Silicon Valley on HBO

[nelsonmuntz]

This show is very promising, but I can also see some major challenges. I have spent a big chunk of my career around the startup/small company tech industry, and this show is very funny if you know the inside jokes. The argument over who gets more of the company, which starts with relative value of the two key guys' contributions, but boils down to each just wants to have more than the other guy, was very funny and is so true.

The major challenge for this show is that a lot of people are not going to get the "inside baseball" of the startup tech industry. There are idiots like Erlich that lurk around so many of these tech companies, and I have run into dozens of them over the years and think that the portrayal is spot on. I am just not sure if everyone else will get the joke. The next episode is about the fact that a sprinkler company is using the same name. That stuff happens all the time in real life, which is why so many of these tech companies have nonsense names.

Early reviews are very good, so I hope that HBO will stick with it even if it takes a little time to get an audience.

 

[Cheddie]

this show is very funny if you know the inside jokes.

Lots of the stuff really is insider. In the premier episode, one character was wearing five toe shoes, and he was patterned after Sergey Brin, who reportedly wears them everywhere.

 

[StevieDude]

As someone who's not an insider at all I've enjoyed both episodes so far. It's too bad the guy who plays Peter Gregory died in December.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The last two episodes have been awesome. The writers have nailed the real Silicon Valley.

 

[partial]

I haven't followed the series(other than bits and pieces after game of thrones ) watched the full episode tonight it was pretty entertaining and the last scene was really funny.

 

[Fishy]

The show is funny - I didn't like it after the first episode, but I'm sold.

HBO is just an 800-lb gorilla on Sunday nights.

 

[Deepster]

Agreed. Erlich is fast becoming a favorite.
The HBO, Showtime, AMC made shows have eliminated "the big 4" networks for me completely. I can't tell you the last time I watched a primetime network show on NBC or CBS.

 

[StevieDude]

Last week was Christopher Evan Welch last episode.

 

[OkaForPrez]

I don't get half the references and still find it hilarious. Just tech nerdy enough to love it.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Agreed. Erlich is fast becoming a favorite.
The HBO, Showtime, AMC made shows have eliminated "the big 4" networks for me completely. I can't tell you the last time I watched a primetime network show on NBC or CBS.

There are a lot of real people like Erlich out there, which makes it even funnier. There is this whole cottage industry on both coasts of guys that know just enough about tech and have just enough names in their rolodex to be these kind of advisors/consultants/expert directors/leeches for tech companies. These guys have generally had a few modest successes so they are well off, but not rich, and they bounce around these tech companies trying to get to them before the VC's find them. Sean Parker in "The Social Network" was basically an Erlich. I have met dozens of these guys, and the portrayal of Erlich in the show is a brilliant satire on that whole cottage industry.

The only criticism I have is that Amanda Crew is way too hot to be credible. They could have found a more nerdy striver to play the role of Gallagher's assistant. They needed someone more like a Jane Levy or an older version of Ariel Winter. I get that neither would leave hit shows, but they needed someone like that rather than a 5'10 model.

Very sad about Christopher Evan Welch, especially since it happened when he finally had a breakout role. A role like this can set a character actor like Welch up for the next 10 years with steady work. Zach Woods leveraged Gabe from the Office into lifetime employment playing the same character for the rest of his career.

 

[StevieDude]

It shouldn't have made laugh but Erlich beating up the kid had me rolling. Didn't like the car going in the container.

 

[FluxTZ]

It shouldn't have made laugh but Erlich beating up the kid had me rolling. Didn't like the car going in the container.

I thought Jared being shipped off the to the island in a driverless car was hilarious and so quintessential "Silicon Valley." Erlich's bitch slap was also fantastic.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

For a show that is clearly incredibly well researched and takes great pains to be accurate, the Jared car thing was a little too absurdist. This is not the Simpsons.

Otherwise, another great episode. The Gilfoyle girlfriend thread was hilarious. I have seen situations like the one where the kid was brought in, although not with a kid necessarily. A company has a tough technology nut they need to crack, so they bring in a high profile hired gun that turns out to be completely incompetent.

The Erlich scene is so funny in part because that is the only reason these kind of companies keep a guy like Erlich around. In a organization of complete dorks, you need one Type A at times just to get things done, no matter how big an idiot that Type A is.

 

[FluxTZ]

Having recently had a roommate here in LA who has become an entrepreneur in the tech/startup world, they really do a great job at capturing their world/environment. Even if they stretch it a bit.

With Jared's scene, it was more a "I could totally see something like this happen up there," although not to as extreme an extent they went with it.

 

[OkaForPrez]

The tip to tip scene this past week was probably the hardest I've ever laughed at at TV show.

 

[Fishy]

For a show that is clearly incredibly well researched and takes great pains to be accurate, the Jared car thing was a little too absurdist. This is not the Simpsons.

They take very few pains to be accurate.

It's a comedy and the tech aspect of it is just a mcguffin of sorts.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

They take very few pains to be accurate.

It's a comedy and the tech aspect of it is just a mcguffin of sorts.

They take a lot of pains to be reasonably accurate. This show is basically an Entourage of the tech world.

The last episode had great moments, but I would only give it a 7 overall. Still, very solid first season. Much better than some of the mediocrity that HBO has done recently such as Getting On and Doll and Em. Getting On isn't terrible, but it is just trying too hard. Doll and Em is purely a vanity project. The Comeback is having another season after a 9 year hiatus (that has to be a record for a comedy). It also was actually OK, but Lisa Kudrow's character was so nails-on-chalkboard unlikable that I completely understood when it wasn't renewed.

 

[phillionaire]

mean jerk time was probably the best joke i've ever heard

 

[August_West]

mean jerk time was probably the best joke i've ever heard

Love when Erlich asked the girl " how long will it take you to jerk off 800 guys? because I know."

Saw a tweet where all the math on the white board was "real".

Funny &hit

 

[phillionaire]

Love when Erlich asked the girl " how long will it take you to jerk off 800 guys? because I know."

Saw a tweet where all the math on the white board was "real".

Funny &hit

yeah they got some mathematician or something to come up with the weissman score thing

 

[Tommyboy]

The tip to tip scene this past week was probably the hardest I've ever laughed at at TV show.

I could not stop laughing for that entire scene. When they started talking about hot swapping the d*cks I nearly fell on the floor.

 

[Tommyboy]

Teaser for the upcoming season. OUTSTANDING.

 

[FluxTZ]

Teaser for the upcoming season. OUTSTANDING.

"And what kind of a MONSTER puts artisanal butter in the freezer?! animals." So good!!!!

 

[FluxTZ]

Words cannot express how excited I am for this to return on Sunday.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

The VC meeting scenes were so brilliant I expect that montage to be showing up at VC conferences soon. Erlich is one of my favorite characters on TV.

It is tough to run a memorial through a comedy. The show was in a tough spot with a key actor dying, but I think they dragged it out a little.