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Silicon Valley - S4 OT - The Venture Continues - Sundays on HBO

DarkestHour

Banned
So this is probably an unpopular opinion but I disagree with most of you - the show's still excellent IMO.

Highlights:

Jian Yang throwing the suitcase angrily at Erlich basically saying "Fuck you"
Dinesh as an unintentional suicide bomber
Richard and co totally fucking up Hooli's presentation with the exploding phones

Thought it was a great episode. The only thing that would make me stop watching the show is Erlich's departure which might be a killing blow - but for now I remain a fan.

Looking forward to the fallout next week in the finale.

My favorite season so far.
 

TylerD

Member
I'm still really enjoying it too. Thought it was very funny that Richard being so lame, went with poop instead of the obvious penis. But that's so Richard. Pretty sure we aren't supposed to like him at this point so I don't care he's so unlikeable. He certainly doesn't deserve success.

I totally missed the suicide bomber Dinesh bit though.
 

sangreal

Member
I got the suicide bomber joke but they didn't really do anything with it. I mean at no point does anyone in the show make that connection
 

mid83

Member
Personally I still love the show. The plot really doesn't matter much to me as long as I still find it funny. It's not that different to why I enjoyed Entourage for most of it's run. Certain character like Ari and Drama made the show for me despite the plot being pretty stupid most of the time. It's also similar to me because in both shows, the "main" character is the one I care the least about.

For me, as long as the show remains funny I'm in. That said, I'm sad that T.J. Miller is on his way out. I don't read a ton of TV news so I had no idea until I watched this episode and saw the feedback here. I've always found Erlich hilarious and I'm sad that apparently going out not on great terms.
 

Dereck

Member
I took issue with Richard fucking up and everyone scolding him and then him not having any remorse or personal growth afterward
 

jviggy43

Member
Also have to say I'm still loving the show. I get the complaints but they dont bother me that much because its still been pretty damn hilarious.
 

firehawk12

Subete no aware
I got the suicide bomber joke but they didn't really do anything with it. I mean at no point does anyone in the show make that connection
I mean it's a brown guy with a suspect device trying to find the area with the largest crowd to affect the greatest amount of people. It just felt like a lazy joke.
 
Richard might be the first character to win the "worse protagonist than Ted Mosby"-title.

I love the security guy.

It's so common with protagonists in comedy series. The writers always seem to go all in on their worst traits after a few seasons, rendering them parodies of what they started as.

Richard here.
Ted Mobsy in HIMYM.
JD in Scrubs.

Still like the series though.
 

jobrro

Member
I would take a spin off where the main characters are Erlich and Jian-Yang living in a different apartment or house together. Their interactions have been some of the funniest things especially in recent times.
 

Sane_Man

Member
It's so common with protagonists in comedy series. The writers always seem to go all in on their worst traits after a few seasons, rendering them parodies of what they started as.

Richard here.
Ted Mobsy in HIMYM.
JD in Scrubs.

Still like the series though.

Wtf at JD! Everyone loves him unlike the others. He's one of the most likeable sitcom leads I would say.
 

5taquitos

Member
It's so common with protagonists in comedy series. The writers always seem to go all in on their worst traits after a few seasons, rendering them parodies of what they started as.

Richard here.
Ted Mobsy in HIMYM.
JD in Scrubs.

Still like the series though.
Selena in Veep is another perfect example. She went from an ambitious yet overlooked politician to one of the worst people on the planet.
 
This episode cemented that Richard is just not likable. His constant fucking up is just getting annoying. I'm glad Jared finally 'snapped' at him.

Glad Hoover turned around, that was awesome. He loves him some Gavin.

I got the suicide bomber joke but they didn't really do anything with it. I mean at no point does anyone in the show make that connection

Jared did. That face.
 

Dali

Member
That trailer was condensed Richard fuckery. They should just rename the show Richard is an insufferable tool that always fucks everything up.

fuck Richard

http://m.neogaf.com/showpost.php?p=232998245

That's my post from the thread with a trailer for this season.

I did s search for posts by me with Richard as the key word and my unbridled hatred seems to have started sometime during season 3. Fuck Richard.
 

OnPoint

Member
I laughed the Lucky cover spoof, Dinesh visiting the prison just to screw over his hacker ex like a dick that totally won't backfire at all. the suicide bomber bit and Jared finally, at least briefly losing his shit at Richard's dumb ass were my favorite parts. Before they revealed he just changed a stupid screen saver like a child, I was expecting he wrote some quick script to screw up the data on the laptop and that his ex would find it and notice the use of tabs and make the obvious connection and it'd all blow up there.

The highlighted is how I felt, largely.
 
Wtf at JD! Everyone loves him unlike the others. He's one of the most likeable sitcom leads I would say.

In the first seasons, and in the last (regular season). But in the middle, and in the spinoff season (which I otherwise liked), they take the "little girl with unicorn diary" persona too far.
 

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
I figured they will do one last scene with him driving Gavin crazy.

Really going to miss him on the show.

Yeah but his story seems to be going to a close. His main thing always been it is his house and speaking up a storm. It is time for him to go sadly. I wish he comes back during the last season.

Him and Gavin probably have a heart to heart or they realize they are exactly alike and it is time for him to go.
 

NYR

Member
Yeah I missed it as well. Maybe I need to watch the scene again, but in the moment I wasn't thinking suicide bomber.
The Arabic music?

The comment about getting as many as he can?

The response from Richard about being rewarded at the end?

A kill switch that looks like a detonator?

Not sure how you missed all the queues.
 

Nafai1123

Banned
Richard is such an awful character. He's just a piece of shit with no redeeming qualities. I enjoy the show but goddamn you gotta develop a LITTLE bit more of his character than that.
 

Wingfan19

Unconfirmed Member
I think people would have caught the joke a little better in a less tense situation.
Yeah, I think that's exactly what it was. I literally missed all those cues that NYR posted above. I think it needed more room to breathe for me to not be focusing on how Richard was trying to hurry him out of the booth with the security guys coming down the aisle. I usually don't miss those jokes, but man do I feel dumb now.
 

Wingfan19

Unconfirmed Member
Well now...

94GuBlh.jpg
 
really finding it hard to take these characters seriously. there is no way in hell they would still work for this guy.

this episode really felt unreal. the exploding phones was a shark jump moment imo. also doesn't it completely fuck the guys over, since they were using those phones to store the data for their one and only client? and now those phones are exploded? and if someone's phone isn't exploded, they will delete the app as soon as possible, just like they said. Pied Piper just walked away like it was funny?

Richard is hard to take seriously. if he was really that obsessive over his tech then why would he do something risky when they are doing a hugely illegal last ditch thing? "hahah because it is funny!"

this is the show now. things just happen because they are a funny situation. if the joke in a given scene needs a character to act totally unlike themselves, it will happen, because these are not characters anymore, these are cartoons. this show is going through the motions.
 

EVO

Member
Dinesh's "what's your policy on anonymous tips?" line got a big laugh from me, probably my favourite of the series. A lot of people seem down on this show but I think it just gets better and better.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Dinesh's "what's your policy on anonymous tips?" line got a big laugh from me, probably my favourite of the series. A lot of people seem down on this show but I think it just gets better and better.

I'm still loving it. I'm not watching it for a real-world Silicon Valley simulator, so maybe that's why I don't take it so seriously.
 

sohois

Member
I feel like people are a bit hard on Richard because it seems like he is just a constant fuck up but you it's hard to demonstrate his incredible ability in the show: if in the real world, he would most probably be the greatest coder alive. He codes an incredibly efficient compression algorithm accidentally whilst working on another project. When that gets matched, he comes up with something even more efficient - by a seemingly huge factor- in a single night. Then when he can't turn that into a business he seems to just invent a new internet within a few episodes of time.

Richard is basically like Superman or some other OP hero, constantly given these weird obstacles because otherwise there would be no challenge. In real life the success of failure of his apps would have absolutely no bearing on his success because the googles, microsofts and apples of the world would be lining up to pay millions for his company, just to get him (and probably Dinesh and Gilfoyle, who are also portrayed as coding geniuses). Even in universe it's shown that Richard can just stroll into any CTO job he wants.

There is the argument against this that what SV should do is just not make the group such prodigiously skilled people and have them constantly struggle against their limitations as coders, but that would be incredibly difficult to make interesting or funny. The average, and even the informed viewer, just don't have a good enough frame of reference to understand what kind of code troubles they might get into.
 

Ashhong

Member
I mean this is just the typical problems any sitcom goes through in later seasons. Everyone becomes a caricature. Some people still find it interesting while others start to hate it. I can't think of a conceptual sitcom like this that has done a better job than SV. Although maybe there is one or two out there
 

Slo

Member
If GAF has taught me anything, it's to never be surprised when 20 something computer nerds fail to demonstrate personal growth.
 

louiedog

Member
It's so common with protagonists in comedy series. The writers always seem to go all in on their worst traits after a few seasons, rendering them parodies of what they started as.

Richard here.
Ted Mobsy in HIMYM.
JD in Scrubs.

Still like the series though.

Malcolm in the Middle

It was always on at a convenient time in syndication for me to enjoy Bryan Cranston, but Malcolm was insufferable.

If GAF has taught me anything, it's to never be surprised when 20 something computer nerds fail to demonstrate personal growth.

The Soylent guy literally invented it because he refused to eat real food or go outside in California, one of the nicest places to do both.
 

Lautaro

Member
I mean, I enjoy this show, makes me laugh a lot but even I had to check my expectations. When it started it seemed they were going somewhere with all these characters. Now I just treat it like any sitcom: they have a formula that's funny and they will keep milking it until it stops being funny.
 

norinrad

Member
Dinesh's "what's your policy on anonymous tips?" line got a big laugh from me, probably my favourite of the series. A lot of people seem down on this show but I think it just gets better and better.

I think Mia knows it was him and that he was never in Pakistan as she could easily have hacked into an airline system.
 
I feel like people are a bit hard on Richard because it seems like he is just a constant fuck up but you it's hard to demonstrate his incredible ability in the show: if in the real world, he would most probably be the greatest coder alive. He codes an incredibly efficient compression algorithm accidentally whilst working on another project. When that gets matched, he comes up with something even more efficient - by a seemingly huge factor- in a single night. Then when he can't turn that into a business he seems to just invent a new internet within a few episodes of time.

Richard is basically like Superman or some other OP hero, constantly given these weird obstacles because otherwise there would be no challenge. In real life the success of failure of his apps would have absolutely no bearing on his success because the googles, microsofts and apples of the world would be lining up to pay millions for his company, just to get him (and probably Dinesh and Gilfoyle, who are also portrayed as coding geniuses). Even in universe it's shown that Richard can just stroll into any CTO job he wants.

There is the argument against this that what SV should do is just not make the group such prodigiously skilled people and have them constantly struggle against their limitations as coders, but that would be incredibly difficult to make interesting or funny. The average, and even the informed viewer, just don't have a good enough frame of reference to understand what kind of code troubles they might get into.
I mean, I guess but often - and especially in this episode - Richard's folly is not something out of his control.

Especially in this episode where he fucked over his friends for the sake of not selling the business whilst simultaneously undermining their chances of success because he's jealous. He's supposed to be friends with these people but he never appears to put them first or even really think of them.
 

StMeph

Member
There's just only so many ways to tread the same Sisyphean cycle between near success and total devastation. It happens at least two or three times per season.
 

kiguel182

Member
Richard can be very talented but he is still impossible to stand.

I've been feeling like this for some time now and it has only worsen.
 
They can only take the 'Richard fucks things up every episode' trope so far and I think we've passed it.

I'm enjoying the show but it needs to move on.
 
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