This Is What Happens In 'Silicon Valley,' HBO's Takedown Of The Tech Scene
The story follows a Zuckerbergish programmer named Richard who works for Hooli — a giant tech firm that mimics the lavish corporate culture at major companies like Google.
Richard lives in a startup incubator along with three other programmers. He's pictured here alongside his best friend Big Head. They've been friends most of their lives.
Gilfoyle is one of the four programmers living in the incubator with Big Head and Richard. He's a Satanist with a pompous attitude.
Dinesh also lives there, and he's super competitive with Gilfoyle.
They all live under eccentric dot-com billionaire Erlich, who allows them to stay in his house for free in exchange for a 10 percent stake in their products.
The plot kicks off when Richard’s elusive corporate boss, Gavin Belson, realizes that the compression algorithm hidden in Richard’s music app is extremely valuable.
From there, Richard has a life-changing decision to make: sell his algorithm to his boss at Hooli for $10 million or keep it and sell a small stake to venture capitalist Peter Gregory for a small fraction of what Belson offered.
This is Jared, Belson’s assistant. He may be one of the funniest characters on this show.
Nearly every character in the show is a personification of some Silicon Valley stereotype. Richard is obviously the introverted programmer. As you’d expect, Richard and his posse aren’t exactly fighting off the ladies.
Judge especially pokes fun at tech industry big-shots with pretentious, high-strung characters like Belson. Both Belson and Gregory (below) are praised as geniuses even though they typically have their lackeys running things.
Erlich loves Steve Jobs. He even wears Jobs' iconic turtleneck in one scene. From what we've seen, it's a running joke through the series.
The show also parodies the idea that virtually everyone in Silicon Valley is a tech entrepreneur wannabe that’s trying to sell you something. In the first episode we meet a doctor who tries to convince Richard that he should try a prototype of his wearable medical device.
"Silicon Valley" has done most things right, but there’s the occasional joke that feels out of place. There are certain puns you just wouldn’t hear in real life, and it’s clear those quips were thrown in there to cram in more nerd cred.
The anti-corporate spirit that defines “Office Space” makes a return in “Silicon Valley.” Richard and his gang are often portrayed as much smarter than characters like Gregory and Belson.
There’s an underlying theme that drives the series: It takes more than a brilliant product and some dedication to make it in Silicon Valley—you need to have strong business chops and an ultra aggressive attitude to survive against the industry overlords. Richard’s biggest hurdle is not only learning to shed his meekness, but also to be a jerk — as Silicon Valley requires.
Now take a look at who's really making waves in Silicon Valley
Popular Right Now
Popular Keywords
Advertisement