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| T.J. Miller |
When Silicon Valley premiered last year, it seemed like an unprecedented success. While the series barely existed for eight episodes, it was starting to find its niche as it focused on a start-up company in Silicon Valley through the eyes of creator Mike Judge and some of comedy's funniest voices. The show produced scientifically studied gags that have actually been proven. The show received countless nominations in prestigious fields. It also introduced the world to Peter Gregory (Christopher Evan Welch), who was the dimwitted investor who made the show click. Unfortunately, the actor died and raised certain queries as to what would happen next. With the show barely finding its footing after those eight episodes, it felt like an abrupt restart. Season two, for the most part, was more of the same in both good and bad ways. While it had the cast being funnier than ever, it also didn't go anywhere nearly as interesting.
It isn't that the show tried to ignore the death of Peter Gregory. Instead, it dedicated its premiere to a very funny funeral for the character. It raised bigger questions about Pied Piper. In the wake of this, who would finance them and what were the odds of them being successful? Was Hooli going to rip them off? Most of the season was predicated on not necessarily building the company back up, but getting into legal trouble with Ehrlich (T.J. Miller) being brutally brash with almost everyone. For all of the great chemistry that these characters have, it wasn't able to compliment the plot. They made the characters more complex, but everything else added to the show turned into unfortunate noise as it became more about hacking into companies and trying to find ways to stay afloat.
The most noteworthy issue is Russ (Chris Diamantopouloos). With the staff looking for new investors, they land on a billionaire playboy who plays Crazytown in his car. He is pretty much too expressive and clueless to be interesting. It may be part of his gag that he is self-involved, but considering how closed off everyone else is behaviorally, he doesn't come as a welcomed force. He is a bully that wants everything his way, and the results don't necessarily always work. Again, this could be part of his character, but he always diminished screen time when he was forced to appear to make his influence feel important. In a season that saw all of the new characters in some capacity fail to leave an impression, it was unfortunate to see one stick out with such a sore thumb.
I want to love this show more than I have. My main issue with season one is that it took awhile to find its voice. In season two, it had found it, but now had issues making a compelling plot. Most episodes revolved around characters bickering about how each of them was in some way inferior. The show still remains just as fun to watch, but compared to the motivational behaviors of season one, there were less great episodes and the final payoffs weren't all that rewarding. The show seems to be resetting itself every time that it concludes a season. In this case, the founder of Pied Piper is kicked out of his own company. It raises an interesting question of what is to happen next, but it also poses the question of what is supposed to be very interesting about this show at the end of the day? Its satire on tech companies only goes so far.
In the end, those who liked Silicon Valley season one will like season two. There's really no challenge there. However, my bigger concern is that it has trouble doing anything necessarily interesting with its cast. For every great joke that there is, there is a new character that is problematic. It is skeptical to hope that the show is able to fix anything because it is great at what it does. The moments that work are when characters riff on each other, insulting differences and making their own lingo. Because of this, it may be hard to distinguish what makes a great episode of this series or if it can be great in general. For now, it is just thoroughly entertaining, but not in a manner that warrants the success of its first season. Silicon Valley is a show that I wish I loved more, but just cannot figure out what's wrong or what to fix about it.
Overall Rating: 3 out of 5
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