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

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.

The "decline" is that this go-nowhere stagnation is a lot more tiresome after 4 seasons than it is after just 1 or 2

the novelty of this show's newness and uniqueness has completely worn off and now what are we left with?

a comedy show that is funny

this show is fine, I do not give a fuck about realism, continuity or longer story-arc developments

I'm inclined to agree. this show isn't Louie or Master of None where the aims aren't overwhelmingly comedic (and ymmv about how successful those shows are). Almost everything here is geared towards making you laugh, maybe not quite as much as something like Kimmy Schmdit, but still, the laffs are really the only metric I judge this show by, and on that scale it's still pretty damn good.

OTM

i gotta admit i laughed more at halt and catch fire.

it's because comedy is generally bad

I mean tbh the fact that it's wickedly funny is the reason I've largely forgiven the narrative stagnation and have continued/will continue to watch it. I'm just disappointed it's not as good as it could be.

do you guys find writing poopface on a screensaver funny enough to stretch into a 5 minute joke? also Yang being abusive towards TJ yet again. funny maybe the first time.

imo even the jokes suck.

I will never tire of Jian Yang shitting on Erlich

I hope he opens his luggage and it literally has shit in it

you know i was kind of souring on the show for a minute but Adam Bruneau's posts itt make me like it more

OTM

Meh finale, but enjoyed it.

Longer T.J. Miller interview:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tj-miller-says-leaving-silicon-valley-was-like-a-breakup-1016573

Meh finale, but enjoyed it.

Longer T.J. Miller interview:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tj-miller-says-leaving-silicon-valley-was-like-a-breakup-1016573

well, that's over

I saw Bighead (well, the actor who plays him) in the next row over at the Seu Jorge concert at the Hollywood Bowl tonight.

my username is password, and the password is password

I don't give a shit about the technical implausibility because the hilarity of being saved by smart fridges is good

oof this was so bad. RIP this show.

Richard is in a race to the bottom, i get that. i still think it undermines the credibility of the other characters, who will work for someone who berates them to their faces and does not respect their input, yet pretend to be in control of their destiny w some choice "Satanic" phrases here and there. Jared quitting was a peak into an interesting plot development that of course got reset to status quo within 5 minutes because none of these characters stand for anything.

the smart fridges thing was funny. classic Mike Judge devo humor. password is password. great stuff. i hope they really lean on Big Head he is the only redeeming thing about this show (well Gavin is interesting in a McAfee kind of way.

i still ride for jared but that's in part because he reminds me of my therapist

which is probably weird

I could see that and I would love to have Jared as my therapist. He's pretty much an ad hoc therapist for half of the episodes, anyway.

I recently watched Riverdale and was cracking up because their Kevin character reminded me of a gay high school version of Jared for some reason.

Jack Barker thinking he's going to try his magic of managerial excellent horseshit on an already overworked factory floor came to the necessary conclusion, imo

the very brief catharsis of asshole Richard getting pummeled was some prime physical comedy, but wasn't enough

binged the whole show over the weekend, it wasn't very good.

gotta say, the chinese was handled better this episode than the other ep