SILICON VALLEY – Live-action comedy developed by Mike Judge; rated TV-MA; airs Sundays on HBO; 30 minutes. Episode 1.7: “Proof of Concept” (original airdate, May 18, 2014). Directed by Mike Judge; written by Clay Tarver (7 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 in a race against philanthropic rebel billionaire Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) and his company Hooli, who 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:
It’s the zero hour. TechCrunch Disrupt is upon us. And while Project Nucleus is up and running, Richard still has to finish several key parts so that they have a working demo. Jared has returned from his odyssey to Gavin Belsom’s island, and he is uncharacteristically off his game. Luckily, Gavin’s assistant Monica is there to guide the team, as Gavin is off on safari with Lorne Michaels and Kanye West (like ya do).
But both Erlich’s and Richard’s previous relationships are coming back to bite them. The judge for Pied Piper’s first round may or may not have a grudge against Erlich, as he slept with his wife. But, they’re not sure if he knows or not. Meanwhile, Big Head corners Richard and tells him that an ex girlfriend who is attending the conference is going around telling people that when they broke up he was completely obsessed with her. He takes this poorly and is completely distracted and unable to finish the modules they need to get the prototype up and running.
In other girl-related news, a cute girl working at a cupcake-themed booth next to theirs asks both Gilfoyle and Dinesh to help her with her java. Also, the microdrones from the other neighboring booth keep buzzing around their heads bothering them.
Literally everyone is at the conference, including Richard’s doctor, who is peddling an awesome new tech device. You’re going to love where the sensor goes to tell you whether you’re having a heart attack or a panic attack.
Will they get done on time? Will Erlich’s sex life ruin things for them? Or will his ego? How will Gilfoyle manage to screw with Dinesh’s head this episode? And will they win TechCrunch Disrupt?
Quoth the Episode:
“Ok, guys? This place is a vortex of distraction. Normally the tech world is 2% women. Guys– these next three days? 15%.” “It’s a goddam meat market.”
“I just don’t want to rock the boat. And did I tell you– I’m getting a boat. And a boat guy to take care of it. You have to have a boat guy.” “Yeah, you gotta have a boat guy.”
“You’re essential to the booth.”
“Better yet– do you have those spotlights that *vwoom!* come up from the ground, like in pride fighting? Ok, so two of those, one on each side, and then one in the center so that it casts my shadow behind me, like a giant looking over his own shoulder. Do you have any wind machines? I’m going to need two of those. . .”
“You’re gay for my code. You’re code gay.”
And, in general, ALL of the technobabble in the TechCrunch Disrupt presentation.
Final verdict: 7 out of 10
This was another solid episode for this show. While it didn’t have Erlich slapping a child for Aderral like last week, it did have a lot. It was also nice to see Monica a lot more in this episode, since she has been woefully underutilized so far in the series.
And the last five minutes of the companies presenting was sheer genius. I felt like I was back at SXSW with all of these idiots telling me about their app or software with the same tired buzzwords. I love it because this just rings so true. As does the almost throwaway comment that only 2% of the tech world is women, and pointing out that the numbers are inflated because of the presence of “booth babes.” Ooooh, the sexism. Yay.
My only question is what the end of the episode means? What show does Mike Judge think this is, Game of Thrones? Leave it on a cliffhanger like this? </snark> But, seriously — it will be interesting to see how things wrap up next week with the final episode of the season.
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.