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Five years after ending King of the Hill and 2 1/2 years after an excellent but short lived Beavis and Butthead reboot, Mike Judge is teaming with frequent co-collaborators John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky to make his first foray into live action television with Silicon Valley. This tech culture sendup stars Thomas Middleditch as Richard, a coder for Google stand-in Hooli, a company in Palo Alto, CA. Richard shares a house with fellow tech nerds Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Big Head (Josh Brener), and landlord Elrich (TJ Miller) and spends his free time working on a phone app called Pied Piper. Richard's app intends to allow songwriters and musicians to check if their songs infringe on copyrights of previously created songs. Though Pied Piper's profitability is dubious, it is discovered that the app contains a revolutionary algorithm that could be used for much more practical (money making) purposes. As a result, Richard finds himself in the middle of a bidding war between his boss, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) and Gavin's former partner, venture capitalist Peter Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch). In the end, Richard has to decide whether he wants to take an easy payday from one of his bidders, or to try for even bigger success on his own. Critical reception for the show has been very positive so far. It is currently sitting as an 86 rating on metacritic. Alan Sepinwall gave the pilot an A- and said that it's the best project Judge has been involved with in "a very long time." The show has drawn positive comparisons to Judge's own cult movie classic Office Space, The Big Bang Theory, and, oddly enough, Entourage. The one thing the show has been taking flack for so far is the major gender imbalance in the cast. Monica (Amanda Crew), Peter's assistant, is the only female in the main cast. Given Judge's sometimes wacky politics, it's hard to say if or how he'll respond to the criticism. HBO apparently likes what it sees out of Silicon Valley and has given it a cushy time slot on Sundays at 10 ET, in between Game of Thrones and Veep. Here's a trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69V__a49xtw
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# ? Apr 6, 2014 21:42 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 13:39 |
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1) kumail nanjiani is the greatest person so I can't wait for this 2) I've read several reviews from female tv critics that state that the lack of women on te show is a commentary on the real-life gender politics of Silicon Valley which is apparently one of the big draws of the show (that it so closely resembles how Silicon Valley actually is that it's barely a satire)
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# ? Apr 6, 2014 22:21 |
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This show will be great because everyone who is in this is great. Zach Woods is glorious.
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# ? Apr 6, 2014 22:23 |
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Wow, this is realistic. Brogrammers, awkward guys, and insane business culture.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:19 |
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Are brogrammers real?
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:23 |
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Haha the audience member of the Ted talk "FACIST!" edit: holy poo poo that 1 seated smart car.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:24 |
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Liked the episode. I loving love Martin Starr so for his sake alone I hope this show sticks around.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:39 |
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Loved it. Every single company has a nonsense buzz-word filled description and they're all saving humanity.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:41 |
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There was what, 2 million inside jokes in this? Feel like I need a guide to the Valley here
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:42 |
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Fantastic premiere, and I hear it only gets better. Wow. That was the work of a very confident filmmaker that had everything he needed.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:44 |
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Fine premiere, will watch.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:44 |
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Fantastic premier. Telling all my brogrammers to watch this.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:51 |
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Real strong pilot, this looks like it could be good. Personally I'd rather they stick with an unbalanced cast over pandering to us by needlessly inserting a bunch of female characters into what's obviously a very male-driven setting.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 03:55 |
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So is Silicon Valley to app developers what LA is to scriptwriters now? I could believe that. I laughed at the scene where the doctor tried to sell his startup idea just before letting him go.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 04:07 |
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Super Aggro Crag posted:Liked the episode. I loving love Martin Starr so for his sake alone I hope this show sticks around. Starr is awesome, he has the passive aggressive nerd character down to a find art by now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s82gTkCDBW0
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 04:24 |
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I really enjoyed episode one, nailed the vibe of the industry so far.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 04:50 |
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This show is amazing.. They had inside jokes about Palo Alto residents and it was amazing.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 05:26 |
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Pretty good pilot, I hope the rest of the episodes can keep up the quality. A thing I greatly appreciated was that there was quite a bit of tech talk and not once did any character say "now what's that mean IN ENGLISH".
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 05:30 |
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I thought it was fantastic and hilarious, even though my only exposure to tech company culture is via my wife. She thought it was spectacular, said it was frighteningly relatable.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 05:33 |
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am I really the only person who thought this was absolutely insufferable? I remember when this show had a laugh track and wasn't on HBO and everyone hated it
Baron Patsy fucked around with this message at 05:40 on Apr 7, 2014 |
# ? Apr 7, 2014 05:34 |
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Samara posted:There was what, 2 million inside jokes in this? This is the best guide for people not familiar with the bay area: http://gawker.com/heart-of-blandness-a-walking-tour-of-silicon-valley-1531745028
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 05:41 |
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hcreight posted:...major gender imbalance in the cast. Monica (Amanda Crew), Peter's assistant, is the only female in the main cast. As a resident of Man Jose, I can tell you this part, at least, is completely realistic.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:20 |
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bondster posted:edit: holy poo poo that 1 seated smart car. A reference to the Google founders? It looked like one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commuter_Cars_Tango
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:22 |
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Storgar posted:As a resident of Man Jose, I can tell you this part, at least, is completely realistic. So I've been told! I enjoyed the pilot a lot. Judge's gift for satire has never received its due praise and I'd love it if this show could change that.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:32 |
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etalian posted:This is the best guide for people not familiar with the bay area: This link is also painfully true. God I am going to go insane and die of boredom here. By the way, I forgot to ask. Is this being streamed on Hulu or Netflix? I really, really want to watch this. How can I watch this without HBO?
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:35 |
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I'm a nerd, and this poo poo was funny as hell to me. Pilot sold me good.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:37 |
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I was confident Mike Judge could capture the crazy douchey up its own rear end vibe of Silicon Valley and he knocked it out of the park. Plus anything that keeps Martin Starr employed is cool by me.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 07:45 |
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Somehow, I hadn't even heard of this show until tonight, and I consider myself to be a Mike Judge fan, so this was a very pleasant surprise. "Boy, is she on the spectrum. She can't even make eye contact with the computer!"
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 08:23 |
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I'm not sure if I laughed harder at the bike meeting or the doctor pitching his start-up. The cast is phenomenal.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 12:43 |
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Baron Patsy posted:am I really the only person who thought this was absolutely insufferable? In the trenches, it's not funny like this isn't funny either: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKorP55Aqvg Both are more trauma/PTSD inducing.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 13:17 |
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Not sure I agree it was an A- premiere, but it was enjoyable and it was good to see TJ, Kumail, Martin, Andy Daly etc. Will be tuning in. I never kept up with BETAS after the premiere, but it seemed similar-ish to a degree yeah? SV is definitely better, but isn't Jon Daly in Betas and the dude giving the TED talk had a real Jon Daly vibe about him which was weird.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 13:48 |
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Storgar posted:This link is also painfully true. God I am going to go insane and die of boredom here. Get in your car and drive places.. There are a million things to do here but you need to drive to them:)
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 14:05 |
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Echoing that it this was funny and surprisingly realistic, but what really's got me hooked is the drama potential, Peter Gregory, the fact the main guy, even in his nebbish, larval stage as a character, slapping down the idea that him and TJ Miller are "partners"...that's really got me itching to see where it goes from here. The tech world is so full of money and drama and weirdos, its been begging for a proper adaptation of what happens there, something the Social Network only scratched the surface of. EDIT: And if this thread devolves into "this is nerd theater/exploitation!" or this isn't HOW IT WORKS I will flee from this thread screaming. Shageletic fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Apr 7, 2014 |
# ? Apr 7, 2014 14:38 |
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Perfect pilot, and it really hits what it's like there, even down to the loving super ugly 50s/60s style house they're programming in. Makes me not miss home. It's super crazy to me how well Mike Judge can portray such diverse worlds/regions so perfectly.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 15:54 |
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Peter Gregory was the best part right down to his nerdy walk.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 16:38 |
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bondster posted:Haha the audience member of the Ted talk That 1 seated smart car is pretty awesome. I know Sergey Brin has a few of them that he drives around: http://www.commutercars.com/ I happened to be at the HBO premiere in Redwood City and saw the second episode. Definitely only gets better from the first episode. Elon Musk hated this show though: http://recode.net/2014/04/03/at-hbos-silicon-valley-premiere-elon-musk-is-pissed/ I was the only one in the theater who laughed at the ME3 finale joke Shadowhand00 fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Apr 7, 2014 |
# ? Apr 7, 2014 17:34 |
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That was alright, even without any experience of that world. Reminded me of a less openly vitriolic Nathan Barley, only the Tech world rather than Hoxton Media Cunts. Not sure whether the main guy being basically likeable but ineffectual rather than a self loathing shambles will work in it's favour or not, though UK stuff does tend to be a bit more mean spirited overall, and Barley was the logical end point of that kind of comedy, so I imagine it'll be fine.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 18:05 |
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I was incredibly excited for this show when i saw the trailer for it. Now I'm blown away by how funny it was, and kind of sad it was only a half an hour. Storgar posted:This link is also painfully true. God I am going to go insane and die of boredom here. They put up the pilot for anyone to watch free on HBO go.
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 18:24 |
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Fatkraken posted:That was alright, even without any experience of that world. I've got my fingers crossed that they're portraying the protagonist as an alright guy so it'll contrast his descent into being a bastard as money and power goes to his head. Also while it is an accurate reflection of the tech world, it'd be nice if the startup gained at least one woman on the programming staff. In the meantime, it's cool that the VC's assistant was shown to be the first one to grasp the technical significance of the "compression algorithm". coffeetable fucked around with this message at 18:44 on Apr 7, 2014 |
# ? Apr 7, 2014 18:39 |
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# ? May 4, 2024 13:39 |
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Shageletic posted:Echoing that it this was funny and surprisingly realistic, but what really's got me hooked is the drama potential, Peter Gregory, the fact the main guy, even in his nebbish, larval stage as a character, slapping down the idea that him and TJ Miller are "partners"...that's really got me itching to see where it goes from here. The tech world is so full of money and drama and weirdos, its been begging for a proper adaptation of what happens there, something the Social Network only scratched the surface of. This is nerd face nerdsploitation! If it were black/gay/female people... Baron Patsy posted:am I really the only person who thought this was absolutely insufferable? I remember when this show had a laugh track and wasn't on HBO and everyone hated it And how many times did someone say that Silicon Valley is the "cradle of innovation" or at the beginning, that party with people who just got bought out. Even the CEO is his own brand of insufferable with his stupid feet-shoes and the board(VP, etc.) talking about how it was a "Life-changing experience" to meet with him. I did like his observation about the makeup of Programmer groups. Four white guys and an
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# ? Apr 7, 2014 19:24 |