Created by Mike Judge, Silicon Valley would remind you of Office Space in its thrashing of corporate nonsense. Silicon Valley is a very unique and original setting for a television show and Judge makes great use out of it. Judge drives a fine line between realism and parody. An example is when a character tries to talk to a person first through hologram, then by video chat and then by telephone, at which point the technology fails in all of them.
The basic gist of Silicon Valley is that Richard, played by Thomas Middleditch, creates a somewhat dumb idea for a website, but his "compression" chart is record-breaking. Look, it's not important. What's important to know is that he inadvertently makes things easier and faster online. So he becomes a highly valued commodity between two rivals, Peter Gregory and Gavin Belson.
He lives in the apartment of Erlich, who rents out the apartment to various tech start-ups in exchange for 10 percent of the profits of whatever they create. TJ Miller is the standout star of these few episodes stealing scenes. Best of all, Erlich goes from a liability to the company by the start to having a clear role and purpose by the end. The place is also rented by Big Head (Josh Brener), Gilfoye (Martin Starr), and Dinesh (Kumal Nanjiana). Middleditch's timidness is only surpassed by the even quieter Brener and the rapport between Starr and Nanjiana is a series highlight.
Rounding out the cast is the late Christopher Evan Welch, who creates a character that cannot possibly be recast. He plays Peter Gregory as an extremely odd, quiet person who is impossible to figure out. His rival, Gavin Belson, is played by Matt Ross, who finds the right note of insecure, rich douchebag. Amanda Crew plays the only recurring female character and her only trait is that she's competent at her job. And lastly, Zach Woods proves invaluable towards the end stealing scenes as Jared.
The show spends a few episodes building its world, which makes up for the fact that it's not exactly hilarious out of the gate. But this world is completely foreign to anything I've ever seen so it's almost necessary. By the last few episodes, the show had hit its stride and was genuinely making me laugh-out loud. The culmination is in the finale, when it has possibly the greatest extended dick joke of all time. I would go explain it for you, but you need to see it for yourself.
The one real flaw to the show is both its lack of female characters and the fact that the lone female character is evidently set up for a love interest, despite zero romantic chemistry between her and Richard. This may sound like a spoiler, but if you've ever seen a long-running comedy show, it's not. It feels like they are only destined to get together because that's what you're supposed to do. Anyway, it's an unfortunate path. I'm less troubled by the lack of female characters if only because that's pretty much true in real life and she's clearly the only character who has her shit together. (With that said, if they can find away to get another female without making her a love interest, that'd be great.)
Silicon Valley has a strong first season with a great cast. The nerds in this show are actually human beings and not stereotypes of nerds. It features some actual narrative stakes as well as we find out and root for Richard's company to be successful. I'd recommend this show to anybody seeking a new comedy show as its the second best new comedy show behind only Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Grade - A-
Playlist
1. "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen
2. "The What" - Notorious BIG feat. Method Man
3. "21 Flights" - Heavy English
4. "Genesis" - Grimes
5. "December" - Collective Soul
You didn't talk about the GREATEST DICK/MASTERBATION JOKE OF TIME
ReplyDelete"The culmination is in the finale, when it has possibly the greatest extended dick joke of all time. I would go explain it for you, but you need to see it for yourself."
DeleteI did actually!