Silicon Valley (HBO comedy)

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by toptentwist, Jun 2, 2014.

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  1. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    The show has an uncanny ability to demonstrate the absurdity of the venture community in SV. It would be funnier if it wasn't so realistic! And I say that as a founder and patented inventor trying to get a startup off the ground for the past few years. There were so many absurd moments, conversations, disasters and triumphs. I need to get caught up with season 3.
     
  2. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    Cool - if it gets going, hire me and I will be hilariously useless, in keeping with the theme of the show.
     
  3. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    A little disappointed with the episode and I'll preface that by saying this show is one of my favorite sitcoms of all-time. The show seems a bit in a rut at this point. The dynamics between the individuals rarely change and they way the show is shot is starting to bug me. Still, I'll stay with it and hope the new plot angle helps create some needed shake up with the show.

    PS Who hates Erlich? Seriously? He's easily the funniest character on the entire show. TJ Miller is a hoot.
     
  4. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    It's all setting up to change. Richard starting his own company? Dinesh in a position of power?
     
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  5. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Sure thing. I've already made that mistake a number of times. My first optical engineer who I brought on because of his track record of building prototypes told me, "I don't want to build a prototype" in a menacing Russian accent. At my first attempt to get funding at a pitch event where I was discussing a future eyewear device, the main angel investor clearly had some kind of strabismus and appeared cross-eyed. It was like trying to sell a great pair of speakers to someone who didn't listen to music. When I finally was making good progress, my Android developer fried his hard drive without having backed it up, losing weeks of progress. He blamed it on our only client's device, which created a rift between them. I had a French project manager who (in keeping with French stereotypes) was horribly insulting to my British-educated North African computer vision PhD, and later tried to strong-arm me into giving him shares after his main accomplishment was breaking up my team.

    I could go on, but it's a horrible comedy of errors for any startup. You just can't make this stuff up. Even Magic Leap, which is one of the most "successful" startups with a multibillion dollar valuation before even developing a product, has had major defections and lawsuits.

    I don't know if Silicon Valley works better as a comedy or a tragedy.
     
  6. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    I'd imagine anyone actually working in Silicon Valley views this show in the same way that rock stars view This Is Spinal Tap - something that hits too painfully close to home to be laughed at.

    "That movie's not funny." - Tom Petty
     
  7. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    Exactly. I wonder if The Pink Panther is funny to French detectives.
     
  8. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    I completely forgot Season 4 was starting this week! Will have to catch the first episode ASAP.
     
  9. Complier

    Complier Senior Member

    Location:
    Harrisburg, PA
    God bless Mike Judge (use Hank Hill voice)
     
  10. forthlin

    forthlin Member Chris & Vickie Cyber Support Team

    Me too, just didn't seem very funny to me. I agree that the show is a modern-day classic.
     
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  11. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    The show may be funnier if you have some inside knowledge of the tech/IT/startup culture. I'm sure there are many bits of satire and humor that may not land unless you have that appreciation. That's what makes the show great, it's ability to ridicule with surgical precision all aspects of that culture.
     
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  12. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Yeah, I've worked with every archetype on the show. And the embellishments like the joke SWOT analysis (for the stunt guy Blaine they were considering killing) or the argument about tabs vs. spaces are often home runs.
     
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  13. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Just to clarify - they were considering letting Blaine being killed by his own stupidity, ego and obnoxiousness. All they had to do was do nothing and let gravity and Darwin deal with Blaine.
     
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  14. GregM

    GregM The expanding man

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    I somewhat disagree and think the humor is accessible to everyone. It lies in the dorky acronyms, bizarre personalities, overpromising, and general culture of chaos and strong egos. Probably, the less you actually know about tech product development and the venture community, the better (in general and for being able to laugh at the show). The community is just plain nutty, insular and far afield of life outside SV.
     
  15. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I think this is where the greatness of the show lies. I, who grew up in the Valley and know a lot of folks in that world (but no one with any money, before anyone asks), die laughing, and my wife, who is as non-technical as they come, laughs every bit as much. Compare to something like the Big Bang Theory, which I loathe but is supposed to be my favorite show according to everyone who doesn't know me.
     
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  16. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Seconded on everything you said! I'm a huge geek and can't abide TBBT, which like the dreadful "Napoleon Dynamite" is the cool kids idea of geeks.
     
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  17. jimbutsu

    jimbutsu WATCH YÖUR STEPPE

    I actually like Napoleon Dynamite now, after a couple viewings - I didn't think anything of it the first time I saw it and then it weirdly grew on me. I never saw the characters in that as "geeks" in the sense of SV or TBBT, but more as the misfits we all knew (or were).
     
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  18. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Sorry, but I cannot agree with the bolded part. Yes, the humor can be accessible to non-geeks and insiders, but I would say that that part is just the tip of a much bigger iceberg.

    It's great that it can work on multiple levels, but how many 'outsiders' would find the episode about coding style wars - spaces vs tabs - to be as absolutely hilarious as I did (I've lived it). The same goes for the desire to do complete software rewrites from scratch, rather than adapting existing code. There are many, many such below the radar sources of humor that also extend to venture capitalism, startups and incubators, stock option schenanigans, etc, etc.
     
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  19. mikeyt

    mikeyt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Best plotted show on television. Most would've taken an entire season for the implosion of Piper Chat or the meeting between Richard and Gavin, but we're only three episodes in. Really great to circle things back around to Gavin and Hooli and even up the stakes, while all the side stories are not only contributing to the central story but providing gold of their own. This season is gonna be amazing.
     
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  20. Veltri

    Veltri ♪♫♫♪♪♫♫♪

    Location:
    Canada
    That was one of the best episodes. So many great moments.

    This show works best when they straddle the line and just go slightly beyond PG subject matter.

    Not hot dog!
     
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  21. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Agreed. The CEO/investor merry-go-round, failing up, etc, all aspects of the SV tech industry, played out so well.

    This was actually brilliant - the real meat of the episode (ahem!). Something starting off as banal as a recipe list app, morphing through several hilarious stages into something with real potential. Love this show!
     
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  22. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Wow, that totally sums it up!

    The "geeks" in Silicon Valley are written by people who actually know geeks.

    The "geeks" in Big Bang Theory are written by people who've 'heard about' geeks. The geeks in Big Bang Theory are about as close to real as the '70s Show was to actual '70s culture.
     
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  23. Chris DeVoe

    Chris DeVoe RIP Vickie Mapes Williams (aka Equipoise)

    Exactly! The people on that show remind me of people I've met in a lifetime in the computer business. The Big Bang Theory, on the other hand - well, let me present it in the form of a pair of SAT analogies:

    Silicon Valley is to Real life computer geeks
    The Big Bang Theory:The Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland
     
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  24. listner_matt

    listner_matt Still thinks music is an inexhaustible resource

    Location:
    Brooklyn, NY, USA
    Including the return of the 'spaces vs. tabs' battle.

    Loved the line from Richard regarding the hiring of Bret Saxby as engineer: "I won't hire that guy. He uses spaces, not tabs."

    Funny cause it's true.....
     
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  25. Squealy

    Squealy Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    Vancouver
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