-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Silicon Valley writer: The shows lack of diversity is accurate
- Thread starter Dalek
- Start date
- Status
Morrigan Stark
Arrogant Smirk
Hahahaha
Honestly, while I sorta enjoyed the show, I was more or less on the fence about it until that final S1 episode where they satirized these speeches, and how all the candidates at that tech show used the pretentious, presumptuous "making the world a better place" buzz phrase and other similar garbage. It rang so true and I was laughing my ass off.
Testicular Sound Express
Member
Yes, believe or not some get tired of this. You sometimes forget how refreshing it is to relate to characters and see things that reflect your own experiences on television until you see it.
Schrade
Member
Oh man are you in for a treat.
smokeymicpot
Beat EviLore at pool.
It's a great show. Sign up for a month trail in April so you can watch the third season also.
-Pyromaniac-
Member
Love this show <3
I hear this a lot like some of the things they play for laughs are actually based in real life, parties with rockers, messed up gender ratios, guy who hates people going to university could all be played straight. On a scale from 1-10 how accurate is the show?
Irishmantis
Member
If you people dislike this show for "lack of colour" do not watch It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia!
It's as white as a show you can get but it's also one of the best shows made so you're missing out.
It's as white as a show you can get but it's also one of the best shows made so you're missing out.
DirtyManos
Member
Well you have to be careful that you don't throw the ratio off....
Regarding the topic, I think it depends. For a show whose focus is on satirizing this specific population and location, I think it's fine to represent the actual lack of diversity in the cast. However, I can't really think of more than one time that this is actually referenced or a topic in the show. I think they want you to see it from an outside perspective and come to that conclusion of their insularity on your own, I guess.
Wow, I've never done that for a show I enjoy, even if the show was mainly made up of characters outside my race.
I worked in SV for a while and I'm still in tech. My current company is pretty diverse, but it is overwhelmingly male.
I don't work within the industry yet. But all of my classes at a local community college in San Jose are Asian, South Asian, African and White. I've been to tons of hackathons in the area, and those same ethnicities are well represented, especially Asian and South Asian....
I live in San Jose too, and it's kind of diverse.
I live in San Jose too, and it's kind of diverse.
I actually sorta get what you're saying. Sometimes I'd forgo watching a show because it seems too "White" to me, and I'm not just talking about ethnic makeup. I mean I watched Friends and Seinfeld, but sometimes a show's premise and situations seem "too white" to me.
For example, I've heard great things about "You're the Worst", but I don't wanna watch yet another show about attractive white people navigate relationships together. Not happening when there's so many other shows that exist today, but wouldn't have 10 years ago, that offer perspectives I can personally relate to more.
Iron Man Cooking a Crepe
Banned
They said the same thing about Friends and Seinfeld and guess what, us black folks are doing okay. Hell, from the couple episodes I watched with both, I can tell you Martin and Fresh Prince were leagues better.
Boogie9IGN
Member
Living in Man Jose, it's pretty diverse but of course the men greatly outnumber the females. Working at the Google campuses, it's usually giant droves of White/Asian men with maybe one or two women walking around. All in all the show's pretty accurate about things in that regard
NipplesAndToes23
Member
Hey did you know they revealed what Tommy's job is? I don't buy it. He had to be doing something illegal.
Byakuya769
Member
Can the people giving Infinite shit list off all the majority minority shows they watch?
Just curious.
San Jose is pretty diverse no? Compare West San Jose to East San Jose. Or North to South. Plenty of diversity.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
.... I may be reading this entirely the wrong way, but all of your responses just read like you're going out of your way to try to start a fight.
It's incredibly diverse lmao. Ridiculously so. It's 30% white, 30% Hispanic, 30% Asian, 3% black and then other races round out the remainder.
Coffee Dog
Banned
Do you not think he has a right to be upset?
BocoDragon
or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
To the show's credit the show kind of addresses this by implying that the gang is kinda racist...
i'd say 9 is accurate, and it makes the show more "Sad funny" then "funny funny" because i watch it and think ... shit, that was last week.
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
No, not at all.
Believe me i'm not starting a fight here. I'm not sure what gave off that impression.
Oh hell yeah, a female friend of mine who is in a start-up basically deals with this every day. Lot of stories about how she's seen as some oddity as a girl who knows her shit.
Angelus Errare
Banned
I, for one, can't wait.
Feel sorry for you.
no you don't lol
This comment made me realize that I watched a ton of black sitcoms from the 90s and early 00s... Fresh Prince, Family Matters, Waynes Bros, Bernie Mac Show, Hangin' With Mr. Cooper, Cedric the Entertainer's show, and others I'm probably forgetting.
I think I just watched a lot more sitcoms when I was younger... the only sitcoms I watch now are syndicated.
I can see the complaints, although I think the showrunners' perspective is valid too. There's always a question of whether you should be aspirational in your representation or be more true to life, despite the downsides to that. Quitting shows because they don't have enough X seems like a bizarre reason to stop watching entertainment, especially since I don't think there's a good way to turn that lack of engagement into a vote along the lines of "I'm not supporting you for diversity issues". Basically the same problem with voting with your wallet for films.
A much more valid critique is the diversity of your writing staff, and if they're doing better than the average and actively working on that then they deserve to be held up as an example for other shows.
Here's another good point to bring up the fact that it's still only on-screen actors and major creatives that anyone cares about, though, when if you're trying to make a living in the business I think having a lot more women and minority gaffers and (post)production people is a lot more important.
A much more valid critique is the diversity of your writing staff, and if they're doing better than the average and actively working on that then they deserve to be held up as an example for other shows.
Here's another good point to bring up the fact that it's still only on-screen actors and major creatives that anyone cares about, though, when if you're trying to make a living in the business I think having a lot more women and minority gaffers and (post)production people is a lot more important.
Highly specific demographic targeting seems like it killed off those kind of post-Cosby general audience shows for a while.
General question related to these sorts of topics: are there demographic stats/slices showing the % of kids (by race) growing up in a household in the top/middle/bottom X%?
I dropped it not so much because of a lack of diversity, but because I would be far more interested if it did something *with* that lack of diversity. At least in the first season, it was occasionally the subject of a minor joke, but to me it's deserving of a much more central place in the show's satire than it has. And the elements of the show that do touch on race and gender are just very... tropey and uninteresting. The female and non-white characters fall into the usual traps for female and non-white characters on male/white-centred shows, and that's just kind of boring.
My perspective, for what it's worth, is as someone who has worked in the tech industry outside SV for my entire career, but I spend plenty of time in the valley because of it.
Of the four main characters one is South Asian. There's an East Asian character in their house so i guess so. There aren't many Latinos or black people on the show. I have a question, is the 3 comma guy realistic?
Sho_Nuff82
Member
A you guys being for real?
Having been to Silicon Valley a few times (including Google and Google X), it's amazing how on the nose the show is. A friend of mine, a lifelong bachelor, hates living in San Jose (which he lovingly refers to as Man Jose) due to the tech demographic.
I made a couple of follow up posts but yeah.
BearFlexington
Member
The show's lack of Indian devs is the least realistic aspect but I think it's very accurate to the current culture of Silicon Valley. That culture by the way deserves ridicule and the show does a great job of that.
Count Dookkake
Member
Not laughing at The Naked Gun is the most offensive thing in the article.
Discotheque
Banned
Great show. Sad how accurate it ended up being
Oh FFS.
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Locked
- Locked