“Silicon Valley” offers a funny but realistic glimpse of the tech industry

Richard Hendrix and his Pied Piper company bring you the internet that you deserve. But “making the world a better place” is harder than they think. With a giant tech company suing them, Pied Piper will be hard-pressed to crack that middle-out compression algorithm and convince the world that their tech is a game-changer.

From start to finish, “Silicon Valley” is one hell of a ride inside the chaotic tech world. There is a lot of nerd stuff here that nerds would love (of course) and enough comedy that would make you binge-watch this series over and over again. I did.

So yeah, the story. Richard (Thomas Middleditch) is a coder who cracked middle-out compression (if you’re bored with this, stop reading and get out of this site). It is so groundbreaking that he is offered funding by countless VCs. Inside the hacking hostel where he coded said compression, we meet the other nerds. Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) was the network engineer of the team. He’s also a racist and a Satanist. Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) is the architect who specializes in Java and the recipient of Gilfoyle’s racist slurs. Jared (Zach Woods) is my favorite. As Richard’s assistant, he holds the team together. He’s also the funniest.

There’s also Monica (Amanda Crew), the VC lady, Erlich (T.J. Miller) who owns the hostel, and Big Head (Josh Brener) who is, um never mind. Lastly, there’s Jian-Yang, my second favorite character in this series, played by Jimmy O. Yang, and the reason why I watched this show.  

The series is a rollercoaster story of triumph and failures, mirroring the tech industry in Silicon Valley and its coders and billionaires. The build-up of Pied Piper’s story from being a start-up to a legit company was nicely laid out throughout the six seasons. As an audience, it was rewarding to witness the success of the characters amid the insane obstacles they faced. I particularly like the start of season 6 when they got their company’s own building and got to buy out Hooli, the Google-like company which made their life hell. 

The script is loaded with comedy on a backdrop of real issues in the Valley. There’s plenty of cool tech discussed that makes the series enjoyable to watch for nerds. T.J. Miller is of course perfect in his role as the hostel owner Erlich. I wouldn’t say all their names again but all of the cast members were amazing in their respective roles, a testament, in part, to the brilliance of the script.

Geek Rate

(Sky god worthy. 5 out of 5 stars). I officially declare that “Silicon Valley” is one of my favorite shows of all time. It’s hard not to like this series when several elements that I love in a TV show are present: comedy and nerd stuff combined. But it’s not just that. There’s a certain depth in how it is written that makes this show worthy of a Series B. There are a few series that are worth watching over and over again and “Silicon Valley” is definitely one of them.

Reignell Francisco

I’m a content creator with passion for travel, history, football, and anything on TV. Visit my YouTube channel onelostgeek for my travel stories. Business inquiry: geekgodreview@yahoo.com