I have been afraid to read your review. I knew grenades aplenty would be thrown.
Just read your post. I gotta think about why exactly I like this some other time. I will offer this for now.
So is he a good guy or a bad guy? Am I rooting for him vs "the man" or am I rooting for justice vs "the shitty dresser who has a ton of money"?
This is exactly part of the appeal. Both sides are good and evil. Kinda like real life. It's the characters. You gotta admit the acting is pretty good here.
Part of my initial curiousity was to suss out whether Levien & Koppelman the New York Rounders guys were gonna take shots at the boss of bosses, Preet Bharara (yup, the poker AG), or Cantor Fitzgerald (twin towers).
There are a ton of insights into how inside information is gathered and even the manner and catch phrases that are used to avoid prosecution.
The hedges are all about insider information. The SEC and the AG's are all about using their understaffed offices to try to prove something that is often impossible to prove. It's a good game.
One of the best trades I saw that had me golf clapping was when an analyst walks into Axe's office with some trade idea about one entity posing a bid for a takeover of another entity. Usually takeover stories bid the target up. Axe thinks for a minute and shorts the takeover target's stock. This was the Amaya PokerStars scam. Recognize the game to bid up the price, understand the player (Baasov the scammer) and realize it's an empty ploy (a bluff) -->> Axe tells the guy to go short!
If you are expecting something sexier, Levien & Koppelman try to make you happy with the lesbian, dominatrix, and urination. What does it take to satisfy you Sonatine?
If you were expecting some earth shattering strategies and insights and feel disappointed I offer this:
Koppelman & Levien wrote Rounders. Did Rounders offer ANY friggin insight into poker theory?
Rounders only garnered the love when poker gained popularity. It was appreciated by those who were then in the game. Great acting and caught the general zeitgeist of the phenomenon.
I gotta tool up.
You have another Vinyl episode to watch. I don't. We'll meet up on this.