Silicon Valley - Season 5 (HBO) (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

Just rewatched this, and some additional thoughts:

This was a good setup for Jian-Yang. Glad they were able to have Big Head come in, as well. I'm not sure how successful Jian-Yang would be in building a decentralized internet in China, considering the Great Firewall. I hope the producers factor that in.

Other great moments:

- Can't believe they went with the dick-signature for Gavin's Box 3.0, brilliant.
- Jared saying "rat fuck" completed my year.
- Richard only knows so much gay stuff, thanks to Russ Motherfucking Hanneman.
- "Hi There, Hitler"

- Dinesh: "What about that time I got a bullseye in Skee-Ball, and you said 'OK' -- you don't fake enthusiasm like that!!"

- Laurie: "Medically-prescribed MDMA? I am taking it for severe post-partum depression...I do not know why he is taking it."

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Big Head inheriting Erlich's entire estate because he accidentally mailed a Chinese takeout menu instead of the paperwork dissolving the business partnership is such a Big Head move.

 

[joshEH]

...As usual, this episode was positively a total, massive Jared-quotefest:

- "Yeah, I'm happy to be here...I-I did have to cancel a speaking engagement this afternoon with underprivileged middle-school computer education class, but...well, I suppose being abandoned by a role-model is, in itself, an important life-lesson."

Followed mere moments later by:

"You're gonna be fine. Look at you! You've got the hair of Giovanni Ribisi, and the complexion of Timothy Hutton, and eyes of Joni Mitchell! You're like a Mr. Potato Head of beautiful people."

And then:
- "As my foster-mother used to say: 'Donald, you have a face for the closet.' " Goddamn.
- "I look like an anti-Semitic propaganda cartoon."
- "This? Oh, it's just a light saline-injection."
- "Here come the shame-spirals..."

And, of course, Jared instantly recognizing Adrian Grenier from The Devil Wears Prada.

Does it feel like Silicon Valley is moving into some totally new areas, creatively-speaking? They're getting slightly away from the pattern where each episode ends with the latest big fuck-up, and it now feels like they're moving forward without taking two steps back nearly every single episode.

(And also, does the set in the Ex Machina robot-girl room remind anyone else of the room where Dinesh and Gilfoyle made the "Let Blaine Die" S.W.O.T.-board, from way back when Pied Piper was a live-streaming service?)

 

[questrider]

 

[joshEH]

Other awesome moments:

Biggest laugh of the season might very well have been Gilfoyle's "Fuck you...FUCK YOU" after seeing Jared's lips. Absolutely perfect. Also: Gilfoyle the Badass Satanist scared shitless about the forthcoming A.I. uprising/apocalypse, and wanting e-mail confirmation of his contributions lest Roko's Basilisk actually comes true, LOL.

- "Coming up next, the conversation every parent dreads: How to talk to your kids about the Blockchain."
- "Elon Musk is a Disney-level optimist" -- spot-on, Gilfoyle.
- "That guy definitely fucks that robot, right?"

And Denpak!! ("He's talking about starting a family!" "Like...to raise? Himself?")

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The biggest laugh of the night for me was Richard rummaging around in Jared's desk drawer and accidentally triggering a switchblade.

So wholesome, and yet so much darkness lingering right around the edges.

 

[John Lee_275604]

Biggest laugh of the season might very well have been Gilfoyle's "Fuck you...FUCK YOU" after seeing Jared's lips. Absolutely perfect.

The second FU was what sold it, so much subtext. Still chuckling thinking about the gears grinding, shearing, and flying off into oblivion inside Gilfoyle's head.

'Dafuq man, you're supposed to do something MILDLY embarassing. Then I deadpan a scathing cutdown and you skulk in shame for the rest of the day. . . HAve you NEVER SEEN me needle Dinesh?
Then you pop up with this catastrophe?
How am I supposed to remain composed and detached?
How am I supposed to tear off the perfect burn?
How am I supposed to refrain from running off screaming? . . . .

FUCK YOU . . .[another quick mental Rolodex of his best cutdowns, . . . nope, nothing,] FUCK YOU!!'

 

[joshEH]

...OK, so, Jared just in tonight's episode alone:

- "When it was just us, a little cocksmanship was a fun diversion."

- "It's kind of hard to explain, but, a campfire smells sad and exciting at the same time."

- "If you wanna work the corner, you don't fall in love every time you turn a trick. That's why you do the Oxy." (Man, Jared's implied backstory...)

- "Richard, you have an enormous heart...and I don't mean in the same way that my deceased friend Gloria did...which, the doctors SHOULD HAVE really caught, because her knuckles were gargantuan."

Fiona's was hands-down the most horrifying death I've witnessed this weekend, and I'm counting both Westworld and Infinity War.

 

[Sam Posten]

Bahahaha when Bighead queried Siri it set MY siri off!

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Not sure which beat I loved more: Gavin getting outmaneuvered by the put-upon factory owner (whose efforts to minimize worker suicides by creating a tolerable work environment slowed down the production timetable for Gavin's penis box), or Monica taking advantage of Laurie's absence to smoke in the office and finally remove that horrid question mark artwork from her line of sight.

Monica is now a name partner in a venture capital firm controlling the purse strings for hundreds of millions of dollars, but somehow Amanda Crew still manages to convey the existential torment of being Peter Gregory's put-upon assistant.

 

[joshEH]

And speaking of Laurie:

- "Richard? I have vomited into my shirt..." Oh shit, Laurie is human. (And the exact same size as the robot!)

- "I consumed two egg-whites and a green bean, and immediately regained my composure."

 

[joshEH]

...Oh snap. Laurie Bream is the season-antagonist. Brutal ending. Also, I thought for a second that the screen had frozen, and the PPV value was actually through the roof, hence Laurie's call to Monica. This episode took the usual formula and fucked it right up the ass.

And how can there only be one more episode?! How?!? There so much stuff to fit into half an hour. Next week gonna be crazy.

Great moments tonight:

- Jared's reflection in the plate. Also, his speed-walking after Holden was fucking hilarious.

- That Fortnite-reference looked like it was dubbed in very recently. Notice you don't see their faces as they say it. Pretty cool they do little things like that to keep it up-to-date.

- How has the Model 3 not been mentioned with all this Tesla-talk?

- Jared: "Richard, adversity is a great teacher...just like cigarette-burns."

- Gavin: "Being in North Carolina feels like a bit of a homecoming to me -- I own a vacation property right off the coast...in Bermuda."

- Gilfoyle: "There are very few things that I will defend with true passion -- medical marijuana, the Biblical Satan as a metaphor for rebellion against tyranny...and MOTHERFUCKING GODDAMN CRYPTOCURRENCY."

I bet Gilfoyle is nuts about K-Cash.

 

[TravisR]

I liked that they fooled me into thinking the cryptocurrency plot would be leading them into the finale and it was finished by the next scene.

All the stuff with Gavin was an amazingly accurate critique of business.

 

[joshEH]

"...You know I can just tear these up, right?"

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I'm glad they finally found a way to bring Monica in-house, so they can use the character more. Just hope the finale isn't yet another one where everything goes to shit just when they're on the brink of success. I don't mind a two-way race next season between PiperNet and Chinese New Piped Piper, but let them go into it not completely crippled and demoralized.

Is it just me, or did this season feel really short?

 

[TravisR]

Is it just me, or did this season feel really short?

Is there any way that 8 episodes doesn't feel short?

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Is there any way that 8 episodes doesn't feel short?

I would like this, but I don't like that it's two less than the norm.

 

[joshEH]

 

[joshEH]

To paraphrase Marcus Cole on Babylon 5: Di...did they just win? I had to make sure this wasn't a series finale, considering how it ended on a positive note. That was a great season finale precisely because it was so straightforward, just a pure race against time.

That was my favorite episode of the entire season for sure. Great ending -- they finally went without getting screwed over. So many amazing scenes tonight, too. Big Head with the Big Gulp of ice, the Tesla-scene, the Kiss My Piss-dance, ice-cream bowl-drop, Gavin's Signature Box 3.0 LED, and possibly my favorite line from any TV show ever: "HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER??!?" Bah gawd Jared

After Westworld leading into Silicon Valley, now I've seen two robots lose their minds in a span of five minutes.

Some other great moments tonight:

- Holden is officially amazing. He had the best laughs this episode. And Confident Holden™ is scary AF.
- Gilfoyle's coffee-mug: "Drink Coffee Hail Satan"
- Gavin: "Mind the glass," for the third time.
- Those fucking lame Tesla-jokes finally paid off. I nearly died laughing seeing the cop in the Tesla.
- Jared coming in early to clean up for the custodial staff is one of the most-Jared-things ever.
- Both this and the previous episode had great Gilfoyle/Monica-scenes -- hoping to see more of them next season.

Also, Gavin:

"The Chinese were petulant, the North Carolinians proved very entitled, and I held out hope for our experiment in the Yukon Territories, but the Inuit are SURPRISINGLY adept at collective-bargaining."

"Tim Cook keeps inviting me to brunch. Fuck him!! I'll host the fucking brunches!!!"

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

That was my favorite episode of the entire season for sure. Great ending -- they finally went without getting screwed over. So many amazing scenes tonight, too. Bighead with the Big Gulp of ice, the Tesla-scene, the Kiss My Piss-dance, ice-cream bowl-drop, Gavin's Signature Box 3.0 LED, and possibly my favorite line from any TV show ever: "HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIE TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER??!?" Bah gawd Jared

Mine too. I'm really glad they committed to the forward progression in the finale. Success and expansion opens up its own challenges and storytelling opportunities.

And that was the line of the century.

After Westworld leading into Silicon Valley, now I've seen two robots lose their minds in a span of five minutes.

- Holden is officially amazing. He had the best laughs this episode. And Confident Holden™ is scary AF.

I love that Monica just hurls constant abuse at him, with Gilfoyle nearby just basking in the negative energy.

- Both this and the previous episode had great Gilfoyle/Monica-scenes -- hoping to see more of them next season.

I really liked the two of them together as a platonic pairing. She's always had an acerbic side, but he really brings it to the fore. And, per the Piped Piper website, she's officially the CFO now.

Good interview with Alec Berg about the finale.