The majority of this series takes place in the late 19th and early 20th century. It focuses on Wall Street magnates like JP Morgan and his son Jack Morgan, Lehman, Merrill, Lynch, Goldman, Sachs, Kennedy and the formation of Wall Street.
It delves into the 'Wild West' of its formation before government regulation and how the bankers themselves took on the responsibility of propping markets in rocky periods, much as the Federal Reserve does today. It pushes through both crashes in 1917(?) and 1929 and the ushering in of the SEC.
Then for some reason the last two episodes jump into the 1980s to focus on 2 people, who though they may be well known by many, I myself had never heard of them: Ivan Boesky and Mike Milken.
I just felt there are several other well known Wall Street Titans that have legacy and familiarity who could have fit earlier in the 20th century to finish the series. What about Warren Buffet? Charles Schwab? Peter Lynch?
I suppose they wanted names that would allow them to tell multiple coordinating storylines between them, but honestly they should just have ended it at 6 episodes or delved into more depth with the current storylines to fill the extra 2 episodes. There is enough fascination with those Wall Street Titans that it could have easily been accomplished.
Jumping from 1940 to 1980 to focus on a couple of mundane characters that certainly don't fill the same strength of name as those in the first 6 episodes was just a bad choice and totally changes the atmosphere.
Also, whose idea was it to put a rap song as the intro to each episode? Totally out of place.
