What I’m Watching: Silicon Valley (Season Premiere)

Silicon Valley: Season 2, Episode 1 “Sand Hill Shuffle” (B+)

This Emmy-nominated comedy, which took most of its truncated first season to grow into itself, is back for a much more self-assured second year, and, as it turns out, it has good ready to be in high spirits given that it has already been picked up for a third season. It’s interesting to see the aftermath of Pied Piper’s big launch, and how everyone is competing to try to woo their business. I highly enjoyed Erlich’s strategy of being as rude as possible to draw out competitive offers from different potential investors. His best remark was “One of you is the ugliest person I’ve ever seen,” prompting considerable skepticism from the two people to whom he had just uttered that offensive comment. Gavin was expectedly furious with how Pied Piper is doing, and leave it to him to make a big speech at a funeral only to have his lawsuit of the company he claims to have been involved in be announced at just that moment. It’s deeply sad that Christopher Evan Welch passed away, and this episode paid great tribute to him with a hilarious neverending story about how Peter died from Monica, who kept leading her listeners in the wrong direction. I love that she advised Richard not to take the overvaluation, and Laurie was quite flummoxed by him negotiating his terms in half so that his worth could be positively and accurately represented. Dinesh and Gilfoyle arguing over who was the CTO was fun as always, and it’s amazing to see just how much those two bicker.