I got on the Silicon Valley band wagon a little late in the game. Four episodes had already aired when I decided to see what all the tweets were about. By the end of the first episode, I was immediately hooked. It’s a breath of fresh air to formulaic network comedy. And thanks to HBO GO, I watched this show from a different perspective…..
Silicon Valley was created by Mike Judge, who astutely mocked the mid-level business world in Office Space. Now, he uses those same skills and turns the spotlight on the tech world. The show satirizes Silicon Valley, a world where competition runs high as code geeks try to create the next big app/website that will make them instant millionaires. The show follows Richard Hendriks (Thomas Middleditch), a socially awkward programmer, who is trying to get his website, Pied Piper, up and running. Originally, the website was created to compare music, using a compression algorithm (created by Richard), in order to detect copyright infringement. However, this algorithm is so genius that it has the potential to impact multiple industries (ergo, make a lot of money). That’s about as much as I can explain without sounding completely technologically inept. However, that’s the great thing about the show you don’t know to be tech savvy to understand it. You just need to know that this algorithm is a serious game changer that has Palo Alto abuzz. This adds intrigue to the plot as a huge tech company (Hooli) tries to release a similar algorithm before Pied Piper launches. Richard’s start-up consists of his friends Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), and Jared (Zach Woods), who each have completely different and hilariously quirky personalities. They all live in Erlich Bachman’s (T. J. Miller) house or as he calls it, “the incubator.” In return for letting them live there, he gets 10% of the company. Erlich is the big personality of the show because he sees himself as the Jobs of the team – a visionary who imparts his “philosophies” at every opportunity. Overall, Mike Judge created appealing and comical characters that we root for as they try to make it in the ridiculous, awkward, and sometimes excessive Silicon Valley.
With only four episodes to watch, I was able to knock this out pretty quickly. When I got to the third episode, I realized that the story went back in time. Characters were in slightly different roles. In a sense, we finally see where these characters came from and how they fit into Pied Piper. As I was watching it, I thought this is a pretty genius way to the tell the story. Yes, there are a lot of TV shows that use flashbacks but usually it’s after a show has been on for a few years; and, typically, the flashback goes back years. This was the third episode and it only went back a week, maybe two. I was so impressed by Mike Jude’s non-linear storytelling. I thought he was a genius for just being different and I was completely blown away. I even emailed friends touting the praises of this awesome show. And then, I turned on the fourth episode, the last one to watch in order to catch up to real-time.
This time, I noticed the show went back even further in time (still just a few weeks). However, now more people are in different roles and characters were a bit awkward compare to previous episodes. For a second, I was confused. Then I realized Mike Judge is not as much of a genius storyteller (although he is terrific) but I am much more of a moron. I had watched the show backwards. The first episode I watched was actually the fourth episode and, now, I was watching the pilot.
Now, there is a completely valid explanation for my idiocy. You see I am seasoned Netflix binge watcher. On Apple TV, Netflix post their shows with the first episode listed at the top and then you work your way down the list. HBO GO does the same for their older shows. Here’s the catch, for its current shows, HBO GO does the opposite and post the most recent show at the top of the list. I don’t know why HBO does this. Do they think that the few extra buttons to press to go down the list will impede us from watching new episodes? But, what do I know. I just watched a show backwards and it took four episodes to realize it. To add insult to injury, that same week, I caught up on all the new Veep episodes and, it turns out, I watched that backwards as well.
After re-watching the forth Silicon Valley episode I can see why I was fooled. The opening scene is Richard in his lawyer’s office and it completely sets up the show. For a series that has a continuous plot, that’s pretty damn impressive to pick up on everything four episodes in. Regardless if you watch this backwards or forwards, the show is fantastic and you won’t be disappointed. The writing is witty and the scenarios these guys get into each week are hysterical. Trust me on this one…it’s a must see. You will be laughing at every line.
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Categories: TV
Tags: HBO GO, Silicon Valley
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