child and am genuinely a decent human being. But somewhere during my early Oakland days, I built an affinity for the silver and black. The Raiders. So when I’m in — it’s win, baby, win — and when we don’t, we beat the shit out of the opposing fans. Don’t make me do that to you.
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DEV: Oscar, I’m sorry. How do you not go with someone willing to do that for you?
LANGSTRAAT: Well, because if they’re willing to do that for you today, they’re willing to do it to you later. But that’s not something you can hear from me. You’ll just have to learn that for yourself.
TAYLOR: Oscar: Al Davis is dead. And the Raiders haven’t won anything in a decade. So go back to the bay. And heal, baby, heal.
5x06 the nordic model. baby (derogatory)
#polar opposite of ''remember when winston called taylor baby and it was the most warmly received thing he's ever said''#billions#taylor mason#oscar langstraat#straatson#5x06
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