The many problems with this show

I felt compelled to start a list, just because it’s so frustrating to watch all this nonsense. I watched it to the end hoping to get some sort of release, but I was sorely disappointed.

1. It is never established that Bobby Axelrod did anything wrong. Chuck just seems to be some delusional character with a grudge.

2. Too many characters have convenient “flaws”: The legal clerk engages in sex and cocaine use with random strangers (who are filming it), Chuck is unable to control his masochistic tendencies and finds himself going to S&M clubs (in the first episode you just knew it would get him in trouble later). The broker they arrest has two families ignorant of each other (yeah, that’s pretty common, what was even the point of this?). The judge that lets the broker go free benefits financially from the jails to which he sends convicts. The broker who is about to testify dies of pancreatic cancer. One of the employees of Axelrod just so happens to fire automatic weapons and getting caught by the police, etc. All this necessitated by lack of a main story.

3. The writers have no idea about the stock market. For example the “big squeeze” had a bunch of problems, the most absurd is that the SEC (who has so far been unable to turn up any incriminating evidence against Axelrod) figures out that Chuck’s father is the source of the false rumor that has the stock exploding, this seemingly within hours and long before the market realizes that there is nothing to the rumor (they just go crazy on a buying spree which last all day). Then we have Axelrod’s broker who wants to “get the stock back” that Axelrod has shortened, yeah, that’s how you short a stock, borrowing it from someone who wants it back the minute it goes up. But then he calls up that other hedge fund manager, and they discuss a percentage for borrowing the stock. But a percentage of what? Of Axelrod’s profit? If so, that other hedge fund manager is incompetent beyond belief, because he is long in the stock, so if Axelrod is making any money on this, then the other hedge fund manager stands to loose on his long position.

Another thing is the pharma stock where they are up 10% and Axelrod wants to stay. Turns out the drug did not get FDA approval so they lose a billion. How much had they actually invested in this company? Let’s just say the stock dropped 50% on the FDA news (unlikely, but OK), so Axelrod had bought at least two billion of this stock, that is a rather significant position (a company like Pfizer has a market cap. of 220 billion so a two billion stake buys you almost 1% of Pfizer). A few scenes later, it is said that Axelrod is managing 5 billion (he used to manage 10). So he put 40% of his funds into this pharma stock? And what exactly is this “read” that Axelrod talks about? Either FDA approves the new drug or they don’t, his broker had done the research (presumably about test results from clinical trials) and felt there was a good chance of not getting approval. What exactly did Axelrod base his “read” on?

4. Inconsistent characters, for example the police union guy who invested with Axelrod tells him, when Axelrod wants to quit the game, that there is no other place for him to place the pension funds. Yet an episode or two later, when Axelrod hits a “friend”, he is told that if he gets as much as a misdemeanor, he can say goodbye to the money. What makes it even worse is that when the video appear that show Axelrod acted because the other guy had been driving drunk, the police issues a statement saying they are behind Axelrod. Say what? The police are issuing statements that they support vigilantes?

5. The Wendy money problem. She earns 10 times as much as Chuck, who earns 185,000/year. So she’s making close to 2 million. It is also revealed that her planned bonus for the year was 2 million. She has been working for Axe Capital for about 15 years. Yet, if she were to quit her job, they only have money for a few years (I think they said 3)? What on Earth are all their money spent on? Beyond the child’s private school, we don’t see anything even mildly extravagant done by these people. It is also revealed that Wendy has 3 million in the Axe Capital fund, which seems surprisingly small considering she implies past bonuses have been allocations in this fund which outperform the S&P 500 by 30-40%. If she hasn’t withdrawn from the fund (which it seems she hasn’t, because when she takes out 250,000 Axelrod makes a scene out of it), then it seems they have only put in 50,000 per year, which is absurd given the other numbers.

I could go on and on about the problems with this show, like the arrested broker who fakes an argument with Axelrod, then goes to the 3 brokers who have started on their own, tells them some *beep* about acquisition talks or somesuch, and that makes them lose all their money because they blindly invest based on this? This show is just one unrealistic thing after the other written by people who can’t even do basic math, let alone understand how the stock market works or even the legal system.

Why are people calling this a smart show?

I’m almost tempted to rewatch the show just to take careful notes about all the inconsistencies and nonsense.