Mike Judge's "Silicon Valley" (HBO Show)

I blame the breathless profile pieces

Spaces versus tabs debate over?
http://gizmodo.com/the-nerdiest-debate-ever-may-finally-have-a-winner-1796144565

peace mh i agree on that

ahah. I have to say I had no idea what that joke was about since I don't think I have EVER used tab (obviously I'm not a programmer).

Finale's handling of TJ Miller's departure was A+ no fucks given

That was the finale? Huh. Anyway, when it was first reported I could have sworn he said he was shocked when he saw the script, because yeah, that was a "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" sendoff. But then he walked it back and said he wanted it that way, he wanted his sendoff to have finality. Which of course it doesn't, not least because it reunited him with Gavin. I thought they were going to crash his plane or something.

That wasn't the finale

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrgmxKpQeq0

looks like i'm a fuck up 4 life

hum. that ep was... weird.
It has some of the nice aspects of the show (all of them - minus Erlich of course - working together to do something dodgy for the company) but again it ended up being not really funny and even depressing (Richard doing something annoyingly stupid, Jared's breakdown...).
and re: Erlich's departure, it was also sad and not really good (tibet ? with gavin ? really ?) and forced (the old "JIAN YANG!!" scream at the airport).
actually, is it just me or is the show getting darker ?

Erlich's going to get pushed off a mountain or something

It also brought up not one but two ex-girlfriends treated like shit for no good reason, really.

You mean the part where Richard couldn't hold a simple conversation and then completely shit himself over the fact she didn't mind seeing him and nearly fucked over his own schemes in some stupid spiteful action?

That, and also Dinesh using his ex (who he ratted out to the feds just to get out of a committed relationship) to get hacking info, and then immediately threatening to get her sent to federal prison for an easy laugh.

There's the lingering dread of when the ball is going to drop on that one. Dinesh's cowardly ways will find some sort of punishment.

oh yeah definitely, Dinesh will be so fucked for this !
Richard was such a dick in this ep.

feel like there will be more useless doctor visits in his future, he just spews inappropriate weird shit all the time now, way beyond social awkwardness

the preview for the next episode definitely had another instance of that

the more psycho of the lot might not be Jared after all !

Jared has some PTSD and weird glitches but only a few of them reach outside the bounds of normality

either that or my acquaintances are all a lot more damaged than the average

eheh. Jared seems so damaged you feel he could go INSANE if something/someone tipped him over !

what, like completely losing track of objective reality? or doing so and becoming violent and incoherent?

because I'd argue almost everyone in the show lives outside of reality already, they're just not actively hurting people

There was a running gag just a few eps ago about Jared sincerely offering to kill someone, wasn't there?

well they have been hinting at possible violent actions from Jared already !
and yeah, none of them live in anything close to reality (except Monica, I guess)

well, if you kill someone successfully, you're not hurting them. they won't be hurting

*stoic Jared face*

the joke about Jared's uncle pretend game was so vague... and creepy !
there's some kind of darker and almost nihilistic vibe in the evolution of the show.
It's almost surprising that only Erlich will be "destroyed" by the end of this season.

the old "JIAN YANG!!" scream at the airport

"LLOYD!"

I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed at the laziness of "I have uncle in Bejing. He is very corrupt" or be be skeptical because it sounded as real as someone claiming they have a girlfriend in Canada or an uncle that works at Nintendo

this show is too predictable. Richard is super obsessive about his work until the script demands he do something stupid and then he turns into a huge idiot. really felt like they just kicked TJ out gave him the bum rush.

there's some kind of darker and almost nihilistic vibe in the evolution of the show.

please point out where this is happening. this show has zero evolution. it is stagnating.

sometimes what feels like a spinning wheel is another turn of the spiral.

this episode was much better than the previous one

it was good

The Jack Barker two-triangle square stage was great.

so now the company that hired them to store their data, that data was pushed to all these random phones, except at the end those phones are exploding, but that is... okay? how did this not instantly defeat their plot, did the phones also upload that data to Apple cloud or something?

the phones exploding was due to keenan feldspar's bad tech and not them?

Either Richard or Jared says "...was that us?" while the phones are exploding.

sometimes what feels like a spinning wheel is another turn of the spiral.

― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, June 20, 2017

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/OS_X_10.11_Beta_Beach_Ball.jpg

I think their app is causing the phones to be overtasked, but the VR running at the same time was definitely the tipping point for initially setting that off

also, Barker as Ballmer bouncing around the stage, called it

the app is useless on a burned out phone and anyone whose phone didn't blow up will delete that app as soon as they can like they said. the exploding phones was a bit of a shark jump. it is hard to take these characters seriously, like they would still be working for this guy.

oh yeah totally Ballmer

https://media3.giphy.com/media/k0MotNKu7p0By/giphy.gif

I love how Barker admitted the VR was shit and they had to hack it to make it work. All for the PR, baby

Thought this ep was funny and better than the last few

but that is... okay? how did this not instantly defeat their plot,

it is not okay and it did defeat their plot

this was the worst episode of the season and possibly the entire series, it makes absolutely NO sense and moves the plot forward in a way that is so batshit and in contradiction w/ how any of these ppl wd ever actually behave, like why bother with any of this? what's the point if they're going to make episodes like this?

I differ greatly and it was ok

but it's like... this plan is so half-baked, so risky, so convenient, so illegal, and of course it just goes off without a technical hitch, until they get caught and then magically freed, also ALL of them agreed that this would be an ok and good plan? with next to no time?

there's some kind of darker and almost nihilistic vibe in the evolution of the show.

please point out where this is happening. this show has zero evolution. it is stagnating.

I may not have expressed myself well. I totally agree that the show is stagnating. actually I think it's regressing !
but within that stagnation/regression, it feels like they don't know what else to do but destroy everything that made the show good in the first place.
like rats in a box !
(I'm not sure I'm any clearer...)

I'm having fun with the show still regardless of whether or not I'm laughing for the entirety of every episode. You people are bummers.

I don't think Mike Judge is capable of directing good live action (meaning they are always stiff and affectless in a way his cartoons weirdly are not), so it's puzzling to see people register some kind of decline when it was never compelling as a show. Individual bits seem as strong as ever. Surprised no one repped for middleditch's simultaneous "I'm not angry I'm really happy but I have to make this look like I'm angry" marty feldman impression recently.