It's a clue as to the universe you are observing, and sets the tone for what to expect. 

So when I tell you that the scenario about which I write revolves around the Olympics being moved because of a human rights issue, you know we cannot be in the real world.

Indeed we are not, but instead the Billions universe. 

It is a universe very similar to ours - the Showtime series is one of the few on television to have acknowledged the coronavirus pandemic, and dozens of real-life celebrities have made cameo appearances across its six series - but nonetheless fictional. Spoilers ahead.

In the ongoing sixth season of the show, the Olympics has assumed a central role, and more peripherally the fictitious International Commission of Sport, a 104-member organisation which governs the Games in this parallel universe. Sound familiar?

In a development which belies the real-life International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) indifference to the credible evidence of China's campaign of terror against Uyghur Muslims, in particular forced labour, Billions‘ co-main character orchestrates the collapse of the hosting of an Olympic Games over just that. 

Except it is not Beijing 2022, rather Los Angeles 2028, via exposing that sportswear brand Rask - in this world portrayed as the biggest sponsor of the 2028 Olympics - is using forced forced Uyghur labour.

Of course, this being a show about hedge funds and their egotistical leaders, there is a lot of personal gain baked into this move, both from shorting Rask stock and because the 2028 Olympics moving location also means the estranged wife of new antagonist Mike Prince will also move. 

So there is born what becomes one of the sixth season of the show’s central threads - an attempt to bring the Olympics to New York. 

Let the scheming, secret dealing and broken promises begin.

Another thing about movies and TV is that they can often do a poor job of portraying the reality they claim to reflect. 

Have you ever seen a character have to wait to get served at a bar? 

How come so many people in low- to medium-paid jobs on the small screen can afford roomy apartments? 

There would have been a fair chance that this viewer, who has been writing and reading about the Olympic Movement for the last 24 months - and likely you, if you are reading this - would be rubbed the wrong way by an Olympic storyline if there were too many moments where you could turn to the person next to you and condescendingly mutter about how "it doesn’t really work like that."

Part of that may be because glimpses of the inner workings of the Olympics, or rather the International Commission of Sport, are fleeting. 

This is a show about a hedge fund head honchos and their United States Attorney adversary, after all, and a bid for the Olympic Games is merely another arena for that battle to play out. 

An early reference to a successful bid having to convince the 104 International Commission of Sport members to vote for it was cause for a wry smile, given the last time a Games was awarded - Brisbane 2032, last year - the real-life IOC members only had one candidate to vote for. 

We are also introduced to Colin Drache, a suave figure it is claimed holds influence over the International Commission of Sport and can guide this New York campaign to the top of the podium - but only after prizing Drache away from Madrid. 

No doubt there are a few who would like to think of themselves as a real-life Drache figure.

On the whole though, Billions rings true. 

Perhaps that is because Prince - elevated to one of the two main characters for this season - is a perfect bedfellow for the Olympics. 

Prince is a new-age billionaire, one with values, lines he won’t cross and a desire to leave the world a better place than he found it. 

At least that is what he would have you believe, although almost as often Prince appears in a battle to convince himself.

Nemesis Chuck Rhoades, a thorn in Prince’s side and the biggest threat to his Olympic ambitions, certainly is not convinced, and Prince’s ego-driven quest for the Games is the prime target for Rhodes’ war on billionaires. 

There is no such thing as a good billionaire in his eyes. 

"The overall effect of the billionaire class, they’re a scourge," Rhodes insists in one portentous scene. 

Prince wants people to believe that billionaires really have changed, and that his collecting of immense wealth is somehow for the greater good. 

By the same token, modern Organising Committees and those weighing up bids for major sporting events need to convince an increasingly sceptical public that spending large amounts of public money - either directly or indirectly - on events like the Olympics is worth it. 

The hosts of future and current Games have turned to sustainability, social justice and mass-participation sport to compliment or in some cases replace the traditional legacy benefits such as venues, prestige and, if you’re lucky, housing and infrastructure projects. 

Yet, as with the billionaire's investment which has some claimed tangential benefit, one cannot help but wonder why - if your intentions are so good - do you need the associated profits, or the Olympic Games, or both, to act?

Another way the show and the Olympics match is in how then can warp people’s values. 

An antagonist like Prince, or predecessor Bobby Axelrod, are patently unlikeable. And yet.

Sure they are selfish, ruthless, arrogant, manipulative, at times vindictive - but many slip into rooting for them. 

Presented with this evidence they may struggle to explain why that happens, but it does.

Sport has similar powers. 

Even those would not not class themselves are patriotic, who are disillusioned with the direction their country is heading, can be sucked into tribalism, pride and the various shades between watching compatriots compete at the Olympics or other international events. 

When it comes to sport it does not even have to be an international event to elicit these emotions - just look at any cup final in club football, a college basketball match or even the levels of fandom exhibited at franchise cricket tournaments without any history to fall back on. 

Sport is not life or death, but it still matters in a way few other things can. 

And this can play a large role in convincing some who, stripped down the basic facts, would never support an Olympic bid, into doping so. 

It’s more interesting to talk about a world-leading athletics stadium in Manhattan than the travel chaos it would invariably create.

Ego - especially when it comes to legacy - or financial and political gain can also convince people of this. 

That is the route Billions has gone down. 

Grandiose plans have soon been scaled back - most interestingly a plan to provide all of New York City with free WiFi on a permanent basis, while simultaneously doing the same in Africa. 

After a rather disheartening piece of corporate compromise, it was agreed to limit the public wireless internet to just a two-week window.

People have changed side. 

Favours called in and wheels greased. 

The Olympics is in many ways little more than a stepping stone, political football or business opportunity to the majority of Billions’ characters. 

It would be nice to think this is selling the Games short, but recent events have highlighted once again the need to take the Olympic rhetoric with a pinch of salt. 

I dare say the only short selling Billions has put on display is in the trades being executed by Mike Prince Capital.