SILICON VALLEY – Live-action comedy developed by Mike Judge; rated TV-MA; airs Sundays on HBO; 30 minutes. Episode 1.6: “Third Party Insourcing” (original airdate, May 11, 2014). Directed by Alec Berg; written by Dan O’Keefe (8 out of 10)
The story so far: Richard Hendrix (Thomas Middleditch), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Erlich Bachmann (T. J. Miller), and Jared Dunn (Zach Woods) are employees of a startup called Pied Piper. Richard has created a lossless algorithm that could change all digital media as we know it, allowing for quicker streaming and less space needed for storage. They receive mentoring and funding from angel investor Peter Gregory. Meanwhile, they are up against a ticking clock to premiere a working beta at TechCrunch Disrupt as philanthropic rebel billionaire Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) and his company Hooli are trying to reverse engineer Pied Piper, even going so far as stealing Richard’s best friend Big Head (Josh Brener) to head up “Project Nucleus.”
In this episode:
Our episode opens with Richard at the doctor, telling him he’s aged 40 years in a few weeks from the stress of trying to get Pied Piper off the ground.
With TechCrunch Disrupt in less than a week, they decide to hire an outside consultant whose street name is “The Carver” to help them write the cloud system piece of their software.
Well, it turns out The Carver is actually a high-schooler named Kevin. But, he can code for 48 hours straight with a stream of Mello Yello and Oreos (and Adderal, it turns out) and so he comes on board.
Meanwhile, Jared goes to Peter Gregory’s office to have him sign the contract and check for lil Kevin, and gets offered a ride home in Peter’s driverless Prius. (Because Palo Alto, natch.) Anyway, hiinks ensue, and Jared ends up getting taken for a ride that the car thinks should end 4,000 miles away on Peter Gregory’s private island on the International Dateline in the Pacific.
In another twist, Gilfoyle’s girlfriend is visiting. Gilfoyle tells Dinesh tha she’s interested in having sex with him. Not a threesome or anything– just him. Dinesh spends most of the episode trying to figure out if he should do it, meanwhile Erlich is severely perturbed that she would want to have sex with Dinesh rather than him.
In all three plotlines, hijinks ensure. And there might be drug deals, Erlich slapping the s@#$ out of a neighborhood kid, and a massive error that might sink Pied Piper altogether.
Final verdict: 8 out of 10
Once again, (following up on last week’s episode) this is a beautiful balance of moving plot and character forward while also bringing huge laughs. This episode is also spectacular in that it feels like no single member of the case gets short shrift. They all get something to do, and it is generally hilarious.
We never laugh quite so hard as when we laugh at the foibles of each of these people who we’re rooting for. And in each case, it’s their weaknesses that lead to their downfalls. How very Greek tragedy. How very Mike Judge.
The scene in the Satanist church where it all turns out to be very mundane and effete was awesome. Nothing quite makes me laugh as much as boring Satanism. The Chick-fil-A joke was especially great. It can make me forgive the fact that Metalocalypse did this trope first, especially with reminder not to park at the neighboring business because they tow, etc. However, while not altogether original, I still loved it. And the great ones don’t just borrow, they steal outright.
Also, Dinesh’s pro/con cork board. Awesome.
CAST:
Thomas Middleditch as Richard Hendrix, T. J. Miller as Erlich Bachmann, Zach Woods as Jared Dunn, Kumail Nanjiani as Dinesh, Martin Starr as Gilfoyle, Josh Brener as Big Head, Christopher Evan Welch as Peter Gregory, Amanda Crew as Monica, Angela Trimbur as Langdon.