Mike Judge’s hit show about an upstart set of entrepreneurs returns for a second season on DigitalHD and is kicking on all cylinders. In true Judge style, the humor in season two is subtle, intelligent and hits at the right time. On top of this, Judge and creators John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky have laid a perfectly intriguing story on top of the layer of humor. What’s frightening is that the story does a great job of inserting real world backstabbing from gigantic corporations into this beautifully formed comedy candy shell. So, just when you ‘gasp’ a bit that something terrible happened to the young IT guys, you’re relaxed at the same time with ever flowing humor.
Anyway, let’s get right into season two of Silicon Valley.
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Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) and his programming crew at the newly formed Pied Piper corporation have put together an incredible algorithm that will revolutionize software compression for years to come. It’s so good that rival Hooli can’t match it, even with all the money they’ve thrown at their own compression code called Nucleus. Of course, in the business world, if you can’t compete with the company that is besting you, you sue them in hopes of stifling their creativity. Trying to survive in a brand new corporate world, Hendricks and Pied Piper seek investment, and legal, help from the outside world, but continually get a door closed in their faces — until a door is opened through an insanely dumb investor named Russ Hannenman (Chris Diamantopoulos). Hendricks has to juggle the growing pains of the business, deal with Russ’ constant bad advice/mistakes/investments, while fighting off Hooli from taking what is Pied Piper’s.
The overlying storyline of the second season is the beginning of Pied Piper and the roadblock Hooli makes for them with a frivolous lawsuit. Having kept up with Samsung/Apple’s loveliness over the years, it seems like a strategy that most big companies bring when they can’t innovate, which is both sad and funny. The fact that the story leans this direction brings some solid realism to the comedic situation. It also gives the story moments where it can make fun of the this type of anti-innovation that companies commit when they go this route. For example, as Hooli’s head guy, Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), starts to realize he can’t compete with Pied Piper’s code, he starts to do what he can to stop the code from getting out — even cultivating Hendricks’ friend, and former co-worker, Nelson ‘Big Head’ Bighetti (Josh Brener), so he can use him to prove his case against Pied Piper. This particular move is dirty, underhanded, spot on what a company would do to stop innovation it can’t create, and it creates a good deal of comedy through Bighetti’s reaction to constant promotion. In fact, the end of season two ends with Bighetti in a big way — hilarious way, which I won’t give away. My point, Judge and his crew do a great job with putting a convincing, real world situation together for their own comedic pleasure, and it works out beautifully through out season two.
This is the type of magic Judge performed with Office Space. Real office situations that are just begging for humor to spring out of them.
The story starts off strong with a David/Goliath feel and ends amazingly well, even though there are some casualties, by the end of the season. I’m enormously impressed with how Thomas Middleditch leads the pack as the nervous nerd trying to get his company on the ground, while learning the art of business on the fly. Middleditch plays the part that was written for him quite well, and does a fantastic job with convincingly evolving his character with the story. He starts the season as a weakling and ends an innovator willing to take chances to keep his company alive. Again, it’s enormously impressive to see in motion, though it’s subtle.
Middleditch’s character evolution is helped by his cohorts who are just a perfect compliment. Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods (who is just spectacular as the nearly-robotic Jared), Amanda Crew and the always entertaining T.J. Miller; all of them add an element of unique humor and push to the story and to Middleditch’s character. The casting for this show was perfect, even down to the sporadically humorous Jimmy O. Yang, who plays Jian Yang, Miller’s asian roommate.
Anyway, season two of Silicon Valley shows a lot of life to the story. It starts off well and it ends even better. It doesn’t have any down points, nothing to slow its own momentum. It treats the characters well and does a great job transition from one episode to the next. Granted, there are some times where the story has throwaway moments (remember the word ‘ferrets’), but they don’t affect the story enough to disrupt its flow.
Enjoy the second season of Silicon Valley and the impending third season when it happens.
On the special features side of the equation, here’s where VUDU offered when I reviewed this:
– Invitation to the Set
– Trailer
– Preview
– Reality Bites: The Art & Science Behind Silicon Valley
You have a couple of nice features here, with the latter being the best. There’s enough here that adds to the overall show, but the real beef here is the show. Good stuff for a DigitalHD delivery, though.
Final Comment:
Season two of Silicon Valley shows a lot of life to the story. It starts off well and it ends even better. It doesn’t have any down points, nothing to slow its own momentum. It treats the characters well and does a great job transition from one episode to the next. Granted, there are some times where the story has throwaway moments (remember the word ‘ferrets’), but they don’t affect the story enough to disrupt its flow.
