Silicon Valley - season 1 (2014) - Judge and Co. introduce a hilarious tech-centric satirical sitcom

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+ Best New TV-Series of the Year

 

The amusingly photo-shopped, Steve Jobs-satirizing poster for the first season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

 

Silicon Valley is a satirical HBO sitcom about a struggling startup company in the tech world bubble that is San Francisco's Silicon Valley, created by John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky (The Goode Family (2009, TV-series, both)) and Mike Judge (Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)), based on Judge's experiences working briefly in a Silicon Valley startup in 1987 and the general developments in the technological business.

The following episode run-through will contain SPOILERS:

1. Our hero Richard (Thomas Middleditch (Search Party (2014))) gets ridiculed at his job at tech giant Hooli for his Pied Piper website, but he also secures attention from a couple of big-shots, and suddenly he receives a 10 mil. $ offer. - Which he turns down, preferring a 200k $ offer that allows him to remain captain of the venture.

2. The executive who gave Richard the offer he accepted, Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch (Whatever Works (2009))) gives Richard 48 hours to write an elaborate business plan. Meanwhile, Jared (Zach Woods (Ghostbusters (2016))), an executive assistant at Hooli, changes teams and tries to clarify what roles the guys in Richard's home, who make up Pied Piper, play. Here Richard's best friend 'Big Head' (Josh Brener (Welcome to Happiness (2015))) comes up short, and Richard learns to be an asshole boss by insisting that the seemingly worthless component that is his best friend stays! But Big Head has already caught the drift and moved workplace to Hooli, - who have poached Richard's idea...

3. While Gregory meditates on the sesame seeds on Burger King buns, Richard fights to acquire the name Pied Piper from an agricultural business, although everyone in the company besides himself hate it. Ehrlich (T. J. Miller (Deadpool (2016))), the entrepreneur and self-proclaimed incubator of Pied Piper, who owns the house the guys work and live in, calls them all billionaires online and goes searching for a new name for them on a mushroom trip, returning with a Mexican boy, who he thinks is himself - from the future!

4. The issue of presenting the vision of the company becomes ever more pressing. Richard and Ehrlich attend Gregory's toga party, where rapper Flo Rida and rented party guests party, and Ehrlich manages to become a Pied Piper board member. That is later disputed, but as Richard experiences another panic attack, Ehrlich is graced back to the inside, - and vomited on.

5. Gavin Belson (Matt Ross (American Psycho (2000))), the in equal measures feared and worshiped CEO of Hooli experiences failing technologies during a call, while Richard and Co. find out that Pied Piper is still on track to a competition that Richard had signed into months ago. They decide to make the company's world launch at the event, 8 weeks away. Meanwhile Ehrlich has a Mexican graffiti artist create a logo, which unfortunately turns out wildly obscene.

6. Jared gets caught inside a self-driving car and lead into a container en route to Gregory's phony island! Richard hires a kid to help out with the company's immediate problems with the 'cloud'. - Unfortunately, the kid turns out to be unstable. Finally, sarcastic satanist programmer Gilfoyle's (Martin Starr (Hawaii Five-O (2010-16))) lets his girlfriend visit the house, which creates confusion and hilarity.

7. Time for the competitive conference: Jared's assistant role to Richard gets overtaken temporarily by Gregory's sweet, competent assistant Monica (Amanda Crew (Race (2016))), which makes him laughably miserable. Pied Piper's programmer with Indian ancestry, Dinesh's (Kumail Nanjiani (Life As We Know It (2010))) latent homosexuality flares up, as Ehrlich turns out to have previously had sex with one of the judges' ex-wife, which he now repeats with the judge's current wife.

8. The resulting attack from the judge during Pied Piper's presentation gets them directly into the finale. But a seemingly insurmountable problem presents itself as Hooli beats them to it, presenting a similar system that is simply a good deal better than Richard and the guys'. Every one are struck by the defeat, - Jared additionally hasn't slept for days, - when Ehrlich's grotesque suggestion inspires a new idea in Richard, which improves Pied Piper's compression rate significantly over-night, making them win the competition.

The first couple of minutes of Silicon Valley might elapse with some irritation with all the dopey characters but then ... the show turns out to be incredibly funny! All of the 8 episodes that make up the first season are hilarious, and the nerdy characters develop slightly, and definitely continue to show entertaining sides to themselves. - My favorite is Woods' character Jared, a hysterically awkward and sincere man.

The show hits the bull's eye in several directions. When a call goes terribly awry for the demi-God of Hooli, (episode 5) it reminds us of the many everyday experiences we all have with failing technologies, which we often ignore socially to seem more with the beat. The anxiety involved in our ever-expanding relation with technology is also probed for humorous effect, especially in the episode (#6) in which Jared essentially gets kidnapped by a highly 'intelligent' vehicle.

Silicon Valley is an unmatched, fresh and deeply funny sitcom. After its awesome first season, I couldn't wait to get more of it.

 

Best episode:

 

6: Third Party Insourcing - written by Altschuler, Krinsky, Judge and Dan O'Keefe (The League (2010-15)), directed by Alec Berg (Curb Your Enthusiasm (2007-11))

Jared is imprisoned inside a high-tech car, while Richard tries to solve cloud-problems with the help of a teenager.

 

Related posts:

 

Mike Judge: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996) or, Uhh, Where's the TV?

From the left: Characters Ehrlich, Gilfoyle, Dinesh, Jared and Richard, in John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley season 1

Richard's 'boss' Gregory in John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley season 1

Watch an official trailer for the first season of the show here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV only

= Unknown

[Silicon Valley - season 1 was first broadcast on HBO April 6 - June 1 and spans 8 28-30 minute episodes, totaling approximately 232 minutes. The pilot was shot in March 2013, with HBO green-lighting a season in May. Shooting took place in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. Read more about Judge's work on the show here. Welch, who plays Gregory, died suddenly of lung cancer in December 2013 after having shot the first 5 episodes. The team behind the show decided to push the fate of the character to the second season, which as a result had to be rewritten. The season averaged 1.72 mil. viewers, which is generally considered to be an unimpressive rating, especially since it played upside HBO's massively successful Game of Thrones. The season was nominated for 5 Emmys, winning none. Silicon Valley - season 1 is certified fresh at 94 % with a 7.9 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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