Awesome editing, music, acting, and story. Don Cheadle is back!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the story is even more interesting than House of Lies, because it's about history.
71 Reviews
Hilariously. Epic.
jwinzz17 February 2019
I feel sorry for anyone who cannot relate to the humour in this show. The script and writing is quick witted and intelligent. So many one liners, that come in waves, you'll be rewinding often to ensure you hear them all! Very clever and entertaining. Not for snowflakes who get offended easily.
Solid 80's Era Comedy
jjenk91126 January 2019
I want more!
discolover-114 September 2020
I laughed, I cried, I shook my head. Great performances and characters. Loved the 80's drama and styling but still felt fresh. Assemble cast was something special as they all shone bright and flashy like that Limbo. I want more shows like this.
Great homage to the 80's
UniqueParticle31 March 2019
Although I was born in the 90's, I love this show. It's well written, hilarious, cracked-out, awesome soundtrack throughout, and well acted. I love the cast. Don Cheadle, Andrew Rannells, & Regina Hall are all awesome in this; I don't understand the negativity this has received.
I even got to see the pilot several weeks before it actually released in December. It was available on Showtime Anytime and I knew it was gonna be a hit! Also I never saw House of Lies or the other shows people have mentioned in their reviews. I love Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's work; I have for many years. All around love for this show!
I even got to see the pilot several weeks before it actually released in December. It was available on Showtime Anytime and I knew it was gonna be a hit! Also I never saw House of Lies or the other shows people have mentioned in their reviews. I love Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg's work; I have for many years. All around love for this show!
Hilarious !!!
BiggaHD17 February 2019
The Pilot was Perfect. Can't wait for next week!
introclusor21 January 2019
Just watched the pilot and thought it was great, I'm really not getting why it has so many negative reviews. I also loved I'm Dying Up Here which was cancelled after 2 seasons so I'm guessing this will go the same way.
Don Cheadle is amazing in it, the story was great, the characters were funny and well written. It isn't laugh out loud funny but that isn't what I want from this kind of show.
It isn't a stand up set where each 'bit' has to land. It also isn't The Big Bang Theory with their one liners and canned laughter. It is a good show and given Seth Rogen and Evan Goldbergs involvement in Preacher and Future Man, I have high hopes for this.
Don Cheadle is amazing in it, the story was great, the characters were funny and well written. It isn't laugh out loud funny but that isn't what I want from this kind of show.
It isn't a stand up set where each 'bit' has to land. It also isn't The Big Bang Theory with their one liners and canned laughter. It is a good show and given Seth Rogen and Evan Goldbergs involvement in Preacher and Future Man, I have high hopes for this.
Nice but too similar to House of Lies
seyi98729 January 2019
I love the show...no doubt, but it feels too similar to House of Lies. There is love interest in Regina Hall who has a stable boyfriend (reminding me of Kristen Bell in the first season with the same). There is also his team and their the constant swearing and somewhat outrageous behaviour. Both instances, Mo (or Marty as he was called in House of Lies) sit at the top of firms involved in the Capital/Financial market.
The striking similarities is the sole drawback I have with the show, making it feel like I have seen the scenes before. Other that that, it is ok.
The striking similarities is the sole drawback I have with the show, making it feel like I have seen the scenes before. Other that that, it is ok.
Fantastic
eltoro12342 August 2019
Good grief there really are people out there that shouldn't be allowed to speak, one review "wrote not remotely near what happened?"
Oh dear, it's a TV programme that doesn't say anywhere that this happened, can people just watch things for entertainment purposes and not to dissect ever single minute.
It was a great way to spend 5hrs.
Easy watching
Valentijn7831 March 2019
Generally enjoyable, with an interesting plot and excellent acting.
The only turn-off in the first episodes were some jokes about the 80's which did not exist in the 80's. Fortunately the writers seem to have gotten those out of their systems.
The only turn-off in the first episodes were some jokes about the 80's which did not exist in the 80's. Fortunately the writers seem to have gotten those out of their systems.
Hysterical!
BonzeesRevenge7 August 2020
I've always loved Don Cheadle, incredibly talented actor, but I had always seen him as a dramatic actor. He's also a comedic genius. Can't say enough about it, every episode has kept me laughing my @$$ off. While the entire cast is amazing, Regina Hall is a phenomenon, love watching her and the chemistry between her and Cheadle is perfect. Can't wait for more!
Writing is good, show is good, decade is garbage.
wcparry227 January 2019
People need to stop regurgitating the 80s. It was a terrible time, everything sucked, everything looked idiotic. The only people who like it are those that were too drugged up or drunk to realize how terrible it was, or those that never had to live through it.
Season 3 Disaster
nuamstergram28 June 2021
Great show if you have Showtime!!!
justin-fencsak21 January 2019
Warning: Spoilers
From the moment the 1984-1997 Showtime logo begins, i got sucked into this 36 minute pilot, which made its world debut on its Youtube channel late last month before making its pay tv debut on cable tv. Set days before the infamous Black Monday crash of 1987 in which the stock market suffered double digit percentage losses (the Dow fell a record 500 points) due to computer failure, this comedy/drama captures the zeitgeist of yuppie culture that still kinda resonates today with our era. Don Cheadle is amazing and should win a golden globe and an emmy for his performance. This show also is made well done by Point Grey, known mostly for off the wall mature movies that are tongue in cheek fun. I already set my DVR so i can watch it every week.
First Ep grabbed me
cfhornberger21 January 2019
I occasionally like Mondays.
southdavid16 June 2023
I wrote individual season reviews for each run of "Black Monday" but now that the show has been cancelled, I thought it's put something here to consider the series overall.
"Black Monday" offers a suggestion for the reasons behind the Wall Street Crash of 1987. It revolves around the office of Mo Munroe (Don Cheadle) as he attempts to win control of a historic company that makes Jeans but has a Manhattan warehouse which makes it valuable to asset strippers such as him. To assist with this, he engineers a meeting with Blair (Andrew Rannells), a new trader with an algorithm to sell, whose about to marry into the family that own the company.
"Black Monday" is a comedy series, but it's never quite sure what sort of comedy it is. At times broad, and others subtle. Occasionally it's all about the 80's, period jokes and excess, occasionally it's almost a drama, even a melodrama, with the lives and backstories of the characters. I can understand the people that enjoyed that aspect of it, but to me it made the series feel disjointed. Performances are generally pretty good though, but again, sometimes Cheadle and Regina Hall are in a different show to Paul Sheer and Andrew Rannells, as the latter two usually play much broader than the former.
Things are much more even in the second run, but they did it by bringing the rest of the show up to the broader level that they were doing. Maybe that sacrifices a bit of the performances that Cheadle and King brought to the first season, but it does make for a more even show. Whilst I don't think that it was hilariously funny thoughout the whole run, there were enough moments to make me feel positively about the whole endeavour.
Similar to the second season, the third shorn of the shows initial premise, is left with a bunch of characters continually finding excuses to remain in each other's gravitation. I do feel like this only works if you enjoy the characters and like spending time with them. The problem is that I'm not sure that's the case here, they're all pretty self-centred and constantly stabbing each other in the back. There's not, for me, even one character to really relate too.
Whilst the show is occasionally funny, it wasn't consistent enough to keep me from considering giving up a few times in the early episodes. To the shows credit, eventually the murder mystery storyline did enough to keep me watching.
I was happy to learn that was enough. I like all of the performers in this, and will follow them to other shows, but I do feel like we've seen enough from these particular characters.
"Black Monday" offers a suggestion for the reasons behind the Wall Street Crash of 1987. It revolves around the office of Mo Munroe (Don Cheadle) as he attempts to win control of a historic company that makes Jeans but has a Manhattan warehouse which makes it valuable to asset strippers such as him. To assist with this, he engineers a meeting with Blair (Andrew Rannells), a new trader with an algorithm to sell, whose about to marry into the family that own the company.
"Black Monday" is a comedy series, but it's never quite sure what sort of comedy it is. At times broad, and others subtle. Occasionally it's all about the 80's, period jokes and excess, occasionally it's almost a drama, even a melodrama, with the lives and backstories of the characters. I can understand the people that enjoyed that aspect of it, but to me it made the series feel disjointed. Performances are generally pretty good though, but again, sometimes Cheadle and Regina Hall are in a different show to Paul Sheer and Andrew Rannells, as the latter two usually play much broader than the former.
Things are much more even in the second run, but they did it by bringing the rest of the show up to the broader level that they were doing. Maybe that sacrifices a bit of the performances that Cheadle and King brought to the first season, but it does make for a more even show. Whilst I don't think that it was hilariously funny thoughout the whole run, there were enough moments to make me feel positively about the whole endeavour.
Similar to the second season, the third shorn of the shows initial premise, is left with a bunch of characters continually finding excuses to remain in each other's gravitation. I do feel like this only works if you enjoy the characters and like spending time with them. The problem is that I'm not sure that's the case here, they're all pretty self-centred and constantly stabbing each other in the back. There's not, for me, even one character to really relate too.
Whilst the show is occasionally funny, it wasn't consistent enough to keep me from considering giving up a few times in the early episodes. To the shows credit, eventually the murder mystery storyline did enough to keep me watching.
I was happy to learn that was enough. I like all of the performers in this, and will follow them to other shows, but I do feel like we've seen enough from these particular characters.
Absolutely love this show!!!!
nehemiasbracey28 January 2019
If Wolf of Wall Street had a tv show it would be just like this !!!! Except it's Don Cheadle and he's exceptional this show also reminds me of House of lies to some degree. I wish it were an hour long and that's the mark of a good show! Kudos showtime!!!
so close...yet so far
angelorwez20 August 2022
This show could have been one of the most iconic things ever made...they had the right actors the right network...they just didn't have the right writers...
it's funny coz i love this show so much...and yet even i...a big fan...recognize that there's something missing here...
the best this show could ever be...in this present state...is average...i do hope that in 15 years or ten...some other writers are going to pick this up and do it justice...
the premise is sooo sooo beautiful...how do you not deliver on such a wonderful foundation?!...then again...maybe it is just a little too ambitious...
i still love it though...with all its flaws...i still think its a good show...
it's funny coz i love this show so much...and yet even i...a big fan...recognize that there's something missing here...
the best this show could ever be...in this present state...is average...i do hope that in 15 years or ten...some other writers are going to pick this up and do it justice...
the premise is sooo sooo beautiful...how do you not deliver on such a wonderful foundation?!...then again...maybe it is just a little too ambitious...
i still love it though...with all its flaws...i still think its a good show...
To the mediocre reviews
lenny-2295916 February 2019
I'm struggling to comprehend why people are not liking this or they just find it so so.
First episode I was hooked it is Wolf of Wall Street on crack. Yes it's over the top. But it's exactly what I need a break from the mundane crap that is showering my telly screen at the moment
First episode I was hooked it is Wolf of Wall Street on crack. Yes it's over the top. But it's exactly what I need a break from the mundane crap that is showering my telly screen at the moment
Underrated show
swaenstream28 April 2020
Great start, quick decline
cherold5 June 2019
The first episode of Black Monday was brilliant. Don Cheadle was hilarious electric as a shifty broker, Regina Hall was excellent as the smartest one on the show, Ken Marino had a hilarious turn as twins, and the rest of the cast is solid. The writing was sharp, funny, and edgy, and the episode moved like lightning and offered an ingenious twist.
The next couple of the episodes were less electrifying but seemed fine, but by the end of the third episode I realized I was feeling bored. I did one more episode, realized the the series had simply stopped being funny, and then gave up.
I wish the series had kept up its momentum. By the end the only thing I cared about - and even that not very much - is who's gonna wind up with that tie pin.
The next couple of the episodes were less electrifying but seemed fine, but by the end of the third episode I realized I was feeling bored. I did one more episode, realized the the series had simply stopped being funny, and then gave up.
I wish the series had kept up its momentum. By the end the only thing I cared about - and even that not very much - is who's gonna wind up with that tie pin.
Superb 80s based series
djpeekay255 June 2019
Brilliant cast who deliver a fantastic series based around the stick market crash of 1987. Don Cheadle, as per usual, is superb in the main role and the super hot Regina Hall is strong and successful trader in a Male dominated world. Its series like this, that give the 80s a mythical status with its glitz, glam and hedonism. Being a kid in the 80s, it makes me feel glad that I experienced this decade first hand. Even seeing the NES, brings back memories of playing Duck Hunt.
An exquisite 80s Throwback Hit
TheTruthofItIs12 April 2019
*** 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.
Love this!!!!
tinamoxon10 November 2020
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