Posts for 2019

Silicon Valley continues as the Pied Piper Team get up to even more hijinks. As I'm writing this, Season Five has gone by. This review is just for Season Three, but I'll get there, I promise.

Warning - Strong language and extreme animal nudity!

And I'm not even kidding about the last part! Halfway through the series, you're going to be treated to the sight of two horses having some sexy time. No pictures. Why deprive you of the pleasure of seeing it firsthand, eh?

The Premise

Richard Hendricks has been fired as CEO, and the first half of the season revolves around him trying to get his spot back while chafing under the leadership of the newly installed CEO, Jack Barker. In the second half, he goes head-to-head with Gavin Belson, CEO of Hooli, and the latter actually ends up saving him in very indirect, roundabout ways. All in all, a comedy of errors!

The Characters

Thomas Middleditch as the still very adorkable and awkward Richard Hendricks. We see Richard at his most frustrated, and it's hard not to feel for the guy. All he wants to do is make a product, and be in charge of his own company. Unfortunately, this is Silicon Valley and there's a price for all this. As the series goes on, we see the start of Richard's change from nice guy to dick. He never quite makes the full transition, not least because deep down he's just a geek who wants to be left alone to code. And at the end, it's his almost pathological honesty that gets him in trouble just like in the previous Season.

TJ Miller as Erlich Bachmann. Erlich is quintessential TJ Miller - loud, brash, obnoxious... and utterly convinced of his own awesomeness. Yet beneath that abrasive facade is a guy who's capable of caring. And Miller plays this astonishingly well, giving layers to Erlich I never thought possible.

Later on in the series, Erlich has a moment of character growth where he sacrifices himself to save Pied Piper from a crisis. And while it's not all funny, it is genuinely touching to see him and Richard look out for each other. In the finale, there's even a classic Bachman segment where he explains, using masturbation euphemisms, the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) phenomenon that he uses to improve public perception of Pied Piper.

Zach Woods as Jared Dunn. Supportive, motherly, hopelessly optimistic. This season it's revealed that he's actually quite a ladies' man, and so modest about it too! He's such a big fan of Richard Hendricks that it's almost cringe-worthy to watch... almost. This is a dude whose loyalty would take nothing short of an apocalyptic change to waver. And there's something really earnest and sweet about that.

Kumail Nanjiani is the awkward Dinesh Chugtai. This season, we mostly see him as a bumbling and socially inept jerk who masks his insecurities by constantly claiming credit and engaging in selfish behavior. However, Kumail teams up with Martin Starr exceptionally well to form an antangonistic yet effective partnership.

Martin Starr as Bertram Gilfoyle. His racial slurs towards Dinesh are hilarious. While Gilfoyle does not evolve much as a character this season, he's at least consistent. The snarky one-liners and cynical expositions on life are superbly delivered by Starr.

Stephen Tobolowsky as "Action" Jack Barker. A shrewd tech business guy who keeps harping on the Conjoined Triangles of Success. He can be ruthless one minute and collaborative the other. Tobolowsky nailed this character with his performance. I found myself wanting more Action Jack.

Josh Brener is Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti. Nice guy, if really clueless. Seriously, if he wasn't portrayed as such a genuinely harmless dude, I'd really hate his guts because he seems to succeed even when he fails while making the most harebrained decisions ever.

Amanda Crew as Monica Hall. Frantic, serious and really fun to watch. Especially whenever she does that eye-roll thing in response to Erlich. One of her standouts is the quote below.


Matt Ross as Gavin Belson, the scheming, ruthless CEO of Hooli. Small-minded, egomaniacal and petty, but his confident facade covers deep insecurities and a need for constant validation. Ross portrays this complex character brilliantly, and with great comedic timing. It's the classic narcissist persona - cruel and vindictive but with a charming and affable exterior.

Suzanne Cryer as Laurie Bream. As with last Season, she comes across as aloof and socially awkward, albeit with a brilliant if somewhat robotic business mind. Could be a force for good or evil, depending on whose side you're on.

Comedian Jimmy O. Yang as Jian Yang. There's an entire hilarious segment where Erlich tries to kick him out but can't. A reliable source of comedy.

Ben Feldman as Ron LaFlamme. They gave this guy more screen time this Season, and it more than paid off. Every time he's on screen, he absolutely kills it as the smarmy laid-back lawyer.


Annie Sertich as CJ Cantwell, Code/Rag tech journalist. She did all right, I guess. Came across as really lucky and shrewd, always in the right place and at the right time, scooping up stories she wasn't even intending to cover in the first place!

Chris Williams as Hoover. He turns in a doggedly determined performance as the security guy who wants nothing more than to be useful to Gavin Belson.

Matt McCoy as Pete Monahan, Richard's attorney. Comedy gold. With every appearance, he muses on his past transgressions and gives Richard valuable legal and business advice. All with a dead serious expression. This guy is great!

Bridey Elliott as Winnie. The attractive chick who steals Richard's heart until she starts using spaces instead of tabs. Forgettable.

Ken Lerner as the Bighetti business manager, Arthur Clayman. Gave off a vaguely crooked vibe, but other than that... not really impressed.

Aly Mawji and Brian Tiechnel as the brogrammers at Hooli. This season, they develop a spine and start walking out on Gavin Belson.

Keye Chen as Dang the product designer. Earnest and stoic... a one-note character used more as a prop to bounce jokes off of.

Andy Daly as the doctor who roasts Richard all the time. This season, he seems in an over-the-top jovial mood.

Bernard White is Denpok, Gavin's spiritual advisor. Plays Gavin like a fiddle, preying on his insecurities.

Jill E. Alexander as Patrice. She gets more screen time this Season as the formerly starstruck and faithful employee who stands up for what she believes in, and gets summarily fired by Gavin Belson as a result. It's both tragic and funny at the same time. This decision, of course, comes back to bite Gavin's ass in the end, and ends up saving Pied Piper.

Henry Phillips as John the server guy. Stiff and robotic Mr Ponytail. That's the character and the actor does it so well!

Alice Wetterlund as Carla Walton. It's a pity she only shows up in one scene. The character was sassy and tough, and had a lot of potential.

Chris Diamantopoulos as Russ Hannamen. He only appears in one episode but boy does he make the most of it! His entire dialogue with Richard is exquisitely funny.

Emily Chang as herself. Looking good, but pretty much just a prop.

The Mood

It starts off with Richard being informed that he's just been fired as CEO. The mood is sullen and serious. Angsty, even. Soon, the hi-jinks kick in... and it's back to the wacky world of Silicon Valley we all know and love.

What I liked

Scant minutes into the first episode, Erlich attacks a robotic stag named Bam-bot (yes, you read that right). Has to be seen to be believed. Can this season start off on any higher note?

The "dictionary patch" acronym RIGBY. That's just the highlight, but the entire Dinesh-Gilfoyle conversation about Richard is pure gold.

Erlich comes into the room and starts insulting Jack Barker before Jack totally disarms him by claiming to be a fan of his. But the icing on the cake is when Erlich actually checks a cue card for all the insults he's prepared! For the original (and longer) take, watch this video...




This guy, busy with his mobile phone when Gavin Belson starts saying that one in every five Hooli employees deserves to be fired.


Later, this guy is missing!

The Hooli "brogrammers" accidentally discovering the secrets behind Richard's algorithm when they make hand movements similar to the jerk-off scenario that inspired Richard in the first place.

During the presentation: "But if you can get your data, who else can get it? Spies, thieves, criminals and foreigners." Cut to a still of Dinesh. That made me literally choke from laughter. Fuck!


"At Raviga, we ask the big hairy questions". That said by Laurie Bream over a framed question mark made out of human hair. That was so deliciously wacky I can't even....

The whole gag about Dinesh's gold chain. All the names Gilfoyle calls him just crack me up. Even Jarred gets in on it!

The Pied Piper Team are such passionate engineers that even when they're trying to do the bare minimum on a shitty product, they can't help but make it the best shitty product ever. This time, Gilfoyle of all people starts the ball rolling. Their enthusiasm catches on and even rubs off on Dang the designer!

Gavin Belson hoists himself on his own petard this season, even more than usual. It's like every time he does something petty, like gloat to Richard, or scrub Hooli's search engine of nehative mentions of him, he ends up doing him and Pied Piper a huge favor. It's a recurring theme here, and it rocks!

The Hooli engineers finally having had enough and walking out. One priceless moment is Gavin saying "why?" with an expression of utter bewilderment when one of them expresses disappointment in him.

The segment revolving around Gilfoyle, Dinesh and the ugly jacket is to die for... though seems really pointless, until, spoiler alert, it factors into Erlich's major decision later on.


Silicon Valley finds a clever a natural way to add to the diversity quotient: have an offshore team!

What I didn't

The Skunkworks project was really exciting and all, and they let me down with the big twist at the end. Dammit! It was either totally awesome or totally shitty, and I'm gonna go with the latter because it was such an anticlimax!

"You guys just had to make a great box, did't ya? Couldn't phone it in!" And next moment, the phone rings. OK, that's lame. I expect better from this show.

Richard's inarticulateness during periods of high emotion is lampshaded a couple times, to play into the need for a PR person, which sets up the next plot point involving Cantwell. However, those incidents happen twice in one episode and no mention is made of his blabbering ever again. It's not that I didn't like it, in fact that arc is pretty fucking awesome; I just think it could have been a lot better executed if it had been referenced early on, perhaps even during earlier seasons. After all, this is Season Three.

The whole tabs-vs-spaces issue is a programmer thing, I know... it just feels like needless filler.

Richard humblebragging about how far he went with Winnie is just painful to watch. So is the whole "m'lady" shtick. We get it, Richard doesn't get a whole lot of action. No need to belabor the point, guys.


Jian Yang's method of prank calling is totally inane and inept. I mean, he does it from the next fucking room?!

Conclusion

More of the same. If you liked Seasons One and Two, this one isn't going to disappoint. You'll especially marvel at how these guys always seem to escape calamity through sheer dumb luck. But if you're expecting career growth on the part of the Pied Piper Team... well, not so much. They basically end up near where they started, but on a positive note.

My Rating

8.5 / 10