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

Silicon Valley: Season 3, Episode 1 “Founder Friendly” (B+)

It’s great to have this show back, and it’s really very singular in the way it uses its tech speak to guide its highly entertaining plotline. Richard getting fired didn’t lead anywhere good, and his threat to sue the company panned out very poorly since his useless lawyer cited his connection to Pied Piper and the fact that he could no longer represent Richard as a result. The casting of Stephen Tobolowsky as Jack Barker was brilliant, and I love how he stood there and took every single one of Erlich’s carefully prepared age-related insults. It’s hard to believe that he would really turn down the opportunity to be CEO if he didn’t have Richard aboard, but maybe that’s because he’s actually smart and realizes that he couldn’t have done it without him. Dinesh and Gilfoyle certainly came to that conclusion after thinking that they could use Richard’s code without him, and that backfired pretty quickly. Things change so immediately and regularly on this show that it’s hard to keep up, but that makes it so much more enjoyable. Of course Gavin wrote up such terrible contracts that he could terminate the entire Nucleus team without any consequences and ensure that they followed noncompete clauses, news that he delivered in a way that made him seem like the good guy falling on his sword. Big Head’s accidental number confusion was hilarious, and he really is the dumbest rich guy around. He’s also the richest, netting $20 million as a payout for literally doing nothing.