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Silicon Valley, Ep. 3.06: Erlich Spares No Expense in “Bachmanity Insanity”

“Bachmanity Insanity” Written by Carson Mell Directed by Eric Appel Airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO Silicon Valley is a reliably hilarious show and an astute critique of the excesses of corporate America and the tech industry. It’s also a sausage fest (much like the real Silicon Valley). The gender dynamics of the show have …

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 3.05: Richard Struggles to Fill “The Empty Chair”

Silicon Valley, Season 3, Episode 5: “The Empty Chair” Written by Megan Amram Directed by Eric Appel Airs Sunday at 10pm on HBO As funny as Silicon Valley can be, it’s rarely a good times show; Richard Hendricks requires a minimum level of crisis in order to reach peak nervous mania, and the show’s writing is …

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 3.04: Richard Starts to Lead in “Maleant Data Systems Solutions”

Silicon Valley, Season 3, Episode 3: “Maleant Data Systems Solutions” Written by Donick Cary Directed by Charlie McDowell Airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO At the end of last week’s very funny but somewhat stuffed episode, Richard’s plan to circumvent Jack’s wishes had been discovered and he was in danger of being fired for his …

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 3.03: The Pied Piper Crew Slow Down the Momentum in “Meinertzhagen’s Haversack”

Silicon Valley, Season 3, Episode 3: “Meinertzhagen’s Haversack” Written by Adam Countee Directed by Charlie McDowell Airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO The end of last week’s episode of Silicon Valley was the biggest blow to Richard’s original Pied Piper vision yet; the new CEO Barker had gone all in on the presumably misguided advice of …

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 3.01/3.02: Pied Piper Returns Just as Strong

Silicon Valley, Season 3, Episode 1: “Founder Friendly” Written by Dan O’Keefe Directed by Mike Judge Silicon Valley, Season 3, Episode 2: “Two in the Box” Written by Ron Weiner Directed by Mike Judge Airs Sundays at 10pm on HBO The great success of Mike Judge’s Silicon Valley has been how effortlessly it manages to mock the …

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The Films of Tomorrow – Hollywood Meets Silicon Valley

There it all was, the raw shaky cam quality of images that showed nothing of the Sunset Boulevard one usually sees in movies, the much talked about acting chops of two first-time actresses that, lo and behold, are transgender women actually playing transgender women. As I sat in awe watching Tangerine, the first movie shot …

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.10, “Two Days of the Condor” is a fleeting victory

What’s most impressive about “Two Days of the Condor” is how it gives the most visceral ending to every possible arc of the season, while still committing to the perceived outcome last week of Richard losing Pied Piper. Richard’s code and the core group get to prove their bona fides, Erlich realizes the importance of his relationship with PP, Gavin Belson gets the boot, Big Head continues to fail his way upward, Russ is back in the three commas club, and even Richard’s lawyer gets to feel the high of a “second chance.”

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Silicon Valley, Ep 2.09: “Binding Arbitration” thrives without all the clutter

One day, someone is going to have to write a small episode recap of “Binding Arbitration” for the info card on a cable network, and it is going to read “On this episode, Richard tells the truth, and Jared may have killed a guy.”

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.08, “White Hat/Black Hat” doesn’t let Richard win

Richard Hendricks can’t have nice things. It’s not that he doesn’t allow himself to have nice things or even that he doesn’t want to have nice things, it is that he is almost karmicly incapable of having nice things. Through either incredible worry or the incredible stupidity of others, Richard is never allowed to be on unqualified winner. Part of this is due to Richard being an unconfident dweeb, but it is also due to the fact that Richard is the main character on a TV show and thus can’t be top dog for very long. Stories of winners constantly winning become boring because deserved success is boring. It’s fun to watch a single arc of a story be about winning (Friday Night Lights season one) but eventually that team has to start losing (Friday Night Lights season two). So, by the transitive property of TV trope math, because Richard Hendricks is a TV character, he can’t have nice things.

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.07: “Adult Content” sets the season up for success

For as much as the show splits up the cast into Richard/Erlich A-plots and Dinesh/Gilfoyle B-plots, with Jared playing utility man, the core of the show is still the interaction between all of those characters, so by having them all sit down to discuss what they’re going to do about End Frame gives the show that opportunity to have its main cast play off of each other. Gilfoyle gets to dryly ask a series of “What ifs”, Erlich righteously declares that he solely increases porn traffic on the interent by one percent, Richard and Dinesh get to vacillate between shock and supposed moral authority, Jared is there to provide background information. It’s a good scene that gets to the heart of what makes the show enjoyable: Easy chemistry resulting in banter in either hyper-nerdy tech speak or insults like calling someone a “fucking king-sized asshole.”

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.06, “Homicide” highlights the show’s talent with details

Justice is nice and all but it’s not really dramatic. Want audiences really want is poetic justice, that sense that the justice we’re seeing given out has a twinge of retribution to it as well. It’s no fun to watch someone lose out on an opportunity because they don’t deserve it, it’s a blast to watch someone lose out on an opportunity because they don’t deserve it AND because they messed up in such a way that directly led to their losing of said opportunity. Sure, Gavin Belson is an ass and it’s good TV to watch Nucleus sputter and freeze during its big soft opening of a livestream, but Nucleus’ great public plunder is so entertaining because Gavin Belson is directly responsible, through the firing of Richard and surrounding himself with sycophants, for the Nucleus streamers missing the UFC finishing move of the century.

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.05, “Server Space” shows how pride drives the show

Silicon Valley is a show about pride. Even with all its expertly dumb gags like the aforementioned monkey spanking the monkey and Richard paranoid that his night sweats are going to turn into bed wetting, the show is following through with this idea that pride is the main motivator for the movers and shakers within Silicon Valley the place. At Hooli, that pride is causing Gavin Belson to give not two shits about one of the brightest minds in the world who has come to work for his company in favor of putting all of his effort into a guy who spends valuable resources making a giant potato cannon that may have to power to kill. For Belson, losing the compression race to Pied Piper, a company started by a guy he used to employ, will be the ultimate blow to his ego and so he, being made entirely of ego and juice cleanses, will stop at nothing in order to prevent that shameful loss. And fear of shame seems to be something of a corporate culture at Hooli, as Belson’s drones working on Nucleus are too afraid to tell their superior how incredibly behind schedule they are.

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.04, “The Lady” reveals how season two changes the pacing

Silicon Valley is on a real slow burn. Part of that has to do with the expanded episode order from last season. Following the death of Christopher Evan Welch, the show restructured its back half in order to accommodate the absence of Peter Gregory, shortening its episode order for the first season from ten to eight. So part of the experience of watching season two involves trying to refigure out how the pacing of the show works. With two extra episodes of content, the show feels like it is taking longer to reach its endpoint this season even though, with the show being renewed for at least a third season, season two is more indicative of how the show operates than season one.

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Silicon Valley, Ep. 2.01-2.02, “Sand Hill Shuffle” & “Runaway Devaluation” sets up the new status quo

The second season of a show, if it is lucky enough to get one, is its most important. Season two is where the writers, producers, and cast have a chance to build up what works and cut the fat. Silicon Valley’s first season brought the show to a place prime for second season rejiggering, with an established world and tone, cracker jack dialogue, and performances both subtle and grandiose. But the unfortunate death of Christopher Evan Welch, who played the angel investor for the show’s startup, gave Mike Judge and Co. the added challenge of having to move forward without one of its key actors and narrative tools.

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30 Best TV Series of 2014

2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t disappoint either, with visionary creators bringing new life to familiar settings and taking greater risks with their returning series, deepening their worlds. Throughout the year, directors and cinematographers brought lush visuals, composers pushed the auditory envelope, and an astonishing number of actors gave fantastic, memorable performances. More than a few shows delivered spectacle on a weekly basis, while others went small, deriving incredible power out of stillness and self-reflection. Some series swept the audience up, week in and week out, and others built subtly, only showing their hand in their season’s final episodes. There truly was too much great television this year for any one person to see it all (95 separate series were nominated by our contributors!), so limiting the discussion to 10 or even 20 series would be ridiculous. Instead, here is Sound on Sight’s list of the 30 best series of what has been another wonderful year for television.

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30 Best TV Series of 2014

2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t disappoint either, with visionary creators bringing new life to familiar settings and taking greater risks with their returning series, deepening their worlds. Throughout the year, directors and cinematographers brought lush visuals, composers pushed the auditory envelope, and an astonishing number of actors gave fantastic, memorable performances. More than a few shows delivered spectacle on a weekly basis, while others went small, deriving incredible power out of stillness and self-reflection. Some series swept the audience up, week in and week out, and others built subtly, only showing their hand in their season’s final episodes. There truly was too much great television this year for any one person to see it all (95 separate series were nominated by our contributors!), so limiting the discussion to 10 or even 20 series would be ridiculous. Instead, here is Sound on Sight’s list of the 30 best series of what has been another wonderful year for television.

Read More about 30 Best TV Series of 2014

30 Best TV Series of 2014

2014 has been yet another fantastic year for television, one that continued the nichification of the medium, with highly specific and underrepresented voices breaking through in every genre. There was a comedy explosion, particularly on cable, with dozens of new series presenting confident first seasons and several returning shows reaching new heights. The dramas didn’t …

Read More about 30 Best TV Series of 2014