‘Silicon Valley’ Season 2 Blu-Ray Review

Silicon Valley functions as a brilliant antithesis to a show like Entourage, yet still also maintains some of that boyish quality popularized by Vince and the boys. The difference between Silicon Valley and Entourage is that Vince and his gang talk about bagging babes and succeed quite consistently. Richard and his crew, however, simply talk an awkward game, but hardly ever conquer in their conquests. That switch humanizes the comedy more so in Silicon Valley than Entourage. 

Where these geeks do find success is with their company, Pied Piper, a business built around a compression algorithm, but they also face moments of failure. In these moments, the writers of Silicon Valley further differentiate their characters from those of Entourage, because the failures faced by Pied Piper aren’t resolved by the end of the episode; the episodes often end on a cliffhanger.

The Show

When we last saw Richard Henricks, he had just presented his algorithm which vastly outperformed Nucleus’, and investors were now aggressively interested in the prospects of the company. It is after this pivotal event, in Pied Piper’s short history, that Season 2 begins.

Originally, many venture capitalists express interest in Pied Piper including Raviga, which was formerly run by Peter Gregory. Sadly, the actor who played Gregory, Christopher Evan Welch died, so the show needed to reflect that and pay tribute to the character and actor. It effectively does that without losing its comic edge and focuses on the main plot surrounding Pied Piper.

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Unfortunately, the VC attention is short-lived when a Hooli lawsuit against Richard and Pied Piper is introduced and becomes public knowledge. No one is willing to take a risk on Pied Piper anymore. This becomes the primary source of conflict during the season while marginal problems such as algorithm thieves, idiotic investors, and the deletion of hours of pornographic content also manage to thwart the team.

I honestly don’t have much to say that is negative about this season of the show. I found it to be just as humorous as the first season. It is sharp-witted, well-written but never steers so far into a jargon-filled language to alienate its audience. Perhaps my only critique regarding the comedy is that there isn’t a moment in the season that reaches the same, nearly unattainable, level of laughs that Jared’s forced journey in a self-driving car has.

Also, there is so much potential for the inclusion of new characters, such as Alice Wetterlund’s character, Clara, that is wasted. She gets a few jabs at Gilfoyle and Dinesh, but is left behind following her introduction. The same could be said of Suzanne Cryer’s character, which replaces Peter Gregory following his death. Cryer as Laurie Bream is similar to Gregory in her vocal cadence and apathetic tone, but perhaps different nuances would have added to the character.

The newest character that gets the most screen time is Russ Hanneman played by Chris Diamantopoulos, and he is simply the worst. I mean that with the utmost respect for the actor and the performance because he is meant to be the foil of the season, besides Gavin Belson of Hooli. In many ways, Hanneman is actually more responsible than Belson for the downfalls of the company which makes for some uncomfortable scenes, considering Hanneman is funding them.

I look forward to watching these characters as they continue to grow, especially considering how the season ended, but I think that a divergence from the formula would be beneficial for next season which will co-star the brilliant character actor, Stephen Toblowsky.

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Presentation

Silicon Valley Season 2 is presented in a 1080p resolution. The picture is sharp and each scene sparkles on screen. Comedy doesn’t necessarily require a great picture to be effective in the same way an action focused show might, but it never hurts having a clear picture.

The audio is presented with a standard DTS-HD Master Audio track and the English audio track is presented using 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround sound. This allows each joke to land perfectly because no lines are missed and the comedic uses of silence, potato cannons, and mariachi bands is further accentuated. Subtitles are also available (in eight languages) for those who are hearing impaired or just want to visually witness the brilliant writing in episode after episode.

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Special Features

This Blu-ray set includes deleted scenes from the series, a short featurette titled “Reality Bytes: The Art & Science Behind Silcon Valley,” and audio commentaries which feature one of the creators Mike Judge, producer Alec Berg, and actors T.J. Miller, Thomas Middleditch, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Amanda Crew, Zach Woods, and more.

Final Thoughts

Silicon Valley is one of the best shows on television. It’s consistently funny and intelligent, and the characters are despicable sometimes, but endearing enough so we root for them. Silicon Valley defies what has worked in the past with comedy. Seinfeld and The Office are basically shows about nothing that anyone could jump into at any point. Silicon Valley demands viewers to come back for more each week and start from the beginning, with its ever-changing plot surrounding the Pied Piper boys. That is comedy that perfectly works in this modern age of television.

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