honestly guys I feel like I'm contributing a lot of worthless garbage to this thread and not getting a whole lot of putrefied dreck in return. please shape up.
also finished watching the first season of Silicon Valley: wasn't sure how good it was going to be, but every single episode I watched genuinely surprised me at how good it was.
They are pretty good at writing characters that don't relate to most people in general, in favor of them relating to you personally. (and not in a sitcom-y way either) If you are prone to calling shows like Workaholics or Broad City as "basic", I'd be really interested in hearing your impressions of a show like this.
I'm halfway through, may have more thoughts later
I didn't like the first episode very much. welcome to the world of silicon valley, only I'm not very interested!! I wasn't too into returning to a fantasy & bunch of concepts and terminology I left behind in high school. I didn't see a whole lot else going on.
I decided to try it again tonight just because I know these guys can be funny, and because people whose opinions I trust enjoyed it. Largely for the reason you mentioned (which I forgot about until I came here to post) the next three episodes were pretty good! I don't personally identify with any of the characters, but they strike me as an accurate representation of people who could be in such a situation, and remind me a lot of people I've known/bits of personality I've encountered throughout my life. Like the billionaires, especially Peter Gregory, are so alike Big Wigs I've encountered or seen giving talks. The whole concept in the fourth episode with Richard and Erlich "needing both sides of the brain" was really strong too where it could have been pure junk. They all seem like pretty good characters and so far they have some entertaining chemistry between them. It's great that they managed to write these tech wizards and make them interesting, without sacrificing their silicon valley-ness and trying to make them relate to every average joe xbox. I mean compared to the buglike non-human department store catalog version of nerds in BBT each of these characters is a standalone masterpiece