"Silicon Valley" operates under something akin to a Murphy’s Law but, if you've come to like these guys too much to want to see them become repeatedly screwed over, it’s fotunately become gradually less pessimistic: The show now operates under a rule of chaos
where things never go as expected and there’s some unexpected conflict.
Granted, most dramatic television relies on the unpredictable but this show always amps up that variable to the extreme. Every week, the five partners of Pied Piper walk a careful tightrope between massive success
and financial ruin. One of the missions of this show is trying to show us that the stakes in Silicon Valley are always high and we get a sense of this when we see just how much these guys are often sued for or how close these guys are to bankruptcy.
As someone who didn’t catch the last season and a half, I’ll
readily admit lacking the perspective of someone who might have witnessed
Erlich Bachmann’s progression towards obsolescence firsthand, but his departure still seems like a massive hole. This show treads heavily in character-based comedy
in the vein of “Parks and Recreation” or “The Office” but (judging by this episode) "Silicon Valley" doesn’t appear to have expanded its universe of recurring
characters which puts a lot of pressure on the existing slate to carry all the
facets of this multi-layered world. While the eccentricities of Gavin Belson and
Laurie Bream are nicely developed and Jian-Yang looks to be getting more screen
time, the majority of the show’s dialogue was the main quintet set apart from
the outside world in their alternating between trouble-shooting and internal
squabbling. My suggestion here: Monica, Jian-Yang, or some newcomer needs to be
worked closer into the gang’s inner circle to be able to provide the necessary
counter-balance in this new dynamic.
While I’m only marginally qualified to review this show
considering I’ve fallen by the wayside for the last season and a half (though I
will defend TO THE DEATH the practice of jumping into a show midway through as
a viewer), the plot fell so easily into the template of past episodes that I’m
starting to theorize that Silicon Valley is designed to appeal in syndication
as non-serialized. Sure, the status of Pied Piper has constant changes but the
company is fluctuating so constantly and the characters stay constant enough.
Besides, there’s generally a nicely-laced narrative within the span of each
episode.
This week saw Richard continue his war of attrition with
Gavin Belson. As opposed to the first two seasons where Richard and crew were
simply taking beatings left and right, we’re seeing two equally matched
opponents playing high-stakes chess. As a sign of Richard’s newfound status
somewhere between little and big fish in a pond of fluctuating size, he’s able
to outmaneuver two more green and naïve competitors. More significantly, he
comes into the interactions with these two with a far nastier demeanor and a
resolve for vengeance. Considering the Sliceline CEO was more aloof than someone
with the vindictiveness of Gavin, Richard’s moral exoneration isn’t as
clear-cut and that’s what’s making this show a must-watch. During the heyday of
“The Office” we used to have endless debates on the IMDB boards over the
morality of the Dunder-Mifflin employees and the grey territory of Pied Piper
can be debated in a spiritual fashion along these same grounds.
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