I love this show. It’s satire, but underneath it all is well researched, sharp witted, down to the bones truth. And funny as hell, too.
Inside HBO’s “Silicon Valley”
I love this show. It’s satire, but underneath it all is well researched, sharp witted, down to the bones truth. And funny as hell, too.
I wanted to like it, but I don’t. I think the humor is corny, it is not well researched enough, and the camera shots are extremely sloppy. The acting and storyline are pretty good, but otherwise I give it a thumbs down.
I’m a non-valley .com developer, and my gf is a medical researcher. we like it, the awkwardness and humor is enjoyable. 30 minutes of mindless entertainment before game of thrones.
in what ways is it not researched well enough?
Just a lot of little stuff that drives me nuts. For example, in the last episode, he mentioned his compression algorithm would shrink data centers because it would require less memory. Yea technically that is passible as correct, but no CS major would refer to storage as memory, because memory is typically used to refer to volatile RAM. Also, iPhones don’t make keyboard click sounds when answering and hanging up, and the display turns off when you hold it to your ear. A lot of the technology and terminology they use feels like the 90’s. It annoys me, and I only laughed a couple of times in 4 episodes. I will probably continue to watch it with an open mind, but I can’t say I’d recommend it to anyone at this point.
ah, hair splitting of minor, inconsequential details. if we were to note tv/film inaccuracies of various industry subject matter we’d run out of memory 🙂
as far as the show’s actual subject matter goes — the valley startup culture — I think they did their homework and got it pretty square.
That was just an example. But it certainly lacks even a moderate level of quality that I’d expect from something on HBO. And I don’t find see all those constant glaring mistakes in shows like Breaking Bad or 24 – yes different shows, but made with a lot more care. And that’s on top of the fact that I just don’t find it funny or tasteful. I don’t know, it just doesn’t impress me at all, and I don’t think its a good portrayal of modern day silicone valley even as satire.
Are you a chemist or intelligence specialist? I’d bet experts in their fields could find techie details of the sort cited to nitpick as well. Without a doubt. Do the mistakes* at the level cited change the narrative? Not at all.
more interesting criticism is the notion that it doesn’t accurately hit valley startup culture, or isn’t worth a laugh — neither of which I can agree with.