SNAPSHOT
Richard (Middleditch) is an introverted computer programmer living in the Hacker Hostel start-up incubator along with his best friend, Big Head (Brener), pompous Gilfoyle (Starr) and dry-witted Dinesh (Nanjiani). These social misfits live under the watch of Erlich (Miller), a self-satisfied dotcom millionaire who lets them stay in his house for free – as long as he gets a ten percent stake in their projects.After a failed pitch to billionaire venture capitalist Peter Gregory (Welch), Richard seems destined to remain at his job at the tech company Hooli, founded by the megalomaniacal Gavin Belson (Ross). When Monica (Crew), Gregory’s head of operations, and Jared (Woods), a Hooli executive, realize the value of the site’s compression algorithm, a bidding war erupts between Belson and Gregory, with Richard caught in the middle. (synopsis via seat42f.com)
The bullies who tormented them endlessly at school may not realise it yet – they’re a little slow on the uptake, let’s be honest – but the geeks have finally inherited the earth.
And they did it by creating the digital world that so many of us call home on a daily basis.
Software or hardware, they are the architects of the new order, the land of Apple and Twitter, Microsoft and Facebook, and some of the them such as the charismatic Steve Jobs (upon whose iconic pose, from the cover of Walter Isaacson’s biography, the poster above is based) have become famous.
Let there be no underestimating or mocking them now!
Realising who calls the shots now, and the drama inherent in almost everything they do – let’s be honest eating and sh**ting still lack a certain televisual quality – HBO has ordered a new comedy from Mike Judge, the man responsible for Office Space, the legendary Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill and Alec Berg (Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld), which duly gives honour where honour is due … and has some laughs while authentically doing so.
It’s fertile ground to mine since as Judge, who worked in Silicon Valley for two years when he was starting out, and is well aware that though the geeks rule, notes that doesn’t mean they have it all together:
“A lot of what’s funny in this world to me is that you have the people with billions of dollars and they’re still the same socially awkward types they were in high school. The world is very interesting to me.”
In other words, the ability to succeed does not equate to the ability to handle that success and it’s in the yawning gap between the two realities that this new comedy will dwell.
Silicon Valley has an initial eight episode order, and with the pedigree of its creators behind it, it should do well – although no doubt Stephen Merchant of Hello Ladies and Christopher Guest of Family Tree, two recently cancelled HBO comedies, thought much the same thing of their creations – and should join the likes of Veep, Getting On, Looking and Girls on the fabled cable network for hopefully some time to come.
Silicon Valley premieres on HBO on 6 April at 10.3o.
And here’s the teaser trailer …
The full trailer …
And a behind the scenes mini-featurette …