Should You Kick In For A Share Of Silicon Valley?

What Is This Thing?

Programmer Richard toils by day at Google-esque digital media giant Hooli, but by night (and weekends), he's one of four residents at an incubator house in Palo Alto, working on his passion project, Pied Piper: a platform that lets users scan music files against a database to check that they're not infringing any copyrights. But when a couple of his dismissive colleagues check out what he's done, it turns out that Richard's accidentally revolutionized file compression, and a bidding war ensues!

When Is It On?

Sundays at 10 PM on HBO.

Why Was It Made Now?

Probably because we're heading for a tech bubble, sssssssh? But also because HBO had a half-hour series slot to fill, and since the contemplative female energy of Enlightened didn't work out, executives apparently decided to do the exact opposite of that.

What's Its Pedigree?

It's created by Mike Judge, whose TV hits include King Of The Hill and Beavis & Butt-head but who really established his cred as a satirist of computer professionals' work lives as the writer/director of Office Space. Supporting performers Kumail Nanjiani and Martin Starr are mainstays of the alt-comedy scene (Nanjiani having guested on Portlandia, and Starr as a veteran of Freak & Geeks, Party Down, and NTSF: SD: SUV::). And I feel like this might be the last supporting role T.J. Miller plays before he gets the right lead film role and launches into his Will Ferrell years.

...And?

As Dinesh and Gilfoyle, a couple of the other residents at the incubator house, Nanjiani and Starr don't get a lot of lines, but every one of their jokes lands. There's some business about Gilfoyle having identified as a "LaVeyan Satanist" and Dinesh being confused by Gilfoyle's inverted cross tattoo when he's reaching up on a high shelf and it...un-inverts; Dinesh suggests, "You should get another tattoo that says 'This side up' on it." Gilfoyle flips him off, asking, "How does this translate into Farsi?" "That's not the language I speak," sighs Dinesh. Miller is also very good as Erlich, who sold his own company Aviato (which he gives a pretentious Italianate flourish every time he says it) some time ago and is now using the proceeds to nurture other tech talent, which generally means bossing younger people around and trying to be a big man. It's the most buffoonish role in the show, and Miller fearlessly commits -- and I don't just mean with his facial hair, though that's a big part of it.

...But?

If the above paragraph seems like faint praise, that's because it is faint praise. As a protagonist, Richard is a big problem. He's a stammering goober who suffers two panic attacks in the pilot -- the second at the doctor's office where he's getting treated for the first. But I feel like, for most viewers, he's having an outsized reaction to what constitutes an extremely classy problem: his Hooli boss, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross, a.k.a. Big Love's Alby), wants to buy Pied Piper outright for $4 million, while investor Peter Gregory (late Hey! It's That Guy! Christopher Evan Welch) offers a low-six-figures cash infusion that will let Richard retain ownership and control and grow the company. OH MY GOD, THIS POOR GUY!!!!!! You know? Years ago, when I was editing a Gilmore Girls recap by the great Pamie, she wrote that no one wants to watch money, and God, it's so true, particularly here. These pretend people and their sweet payday could not be more tedious to watch -- and I say that as someone who's been in a version of the exact situation Richard faces in the premiere. Nothing ever makes us feel like these characters are in any kind of dramatically compelling jeopardy. I mean, even if Richard rejects both offers, he still has a decent job at what we're given to understand is one of the top tech firms in the world. Lots of people watching would kill for these kinds of problems, so seeing him dither over them is kind of infuriating, which is probably not we're supposed to feel watching a sitcom. And on top of these story issues, it also isn't very funny.

...So?

I like a lot of these actors very much -- I didn't even mention the great Zach Woods, who plays another Hooli employee -- but none of them is enough of a Dealmaker to get me to overcome the basic problems with the premise. We'd probably all be better off skipping the season and watching Office Space five times instead.