What I’m Watching: Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley: Season 4, Episode 7 “The Patent Troll” (B+)

It’s hard enough doing things right all the time in tech, and when you didn’t even do anything wrong but you’re being targeted anyway, it doesn’t feel fair. Being laughed at by his doctor when he asked for an STD test and then told that he was shrinking because of his unhealthy lifestyle was a miserable start, and then being told that cracking into the top 500 apps of a very specific type was only a brief high when it then turned out to be the reason that they were targeted by the patent troll. I love that Richard tried to band together a group of likely targets and that, partially because of his unfortunate mentions of multiple untoward sexual traditions, they ended up going to the troll directly to preemptively negotiate with him, screwing Richard over. Using his copyright search engine, the first version of Pied Piper, to pull one over on the troll was brilliant, and it’s just a shame that their hapless lawyer still billed them more than he would have owed in the first place. Jared inventing Ed Chambers was funny, though it seems we’ve seen the last of him now that Jared killed him. Gilfoyle using his new secure modem to devote unnecessary attention to hacking Jian-Yang’s new smart fridge was pretty hilarious, and I like that he spent so much time on it rather than doing the work he actually had to do. Erlich negotiating his finder’s fee in half to become an associate is an interesting and sure-to-implode development, and his attempt to mansplain mansplaining was a poor start. Falling off the roof and injuring himself so that he wouldn’t have to show how terrible he is at basketball didn’t help him all that much since he still doesn’t have a clue about the game.