Pootie Tang (2001) - C.K.'s off-beat sketch character mega-flop

♥♥

 

A painted caricature of the protagonist makes up this poster for Louic C.K.'s Pootie Tang

Hiphop star PT (Pootie Tang) is respected and loved by all, but his lyrics about abstinence from harmful products earn him an enemy in the shape of the country's worst company ...

Pootie Tang is written and directed by Louis C.K. (Tomorrow Night (1998)). It is based on a sketch from The Chris Rock Show, which C.K. wrote for from 1997-99.

It is a totally ludicrous movie that parodies gangsta rap hiphop and the black pimp style following the hit-and-miss principle. A lot misses the mark, and the plot is paper thin to the point of being almost transparent. But a part of the film is also rather funny. Not so much co-star/co-producer Chris Rock (Spiral (2019)), - and Jennifer Coolidge (American Reunion (2012)) deserves pity for the ungrateful role she covers here, but Lance Crouther (Class Act (1992)) as Pootie Tang and J.B. Smoove (Woke (2020-22)) are pretty funny.

Pootie Tang seems to be designed for watching over a blunt with a homie or three.

Watch a 2-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 7 mil. $

Box office: 3.3 mil. $

= Mega-flop (returned 0.47 times its cost)

[Pootie Tang was released 29 June (North America) and runs 81 minutes. Shooting took place in New Jersey and New York. C.K. has said that he was fired during the film's post production phase and has distanced himself from the film. It opened #12 to a 1.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it diminished from then, grossing 3.3 mil. $. The film was not released in other markets. Roger Ebert gave it a 0.5/4 star rating, translating to a notch under this one. C.K. returned with 14 short and TV credits prior to his theatrical return I Love You, Daddy (2017). Rock returned with a voice performance in Osmosis Jones (2001) and physically in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001); Crouther in 2 TV credits but never again in a feature, - he has instead kept busy as a comedy writer; and Wanda Sykes (The Good Fight (2021, TV-series)) in 4 TV credits prior to her theatrical return in Monster-in-Law (2005). Pootie Tang is rotten at 27 % with a 3.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Pootie Tang?

Girl, Interrupted (1999) - Girls with mental problems explored in compassionate, strong film

♥♥♥♥♥

 

 + Best Period Movie of the Year

 

Co-star Winona Ryder's wide-eyed face makes up this poster for James Mangold's Girl, Interrupted

A college-age girl from a nice middle-class family suffers a mental breakdown and gets sent to a psychiatric hospital following a suicide attempt. Here she finds other disturbed girls ... - and herself.

 

Girl, Interrupted is written by Lisa Loomer (Room for Two (1992, TV-series)), Anna Hamilton Phelan (Mask (1985)) and New-Yorker master filmmaker, co-writer/director James Mangold (Heavy (1995)), whose 3rd film it is. It adapts the autobiographical, same-titled 1993 book by Susanna Kaysen (Cambridge (2014)).

It is an outstanding, assured and subdued, compassionate piece of storytelling that delivers with a wealth of good forces: Winona Ryder (Mr. Deeds (2002)), - who also co-produced the film, - Angelina Jolie (Shark Tale (2004)), Brittany Murphy (Don't Say a Word (2001)), Elisabeth Moss (Darling Companion (2012)), Whoopi Goldberg (Top Five (2014)) and Vanessa Redgrave (Miral (2010)) as the smart and wise doctor.

Girl, Interrupted is moving and, despite the darkness it probes, ultimately uplifting, dealing with important issues. It is a commendable work for all involved.

 

Related posts:

James Mangold:  The day after the day after ... the 2018 Oscars

Oscars 2018: Predictions and Film Excess' favorites

The Greatest Showman (2017) - Brace for an infectious musical show (executive producer/director (reshoots))

2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

The Wolverine (2013) - Many good elements in Mangold's Japan-set superhero adventure actioner 
Knight and Day (2010) - Diaz and Cruise invigorate Mangold's action romance

1999 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Top 10: Best cop movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Cop Land (1997) - Stallone faces corruption and turns in some good acting in fine crime drama 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 48.3 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.20 times its cost)

[Girl, Interrupted premiered 8 December (USA) and runs 127 minutes. The film spent 5 years in development hell, before production commenced. Jolie was paid 200k $ for her performance. Shooting took place from January - April 1999 in Pennsylvania. The film opened #37 to a 95k $ first weekend in 9 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #4, behind new release Next Friday and holdover hits Stuart Little and The Hurricane, spending one more week in the top 5 (#4) and grossing 28.9 mil. $ (59.8 % of the total gross). The film was nominated for an Oscar, which it won: Best Supporting Actress (Jolie). It also won a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches lower than this one. Mangold returned with Kate & Leopold (2001). Ryder returned in Autumn in New York (2000); Jolie in Gone in 60 Seconds (2000). Girl, Interrupted is rotten at 53 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girl, Interrupted?

Late Night (2019) - Thompson is superb with Kaling's brainy script

♥♥♥♥

+ Best New York Movie of the Year

Emma Thompson has a different hairstyle than in the actual film, curiously, on the poster for Nisha Ganatra's Late Night

Katherine Newbury is a British talk show institution in American comedy, - but her show's ratings have steadily declined for years, and she is in need of a radical reinvention in order to keep her show. Into her writers' room enters her fan Molly...

Late Night is written by writer/co-producer/co-star Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project (2012-17)) and directed by Nisha Ganatra (Chutney Popcorn (1999)).
Kaling is sweet as Molly, whose hiring is a mystifying stroke of luck for her. The job to restart the talkshow and open its host more up to her possible audiences is no small task, and Emma Thompson (Nanny McPhee (2005)) is terrific as the impatient, cynical, tyrannical boss, who is en route to her own career downfall. For someone with love for late night talk shows, the story's course echoes both David Letterman's infidelity scandal and admission on his show and the Conan O'Brien/Jay Leno fight for their respective shows. There is no woman late-night talkshow persona in real life like Newbury in the movie, (the great Ellen DeGeneres reigns daytime comedy with her talkshow), - but there could be.
As part of the role Thompson sports a hairdo and cool garbs and jewelry, which elevate her performance. Late Night doesn't do much cinematically, but Thompson, besides a great actress, is cinematic, and therefore even more crucial to the film. - And so is John Lithgow (Kinsey (2004)), her husband in it, and the two share a genuinely touching scene towards the end.
Late Night also benefits from a strong supporting cast with proven talents Amy Ryan (Kidnapped (2006-07)), Hugh Dancy (Evening (2007)), Reid Scott (The Veil (2016)), Dennis O'Hare (The Proposal (2009)) and Max Casella (The Sopranos (2001-07)).
The film has lines and moments that produce chuckles, although it could certainly be funnier; but it makes a thoughtful dealing with current issues of political correctness, mindless entertainment, minority representation, gender equality and hypocrisy its main priority.

Related post:

Nisha Ganatra: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 4 mil. $
Box office: 21.7 mil. $ and counting
= Big hit (has returned 5.42 times its cost)
[Late Night premiered 25 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 102 minutes. The script was first bought by Fox 2000 in 2016. Paul Feig was originally scheduled to direct but dropped out. Shooting took place in New York from April 2018 - ?. Amazon paid 13 mil. $ for the North American distribution rights at Sundance, - a record. They furthermore spent a whopping 35 mil. $ to market the film. It opened #17 to a 246k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 2,220 theaters, grossing 15.4 mil. $ (71 % of the total gross to date). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets have been the UK with 1.7 mil. $ (7.8 %) and Australia with 1.4 mil. $ (6.5 %). It has one more market announced to open in: Mexico on 18 October. Some analysts are calling the film one of the year's biggest flops due to Amazon's great expenses thrown at the film; but if the 4 mil. $ budget is accurate, the film is a big hit, and Amazon's expenses are also a part of their overall strategy, which is mainly about their streaming service, for which the film is likely an important touchstone. Ganatra returned with Black Monday (2019, TV-series) and will return theatrically with Covers (2020). Thompson returned with a voice performance in Missing Link (2019) and in the flesh in Men in Black: International (2019); Kaling does not have her next acting gig announced yet. Late Night is certified fresh at 80 % with a 6.8/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Late Night?

13 Hours/13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016) - Bay portrays controversial recent history in generally thrilling actioner

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Impending danger is palpable on this poster for Michael Bay's 13 Hours

 

After the recent war effort of the West in Libya and the removal of dictator Gadaffi, the country breaks out in civil war. Of foreign powers, the US is subsequently just about the only country who tenaciously uphold small, fragile representations in Tripoli and Benghazi, - the latter of which gets attacked on September 11 2012 by Islamic terrorists.

13 Hours is written by Chuck Hogan (The Strain (2014-16)), based on Mitchell Zuckoff's (Robert Altman: The Oral Biography (2009)) nonfiction novel 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi (2014), and directed by Michael Bay (The Rock (1996)). Bay manages to convey the camaraderie among the tough security team, who are hired to handle the local security for the CIA. Several of the film's action sequences are fantastically exciting, full of Bay's familiar penchant for flashy camera tricks (cinematography by Dion Beebe (Into the Woods (2014))) and first-class stunt expertise. 

John Krasinski (Something Borrowed (2011)), James Badge Dale (Iron Man 3 (2013)) and the rest of the cast are credible and add both humor and seriousness to the tale, which is shocking in itself, - in particular the intense silence from Washington, D.C. and the Pentagon, as shit hits the fan for hour upon hour in Benghazi.

It is in the emotionally dense episodes of 13 Hours that Bay comes up short; they are handled with the crude hands of an action director who ventures into unknown territory. Unfortunately, they are many, melodramatic and rather inelegant, which is a shame, because 13 Hours is an otherwise compelling and important story of contemporary heroism, well worth watching.

 

Related reviews:

 

Michael Bay: Armageddon (1998) or, Macho Men Save Earth From Disaster!  

Bad Boys (1995) - Bay's successful buddy cop debut is still fun

Michael Bay gives an interview about the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $

Box office: 69.4 mil. $

= Big flop

[13 Hours premiered January 12 (the AT&T Stadium, Texas) and runs 144 minutes. Mark Wahlberg was the initial choice for the lead, but he declined due to prior engagements. Filming took place in and around April 2015 in Malta and Morocco. The events portrayed in the film are contested but also remain politically highly controversial. The film opened #4, behind fellow new release Ride Along 2 and holdover hits The Revenant and Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, to a 16.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 52.8 mil. $ (76.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Taiwan with 1.3 mil. $ (9 %) and South Korea with 1 mil. $ (1.4 %). The film did especially poor abroad and is Bay's lowest-grossing film to date. In the US, Paramount targeted the release at conservatives, inviting Republican politicians to screenings, and the Texas premiere raised funds for the Shadow Warriors Project, which helps private security personnel among others. Libya's foreign minister and information and culture minister have attacked the film, - but note that Libya is recognized as a failed state. 13 Hours is rotten at 51 % with a 5.5 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of 13 Hours?

Unbroken (2014) - Despite good elements, Jolie's Grand WWII Biopic is mostly distant and weak

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Jack O'Connell (Starred Up (2013)) as Louis Zamperini on a poster for Angelina Jolie's Unbroken

Olympic champion runner Louis Zamperini gets shot down as a US Air Force pilot during World War II, and after a long time on a raft in the Pacific Ocean gets interned in a Japanese POW camp, where he and other prisoners endure great sufferings.

Unbroken begins with some incredible aerial warfare scenes. Another thing about it that deserves praise is popular Japanese rock star Miyavi's (Oresama (2004, video)) impressive performance as Mutsuhiro 'The Bird' Watanabe. Zamperini and many others are unfortunately portrayed by distractingly handsome actors, and the film's polished look also doesn't help get us involved in a character and a story that feels distant, - and which has a smack of better, preceding films.
Unbroken is written by Richard LaGravanese (Beautiful Creatures (2013)), William Nicholson (Gladiator (2000)) and Ethan and Joel Coen (Burn After Reading (2008), both), based on Laura Hillenbrand's (Seabisquit: An American Legend (2001)) biography Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010), and directed by Angelina Jolie (In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)) as her second fiction feature. The film becomes boring, and Jolie's own relation to this almost exclusively male-filled story seems thin; we don't feel the creator behind the work. There is also something clichéd about the grand treatment Zamperini gets here. The development in his life, which is related in the end, is moving, - but it can't save a fundamentally weak film.

Related posts:

Angelina Jolie: 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]
The Changeling (2008) or, The Christine Collins Story (actress)

 

Watch an official trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 65 mil. $

Box office: 163.4 mil. $

=  Minor hit

[Unbroken premiered November 17 (Sydney) and runs 137 minutes. Universal purchased the book rights in 2011, while having owned the movie rights to Zamperini's story from the late 1950s. Jolie was reportedly paid 1 mil. $ to direct the film. Filming took place in New South Wales and Queensland, Australia from October 2013 - February 2014. The film opened #3, behind The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies and Into the Woods, to a 30.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for a total of 3 weeks and grossed an impressive 115.6 mil. $ (70.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 5.4 mil. $ (3.3 %) and France with 4.9 mil. $ (3 %). A Japanese change.org petition for a ban on the film in Japan by Japanese nationalists was successful in disrupting the Japanese release of the film to a much smaller scale. A Dutch-Indonesian group started another petition in response, voicing their support for the film and its portrayal of the harsh prisoner abuse and torture committed by the Japanese during WWII. The film got nominated for 3 Oscars: Best Cinematography (Roger Deakins), lost to Emmanuel Lubezki for Birdman, Best Sound Mixing, lost to Whiplash, and Best Sound Editing, lost to American Sniper. It was also chosen as one of AFI's Top 10 movies of the year. Unbroken is rotten at 52 % with a 6 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Unbroken?

Silicon Valley - season 2 (2015) - Critically deflated second run for beloved sitcom

♥♥

 

+ Worst Poster of the Year

 

Symptomatically for the second season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley, its poster is much less poignant and funny than the preceding one

 

The second season of creators John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky (Blades of Glory (2007, both)) and Mike Judge's (Extract (2009)) Silicon Valley still focuses on the trials of San Francisco tech startup company Pied Piper upon winning an important industry prize at the conclusion of the first season.

The following episode run-through will contain SPOILERS:

1. Pied Piper's financier and CEO of Raviga Peter Gabriel dies a sudden death.

2. Things are going bad for Pied Piper, with their huge competitor Hooli suing them for copyright violation and their investor Raviga jumping ship. With none of the previously interested investors interested any longer, and facing a legal battle that could cost millions, Pied Piper's founder Richard (Thomas Middleditch (The Final Girls (2015))) decides to meet with Hooli CEO Gavin Belson (Matt Ross (The Aviator (2004))), who is interested in buying up Pied Piper.

3. Richard is about to accept the buy-up, when he is stopped by wealthy douche Russ (Chris Diamantopoulos (Empire State (2013))), who has another plan: To give Pied Piper a 5 mil. $ loan in exchange for a seat in its board. Richard agrees, and Belson finds his weapon against Richard; his past best friend and Pied Piper associate, 'Big Head' (Josh Brener (The Belko Experiment (2016))).

4. The company hires two additional programmers. One is hired with Ehrlich (T. J. Miller (Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014))), Pied Piper's loud-mouthed board member and 'incubator' (owner of the house they operate from) objecting, and that ends up disrupting it.

5. Richard suffers from severe night sweats, which he fears will develop into bedwetting, as moving the company has to be postponed, because Pied Piper needs its own servers, which fit into the garage. Jared (Zach Woods (The Good Wife (2013-16))), the peculiar company assistant, has his own strange sleep pattern; the guys' invalid neighbor becomes another problem for them; and at Hooli, Belson once again promotes unsuspecting 'Baghead'.

6. Hooli's attempt at live-streaming a wrestling match crashes, which inspires Pied Piper to try something similar, and succeed! But the energy drink Homicide turns out not to be the ideal partner for the venture. Another company called End Game turns out also (as Hooli) to have stolen Pied Piper's technology.

7. Our friends pursue End Game, who for the moment turn out to be more commercially minded than Pied Piper. Pied Piper's tough programmer Gilfoyle (Martin Starr (Freaks and Geeks (1999-00))) locates a way forward: A porn client. Meanwhile the less aggressive programmer Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani (Goosebumps (2015))) still can't get a girl interested in him.

8. Richard is caught in a paranoid funk because of a vengeful bastard by the name of Seth, but it turns out to be irksome investor Russ who gets a piece of truth from him and as a result may leave Pied Piper. The company mistakenly deletes 9,000 hours of porn from their first client. - Ouch!

9. The copyrights trial becomes an arbitration trial instead, and Pied Piper hires a really funny, disbarred non-lawyer lawyer (Matt McCoy (The Newcomers (2000))), but the case boils down to whether or not Richard is willing to lie about having initially used a Hooli computer for his work on Pied Piper, - which he refuses to do.

10. While a falling accident and Manny Pacquiao suddenly make Pied Piper's 'condor-cam' spike in popularity, Richard wins the arbitration trial due to rotten contracts at Hooli, where Belson is targeted for firing, and 'Big Head' for another advancement... But the party for Pied Piper is over before it begins, as Raviga's new CEO, Laurie (Suzanne Cryer (Get the Gringo (2012))) buys Russ out of the company and removes Richard as its director.

The first episode of the second season is astoundingly bad, beginning with a severely unfunny opening at a baseball stadium. The sudden real-life death of Christopher Evan Welch (Our Idiot Brother (2011)), who portrayed Peter Gabriel, who is killed off in the season's beginning, obviously hangs over the production for its entire second run. It begins by being both written, acted and lit without much motivation and presence. The fun only returns slowly to Silicon Valley, especially through the performances of Woods and Nanjiani, but it remains miles from the heights of season 1. Miller, who plays the charismatic Ehrlich as a key part of the entire show's formula, attacks the part with less persuasion and spirit in season two but returns to form towards its end.

Of the new characters, Raviga's CEO is played by Cryer with an autistic routine that becomes old fast. Russ seems to have more potential, but is also an aggravating character. We get more of the show's racially stereotypically drawn, but not completely unfunny, Chinese character Jing-Yang (Jimmy O. Yang (Those Who Can't (2016, TV-series))).

The storylines go in circles in season 2, centering on money and the same few companies, - for some reason not dealing with such obvious elements as romance or actual sex, (the characters talk about it plenty though.) Season 2 of Silicon Valley is more nerdy, very rocky, but still with some fun, although despairingly less fun and poignant than in its towering first season.

 

Best episode:

 

9. Binding Arbitration - written by Dan O'Keefe (On the Lot (2007, TV-series), Altschuler, Krinsky and Judge, directed by Judge

The trial moves to arbitration, and Pied Piper hires an unorthodox lawyer. Miller as Ehrlich is finally seems to be back in top shape.

Related posts:

 

Mike Judge: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
 

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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

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

A still from the terrible baseball-stadium set opening of the second season of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

Richard drinks tequila shots with Russ in season 2 of John Altschuler, Dave Krinsky and Mike Judge's Silicon Valley

Watch a promo for the second season here

Cost: Unknown

Box office: None - TV only

= Unknown

[Silicon Valley - season 2 was first broadcast on HBO from April 12 to June 14 and spans 10 28-30 minute episodes, totaling approximately 290 minutes. It was shot in Los Angeles and Palo Alto, California. The viewer ratings were up slightly from the first season: from 1.72 mil. to 1.8 mil. on average. The season was nominated for a Golden Globe and 6 Emmys, winning two. - Ironically, the show grew in audience and recognition for its much inferior second season. Silicon Valley - season 2 is fresh at 100 % with an 8.3 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Silicon Valley - season 2?

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

♥♥♥♥♥♥

 

+ 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 V] 

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.]

What do you think of Silicon Valley - season 1?