“Elements that fit the CW [that’s the channel that has is] include betrayal, murder, lust, and a hotshot Ferrari-driving protagonist…

Patrick Dempsey plays Dominic, the president of a fictional international bank. The flawed hero of the story is the bank’s head of trading, Massimo, played by Alessandro Borghi, an actor with a passing resemblance to Bradley Cooper. The character says he was ‘born low’, making him an outsider among the blue bloods at the bank, who pepper their gripes about his rogue methods with anti-Italian stereotypes…Massimo’s accomplices include an operative for a Wikileaks-like site, Laia Costa. Together they go up against Massimo’s main adversary who -spoiler alert- also happens to be his mentor and father-figure, Mr. Demsey’s Dominic.”

Wall Street Journal’s review by John Jurgensen

The movie is based on the novel “I Diavoli” by Guido Maria Brera and was acquired by The CW after its spring 2020 debut in Italy. Supposedly it was successful in the Italian market (on Sky Italia).

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“In the first five episodes provided for the press, we don’t find out. One assumes it’ll be revealed in the back half of a 10-episode first season, but the question is what ultimately propels the series forward, as Massimo becomes the main suspect in the murder investigation. Fighting to clear his name, he becomes involved in an intercontinental financial war and is forced to choose between supporting his mentor Dominic or going up against him. Without giving anything away, it should still be obvious which path he takes.

The series is teeming with characters and multiple subplots — including the mysterious death of Massimo’s ex-wife (Sallie Harmsen), who may or may not have been an escort, and the travails of an ambitious journalist (Laia Costa) with familial reasons for trying to bring down NYL — that it might be a challenge to keep up, or, in my case stay awake, because this is no Robert Altman movie. It’s clearly more plot- than character-driven and meant to be fast-paced, so there has to be some new major revelation every episode in order to keep viewers engaged. They’re just mostly vapid, essentially made for audiences with short attention spans.”

Indiewire

Well, they got the woman right – Laia Costa, the journalist, is “exposing secrets” which means destroying some man’s life and work.

Devils is available for streaming for free on the CW network

What are we doing today ?

Listening to this big CEO and his “United States of ME.”

He puts everyone on emotional quicksand.

Perfunctory management of human capital. Guy is great in the waste management department.

“He is so transparent in his self interest that I kind of respect him.” [quote borrowed from The Big Short movie]

Sounds like anyone you know ? (Any resemblance to actual characters is coincidental)

What are we doing today ?


1. Squeeze him into a tight corner. How ? Throw him a challenge. If he doesn’t perform at [this] parameters, if the company is not [as this point] in 180 days, he’s fired. If his contract allows it. A lawyer needs to be hired to take a close look at the agency authority granted to the Board of Directors

2. Trip him over. A charming asshole is bound to make a mistake. Lend him a hand !

Max, I get the point, but how do I bait an a-hole ?

3. I think you’d need to be well acquainted with him, at least C-level suite. Member of the inner circle or close confidant. If you are a shareholder, you’d have to have gathered enough votes to push the Board to act.

4. Most things in life are a question of timing and precision. The role of chance is much higher than commonly admitted. Chaos is in fact, the natural state of the universe. It is natural for CEOs to say they are anointed even as they did nothing but ride the good times.

5. Overconfidence is commonplace among CEOs. However good overconfidence is in the short term, it does more harm than good in the longest term. Golf is sport beloved by many. Drawing a parallel to golfing, overconfidence in sport “will likely make innacurate attributions for errors and fail to learn from their mistakes (Horgan. 1992).(Sport, Exercise, and Performance Psychology: Bridging Theory and Application By Dr. Jamie E. Robbins, PhD, Dr. Leilani Madrigal, PhD)

6. “The gambler’s fallacy” (aka the Monte Carlo fallacy) is “the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or that, if something happens less frequently than normal during some period, it will happen more frequently in the future (presumably as a means of balancing nature) -(Wikipedia)The gambler who, after losing several hands, keeps on playing thinking a win is around the corner to even things out is an example of it. In reality events are independent of one another. If the CEO has this “gambler’s fallacy”, ruin is not far behind.