The show’s still just as funny as it’s always been: Erlich (TJ Miller) and Jared (Zach Woods) steal every scene, like they always do. But things are very different now: Dinesh and Richard are fighting, Erlich is struggling when Big Head’s dad becomes a road block in his Bachmanity venture, Monica’s new office has a clear view of the men’s bathroom, and Richard is leaving Pied Piper, and he’s taking the name with him.   The whole thing is, unfortunately, a downer, but an interesting downer.

Silicon Valley is entering new ground.  With the backing of the least respectable billionaire in the industry, Russ Hannigan, Richard embarks on a mission to build a new internet.  But nothing new is learned that we don’t know from the trailer, with a few exceptions.  It’s a bit underwhelming.  Thankfully, Silicon Valley hasn’t loss what it has always been about: an average guy trying to help the world.  And that’s its saving grace.

Richard is full of big ideas, and we’re still rooting for him, despite his most recent failures.  Maybe Richard will build a new internet.  Maybe he’ll fail even harder than we’ve already seen.  Either way, the Season 4 premiere paves new ground for the show.  It’s different, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.  At the very least, let’s handle the change better than Jared.

Funniest Lines

Jared: “I think I need to leave, but I love you guys.”
Erlich: “You know what we desperately need is a palapa.”

Funniest Moment

Jared giving Richard a manicure in order to repair Richard’s cuticles.  When asked how he learned it, Jared responds, “When I was on the street, it was a means of survival.”

3 out of 5 palapas

The post Silicon Valley’s Season 4 Opens with a Struggling Pied Piper appeared first on SCAD Radio.

Now I have not read the book (yet), written by Liane Moriarty, although I want to now. Last I checked it should arrive at my doorstep in 2-3 business days.

The first episode is titled Somebody’s Dead. At first its forwardness shocked me, but the shock peaked my interest even further. I was nearly hooked from the very beginning, and it certainly helped to have the two perfect epsiodes to kick off the season.

I want to give a loud applause to the star-ridden cast of the series as well. How Vallee was supposed to handle all this star power was a constant concern for me leading up to, and honestly following me after the first few episodes, but I felt everyone was able to work very well together. I can say that I’m a fan of most of the work these people have done, and yes, even Shailene Woodley. I gave her a chance in this show and I was pleasantly surprised. Her performance certainly was not Emmy worthy, but I felt that she owned her role as Jane Chapman.

The relationship between Perry (Skarsgard) and his wife Celeste (Kidman) was one of the most uncomfortable and disturbing depictions of an abusive relationship on screen that I have witnessed in recent viewing. It appears that, after reading other reviews, I am not alone in this category. The relationship contributes an unsettling but nearly undetectable sub-plot in the beginning, but later, without spoiling the show, becomes an essential cog in the machine.

In closing, I was a huge fan of the series ending. Those who read the book before the show may have a different opinion, as with most cases of an adaptation’s climax and ending. With respect (without spoiling the show) the climax felt odd. I took it as this epic crescendo with a hard smack falling into an anti-climax, with both elements intertwined into one to find some sort of resolution that, in reality for the wives and widows of Monterey, never comes.

4.9 out of 5 Bixby Creek Bridges, because of the ending.

The post Big Little Lies: Big Little Season Review appeared first on SCAD Radio.