Ann Friedman favorably reviews HBO’s new series Silicon Valley:
Beyond the superficial thrill of jokes about corporate executives who wear toe-separator shoes, “Silicon Valley” is an unexpectedly compassionate portrayal of a much-maligned archetype: The boy-wonder programmer who finds himself suddenly a CEO. “Silicon Valley”’s stammering protagonist, Richard, is indeed sympathetic. He writes brilliant code but can’t figure out the best practical use for it. He manages to score a substantial investment in his startup, but can’t even explain what his company does. He hires his friends and then can’t figure out how to manage them. He asks a bank teller if she can help him incorporate in the state of California.
The overall effect is that of the bromantic comedy “Entourage,” another show that made me feel real affection for men who display clueless privilege and casual sexism, only relocated 350 miles north.
James Poniewozik also likes the show:
Hardware-wise, the show is a definite dongle-fest;
the only significant recurring female character in the early going is Peter’s head of operations Monica (Amanda Crew). But its very, very male world presents a very, very different take on masculinity from Entourage, whose bros sampled from an endless sushi-conveyor-belt of hot Hollywood women. Silicon Valley‘s is a culture of man-children, misfits, and macho “brogrammers”; among the apps one entrepreneur creates is NipAlert, for detecting–well, just what you’d think, reminiscent of the actual sexist gag app TitStare unveiled at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference last year. The women aren’t subservient so much as they’re absent, or isolated. Noting the separation between the sexes at a lavish party, Dinesh notes, “Every party in Silicon Valley ends up like a Hasidic wedding.”
Nolan Feeney compares the show to Betas, another start-up culture sitcom:
[P]ortraying Silicon Valley accurately was a top priority for both shows. HBO initially reached out to Silicon Valley creator Mike Judge about doing a show about gamers, but Judge passed on the idea—he wasn’t one himself and thought that if a program about hardcore video game fans misrepresented any part of that community, it’d be ripped apart. Previous unsuccessful shows about Silicon Valley before didn’t fare well in part for that reason: Bravo’s low-rated Start-Ups: Silicon Valley drew criticism because it seemed distractingly fake for a show that was supposed to be “reality.” …
Still, in the course of their research, both Silicon Valley’s and Betas’ productions learned that many of their preconceived notions about Silicon Valley shenanigans weren’t far off. Eccentric bosses really do buy up islands and jet off to lavish, adventurous vacations; some people truly do admire Steve Jobs because of, not in spite of, his “asshole” qualities. “Some of the best satire is when you depict stuff accurately,” Berg says. “You put ridiculous things on camera and they look ridiculous. You’re just holding up a mirror to a lot of stuff.”
David Auerbach disagrees about the quality of Judge’s research:
Office Space resonated with people because it nailed many of the tiny details of office life, and you could tell Judge knew them well. Reusing that same job experience for Silicon Valley, rather than actually investigating tech culture, smacks of laziness. Judge didn’t do his research when parodying lefties in his awful bomb The Goode Family, and he didn’t do it here.
HBO has made the first episode available for free here. Previous Dish on dongle jokes here.
The Dish 