Blog: ‘Everyone is on cocaine’: Behind ‘Black Monday’s’ satire of 1980s Wall Street

While the Wall Street of the 1980s was built upon absurd levels of decadence (stories of parties thrown by junk bond trader Michael Milken made the rounds on set), “Black Monday,” which is executive produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, also has an eye on the social progress — or lack thereof — since that era. In trying to secure her own fortune, Hall’s Dawn reckons with the glass ceiling as well as the casual racism of the ‘80s that still happens today. And while the show grounds its setting in gleeful references to Billy Ocean, “Wall Street” and “Working Girl,” one passing joke calls out what was, in its time, a triumphant scene in 1984’s “Revenge of the Nerds” that actually was, in uncomfortable hindsight, rape.