What a slice of marketing genius for HBO GO! (I’m glad to be forewarned, in case I ever use it to check out a show new to me.)
NM
I binged the whole season in 1 day, and really enjoyed it. In fact, I watched the whole season again a few days later. Then I watched it a third time (an episode a night before bed).
To me, the show is just enjoyable. It’s funny, too. However, there’s just something about seeing an ensemble cast that hits it off so well that’s a pleasure to watch and experience.
I’m definitely looking forward to season 2.
Better than Judge’s other recent stuff. But still fails big time at points. E.g., when [del]Gabe[/del] Jared gets into the self-driving car you know what’s going to happen. Down to him not getting out at any stoplight along the way and breezing into a port without a security check.
The most fun for me is that the characters in the house are very much like people I’ve known. I was a Computer Science prof for years and these people actually exist in large numbers. I’ve known a thousand Gilfoyles and Dineshes, dozens of Erlichs, etc.
I enjoy Josh Brener (Big Head) in everything he’s done, no matter how small the role. Wish they used him more.
But the weakest actor/character is Thomas Middleditch (Richard). Maybe someone should start a thread listing shows where your lead is your most boring character.
There’s this thread from a couple of days ago.
I agree. I just see him as a device to set things in motion for the other characters.
Regarding Jared, I disagree. He is supposed to be a very timid person. I can see him not getting out of the car. Just like when he asked to use the bathroom at the house and it turned out he was holding it all day.
I also disagree with Richard being the weakest character. I think he performs great as a glue holding the dysfunctional others together.
I agree with Big Head and hope we see more of him next season.
You are right, I think a comedy without straight men is nothing but a live action cartoon.
Though, one thing I love about the show ‘Silicon Valley’ is that all its characters are believable.
It’s a possible way to explain a casting change, but casting changes don’t actually require explaining.
It’s not going to happen. This would be very uncomfortable for the writers and actors, particularly the new cast member. (And to me this is both unrealistic and makes no sense for the character.) They’ll write him off somehow, make some changes to their planned story, and maybe take some things Gregory was going to do and assign them to a different character. Evan Christopher Welch really was great in this role; one of the things I liked is that he was at least as introverted and awkward as Richard, but unlike Richard he really figured out how to put those parts of his personality to good use (see the sesame seed thing).
The sesame seed thing was hilarious. He noticed there were all of these restaurants called “Burger King” so he sent a minion to buy one of each thing on the menu. (Which has to be unusual; how many times do people do that?) Then he examined the food as it if were some alien species, noticed that many of the items had sesame seeds and realized how few countries supplied them. (BTW, if Burger King is foreign to him, McDonald’s is really going to shock him. Plus their sales volume is much larger than Burger King.)
It’s interesting: I recall hearing another Burger King reference on the show and wondering if they were sponsors.
Whooooooosh.
Season 2 starts tonight, after Game of Thrones!
I binge-watched season 1 on HBO GO a few months ago–great stuff! I look forward to seeing what direction they go now.
Good call. The scene where they discuss his death was great. I am not sure about the new head though. Perhaps the character will grow on me but it left me appreciating the Gregory character and Welch’s performance all the more.
Overall the season was off to a strong start: Erlich messing with the investors’ heads, the integral equation to sum up Gregory’s life.
One rarely hears the phrase “Genius dick joke” but between this episode and John Oliver’s interview of Edward Snowden, the dick joke may have just entered it’s golden age.
Also, they consulted with a computer scientist on the math that they were going to put on the white board, and made sure that it actually made sense. Since he had been asked to do the science, it didn’t make any sense to waste the work. And since it doesn’t count unless you publish…
Presenting:
[Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency
a model for male audience stimulation
Dinesh Chugtai and Bertram Gilfoyle
May 29, 2014](Optimal Tip-to-Tip Efficiency | PDF | Cross Section (Physics) | Normal Distribution)
Abstract
A probabilistic model is introduced for the problem of stimulating a large male audience. Double jerking is considered, in which two shafts may be stimulated with a single hand. Both tip-to-tip and shaft-to-shaft configurations of audience members are analyzed. We demonstrate that pre-sorting members of the audience according to both shaft girth and leg length allows for more efficient stimulation. Simulations establish steady rates of stimulation even as the variance of certain parameters is allowed to grow, whereas naive unsorted schemes have increasingly flaccid performance.
I was trying to think if any character anything like this one has ever been shown on film. Females in positions of power are virtually always shown as nostril-flaring dragon ladies. Sometimes you’ll see a Maternal type (maybe Lt. Van Buren on Law & Order). But mostly they are depicted as ball-breaking bitches.
Kind of nice to have something different, for a change.
(By the way: in looking for the character’s name on Wikipedia (it’s “Laurie Bream”), I found an entry stating that the show was renewed for a third season as of two days ago. Yay!)
Almost a year later, the phrase “a snack dick” still makes me literally LOL.
Is that pronounced “flassid” or “flaksid”? 
I just watched the new episode and got this.
If the new season keeps this up, I’m there for the long haul.