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Silicon Valley - Season 2 of the hilarious Mike Judge comedy series - HBO Sundays

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Only seen the first episode but man that killed!

"And if you don't fund us, you're a slut". "Your logo looks like a sideways vagina. I find that to be racist".

Those actual cameos were rad. And the dude who was in the previous season, now with the NO ONE TOLD ME I COULD TAKE LESS! FUUUUUCK! delivery.

Then they end on Run The Jewels!

This show is just going from strength to strength, and I like a show where I want to look up the actual stuff.
 
I kind of hope Russ doesn't stick around long, I enjoyed the episode, but I can see myself being sick and tired of him very quickly (it was starting to happen by the end of the episode)
 

Linius

Member
It depends, if they keep having him do the same routine over and over it will get boring. But I trust Mike Judge to be better than that. Even though they were stretching it already with some of the gags with Russ in this episode. We'll see.
 

Uncle

Member
It was kinda weird that Laurie got upset with Richard taking the offer from Russ, when she enabled the whole thing in the first place.

And I get the feeling that they might get rid of Russ in the finale. At least I hope they will get rid of him.
 
Great season so far. Probably been asked, but is Russ suppose to be a spoof of Mark Cuban?

I was thinking the same thing.

.

New Billionaire guy actually reminds me of Mark Cuban.

I was just thinking that. Mark Cuban also sold his company at the height of the bubble.
Of course, he's done some stuff with his money since like owning a basketball team and investing in companies on Shark Tank but still.

And yes they are so emulating Mark Cuban with the new character.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Just watched the first three episodes over the last couple nights. Fantastic so far and a much better start than the first season.

"This guy fucks!"

"Hey Russ, I've been known to fuck myself! ....."
 

pj

Banned
I feel like this show is too plot focused. Almost every scene advances the plot. What's the hurry? It could use some more ball busting scenes with the whole gang
 

big ander

Member
^Agreed. Even last season when the plot was being advanced skillfully, it'd always come back to the guys shitting on each other. I didn't like Russ which is a problem, but the bigger problem is that the guys didn't really come together to argue about Russ.
"I'm trying on hats!"

I love Jared.

favorite line of the ep for me. Delivery was perfect, him miming it.
 

Kyuur

Member
I feel like this show is too plot focused. Almost every scene advances the plot. What's the hurry? It could use some more ball busting scenes with the whole gang

I feel like I'm not watching the same show as the people in this thread. The first two episodes were a waste of time

neogaf.gif

Enjoying the second season first. The new billionaire guy is an awesome character, managing to completely fuck up every single other character in the show in a different way. He is pretty hate-able though, so I hope his demise is swift.
 
I kind of hope Russ doesn't stick around long, I enjoyed the episode, but I can see myself being sick and tired of him very quickly (it was starting to happen by the end of the episode)

Same, was hoping for something funnier knowing that actor slayed as Marky Bark on last season of Arrested Development, but yeah that character is very annoying, wasn't really a fan of the ep due to his presence. Really hope his character doesn't cut into the dynamic of the guys too much. Gilfoyle and Dinesh stealing scenes as usual.
 

thenexus6

Member
I really hate the way this character talks

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J

Jpop

Unconfirmed Member
Could be inherant bias because she's female. Imagine the character as a male first and see if they still bug you.

Or he just doesn't like the way she talks. Why do you need to change it into a gender issue?
 

oatmeal

Banned
She's awful. It's tragic that the other dude died, but I wish they cast someone doing their own thing rather than a poor imitation.
 

golem

Member
She's one of my favorite characters actually. The complete awkwardness of her is great. Especially when she's doing the complete opposite of her advice.

That's her biggest problem. They gave her Peter Gregory's quirks with none of his vision and success. It makes you wonder how she got promoted in the first place and why anyone would ever work for her or be loyal to her. I'm not sure what they were thinking when they made her character, they should have gone with something completely different like a Ballmer caricature perhaps.

Also they need to tone down Russ or give him some redeeming qualities at least, like others have said his shtick was already wearing thin by the end of the episode.
 
She's awful. It's tragic that the other dude died, but I wish they cast someone doing their own thing rather than a poor imitation.
I thought this as well. It really seems like she is just copying the previous character. It really sucks that the guy died. He seemed like a good actor.
 
Just because she's socially awkward does not mean that she's "copying" the previous character. He has quirks and random left field decisions (sesame seeds), she is pragmatic, by the numbers, and unbending. He was what one could call a visionary in that he sees things others can't. She's basically the boards best accountant. They're really different characters.
 

Stoze

Member
Russ is like one of those characters you get missions from in GTA.

Show is still pretty funny, but the direction they've been taking things has felt pretty iffy to me. Everything and everybody seems more cartoonish, and the plot is just zipping back and forth with Pied Piper constantly getting shit on, which makes the consequences feel less and less impactful.
 

nel e nel

Member
I feel like there is going to be some sort of reveal about Russ and Erlich. The way Russ keeps flat out ignoring him suggested to me that there is some backstory there.

Maybe he fucked Russ' wife?
 

big ander

Member
This gif is enormous, but the guys trying out the toothy smile cracked me up.

Bonus look at Mark Cuban smile courtesy of someone on Reddit:
Hah I didn't know this was based on a real tic of Cuban's. Kumail does it best lmao.
I feel like there is going to be some sort of reveal about Russ and Erlich. The way Russ keeps flat out ignoring him suggested to me that there is some backstory there.

Maybe he fucked Russ' wife?
Eh I don't think so. The joke was just that Russ is the kind of man Ehrlich has always been attempting to be, and Ehrlich does genuinely know a lot about the same interests Russ has--yet Russ doesn't give a shit because he thinks Ehrlich is a schlub.
 

oatmeal

Banned
Just because she's socially awkward does not mean that she's "copying" the previous character. He has quirks and random left field decisions (sesame seeds), she is pragmatic, by the numbers, and unbending. He was what one could call a visionary in that he sees things others can't. She's basically the boards best accountant. They're really different characters.

She has the same cadence as Peter did. Their thinking was clearly "we lost a great character actor who was doing a terrific and popular character, let's not rock the boat too much."

There may be small differences in their characters, but thus far, she's been a bad copy of PG. Maybe if they give her a storyline to chew on, we can see something good come of it. Thus far she's been a total drag, and feels more like an SNL caricature than a real person.
 
I feel like there is going to be some sort of reveal about Russ and Erlich. The way Russ keeps flat out ignoring him suggested to me that there is some backstory there.

Maybe he fucked Russ' wife?

Nah, I severely doubt this personally. I think you're missing the joke, like big ander said.
 

Uncle

Member
I feel like there is going to be some sort of reveal about Russ and Erlich. The way Russ keeps flat out ignoring him suggested to me that there is some backstory there.

Maybe he fucked Russ' wife?

I think the "reveal" will be that Hanneman knows that he's just a guy who got lucky once and has no idea what he is doing. He knows it and is worried that Erlich will figure it out. The dude is able to wow and lead people like Richard on with his baseless confidence, but Erlich will see through his bullshit eventually, since they are playing pretty much the same game. Though Erlich is not as big of an asshole.
 
She has the same cadence as Peter did. Their thinking was clearly "we lost a great character actor who was doing a terrific and popular character, let's not rock the boat too much."

There may be small differences in their characters, but thus far, she's been a bad copy of PG. Maybe if they give her a storyline to chew on, we can see something good come of it. Thus far she's been a total drag, and feels more like an SNL caricature than a real person.

I don't see/hear the same cadence at all. I just see that they're both socially awkward characters, though in different ways. I really doubt the idea was that they didn't want to rock the boat as much as it was that the Big Tech characters were designed to represent types of personalities. That's what creates the dynamics that make Pied Piper's decisions feel difficult and precarious. The they made her personality similar because that was the general archetype they need for the leader of that company.
 

oatmeal

Banned
I don't see/hear the same cadence at all. I just see that they're both socially awkward characters, though in different ways. I really doubt the idea was that they didn't want to rock the boat as much as it was that the Big Tech characters were designed to represent types of personalities. That's what creates the dynamics that make Pied Piper's decisions feel difficult and precarious. The they made her personality similar because that was the general archetype they need for the leader of that company.

Agree to disagree I suppose.
 

megamerican

Member
I feel like there is going to be some sort of reveal about Russ and Erlich. The way Russ keeps flat out ignoring him suggested to me that there is some backstory there.

Maybe he fucked Russ' wife?

My take is they both kind of get off on being the alpha nerd, and Russ sees Erlich as a potential threat. They made a big point of showing how Russ was able to control the entire group.
 

Dr.Acula

Banned
Agree to disagree I suppose.

I agree with you. She's a bad facsimile. The worst part is they gave her zero background, they just plopped her right in, and they haven't bothered to give her any background yet. Peter and Gavin had this history when they were younger which ran through the whole show. Even with this new douchbag VC character, Laurie just says something about barely knowing him. They could have written some background for her there. But no, another scene of her speaking awkwardly and no depth or substance.
 

demon

I don't mean to alarm you but you have dogs on your face
Could be inherant bias because she's female. Imagine the character as a male first and see if they still bug you.

Could be that her character is annoying and a huge step down from the Peter Gregory character she replacted. Enough with this crap.
 
Ug4bP6r.jpg


I'm not sure if anyone noticed the location in the background of the last episode (Season 2, Episode 3) but that's Playa Vista. This is especially interesting because Playa Vista (located minutes away from LAX) is currently heralded as "Silicon Beach" and rumored to be one of Google's new hq.
 
Oh man I just read about why one of my favorite characters didn't return in Season 2, and it's because the actor playing him died. :(

I will always miss that Bill Gates-a-like, what a phenomenal character.

Laurie or whatever her name is that replaced Peter Gregory felt like a cold calculating business woman who didn't understand Peter Gregory at all. While at the same time being a gender switched Peter Gregory with none of the delivery. I did love her meltdown when she found out that she was going to be co-investing with Russ.

As far as my thoughts, the moment I saw Hooli in season one I thought Google + Apple. I don't know why but the CEO Gavin Belson reminds me of Steve Jobbs if Steve Jobbs adopted the crazy Google office ecosystem and kept the whole hardware+App design thing that Apple does.

Gilfoyle is fucking amazing, I love his character and the guy that sounds like Prismo from Adventure time. So amazing.

TJ Miller continues to be my favorite he's like John Romero.

Russ is fucking amazing but I also end up wanting to punch his fucking teeth in, he reminds me too much of Mark Cuban. Which makes sense.

The whole
I could've taken less?! FUUUUUUUUUUCK meltdown by the guy with the failed tech start up was priceless.

I also loved the whole Dick joke equation thing. Absolutely amazing and mirrors some of the talks I've had with programmer buddies.


So far this show is firing on all cylinders for me.

The return of Big Head was fucking amazing.
Also pivoting. THIS GUY FUCKS.
 

big ander

Member
I'm not sure if anyone noticed the location in the background of the last episode (Season 2, Episode 3) but that's Playa Vista. This is especially interesting because Playa Vista (located minutes away from LAX) is currently heralded as "Silicon Beach" and rumored to be one of Google's new hq.

Oh dang is it? I drive around there all the time and it seems kinda crappy, but they did just add a multiplex and are midway through an apartment complex.
 

nel e nel

Member
Hah I didn't know this was based on a real tic of Cuban's. Kumail does it best lmao.

Eh I don't think so. The joke was just that Russ is the kind of man Ehrlich has always been attempting to be, and Ehrlich does genuinely know a lot about the same interests Russ has--yet Russ doesn't give a shit because he thinks Ehrlich is a schlub.

Nah, I severely doubt this personally. I think you're missing the joke, like big ander said.

I think the "reveal" will be that Hanneman knows that he's just a guy who got lucky once and has no idea what he is doing. He knows it and is worried that Erlich will figure it out. The dude is able to wow and lead people like Richard on with his baseless confidence, but Erlich will see through his bullshit eventually, since they are playing pretty much the same game. Though Erlich is not as big of an asshole.

My take is they both kind of get off on being the alpha nerd, and Russ sees Erlich as a potential threat. They made a big point of showing how Russ was able to control the entire group.

For sure considered all these as well, but we'll have to wait and see. I guess I have some hopes for some great comic twist especially after the season 1 episode where they are at Techcrunch and all the weird ex-girlfriend gymnastics result in Jared crying tears of joy.
 

mre

Golden Domers are chickenshit!!
I think the "reveal" will be that Hanneman knows that he's just a guy who got lucky once and has no idea what he is doing. He knows it and is worried that Erlich will figure it out. The dude is able to wow and lead people like Richard on with his baseless confidence, but Erlich will see through his bullshit eventually, since they are playing pretty much the same game. Though Erlich is not as big of an asshole.
I don't know that Hanneman is as completely incompetent as some of you are making him out to be. That little twist over the "show check" and his reveal that Pied Piper would not receive lump financing and would, instead, only receive checks every two weeks once they figured out their burn rate demonstrated a level of shrewdness that his brash personality normally keeps completely covered up. He made a really hard deal with Richard because he knew Richard had no leverage to negotiate. As part of that deal he received two seats on the board, the "loan" will convert to an equity stake in the company if Pied Piper fails to meet certain milestones, and he's limited his financial outlay by distributing the check over time rather than in one lump sum. That's a great deal for Hanneman.
 
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