Ask HN: How do you feel about HBO's Silicon Valley? - jawerty
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gkoberger
I actually liked Betas, which is Amazon's Silicon-Valley-based show. I hated
it at first (it made me cringe a lot), but then I realized it wasn't that the
writing was _bad_. Rather, it was so spot on, it made me cringe because I know
people (and companies) like that.

Once I realized they were in on the joke, I liked it a lot better.

They clearly knew SV culture really well. There were a lot of great
references, and many scenes were clearly shot in SF.

[http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-HD/dp/B00CDBX1PA](http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-
HD/dp/B00CDBX1PA)

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yzzxy
I felt beyond the specific area, it was extremely good at capturing the weird
zeitgeist of millennial culture - not the living-with-parents-unemployed-loser
stereotype, but the confused generation of people who grew up along with the
internet. I can't really think of a specific instance of this, but the
characters on the startup team had very specific, subtle character traits that
I associate with people I know who are 20-30 right now.

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firebones
It's a liquified HackerNews shooter.

Which means: I loved it, and we will be quoting these episodes ad nauseam.

Couple of duds in terms of jokes, but the ones that hit pierced the heart.

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danoprey
If you haven't seen it yet, HBO have put the whole first episode on youtube:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4)

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serge2k
It was excellent.

Spot on. Every company changing the world with <some random buzzword infested
phrase>. Great.

Like the Thiel spoof.

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w1ntermute
In my experience, people in SV are not nearly as awkward as the show portrays
them.

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payapp
I liked original versions of Pirate of Silicon Valley, and original Office
Space - nothing beats those two movies on Startups.

However, the theme (and reality) of entrepreneurs facing all sorts of
challenges and storms, and still stand like a mountain to support their
products/platforms/ideas reminds us how power a human being is! just
amazing...

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27182818284
I hated the first ten minutes of it, but by the end I found myself laughing,
so I'm curious for more.

Particularly the "I memorized the hexadecimal times tables when I was 14
writing machine code", for whatever reason, made me laugh a lot.

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coffeecodecouch
I think it's hilarious, and unlike lots of "nerd" based shows I think it's
even MORE funny as someone who knows the industry. Then again, I've always
been a sucker for T.J. Miller.

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kohanz
Question from someone who hasn't seen it: would an average non-startup culture
person (e.g. my wife) possibly enjoy this show? I'm worried it's too niche...

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mburst
I don't think so but with that said the show is only 30min so you don't lose
much by watching 1 episode.

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auganov
It's a constant stream of ridicule. Would be much better if it slowed down at
least once in a while. Think Valleywag but even shallower and more intense.

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jcampbell1
It was witty, charming, and cringe worthy. Reminded me of The Office. I am
probably a sucker for single camera comedies, but it seems worth watching.

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jedberg
Is it worth downloading and watching?

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FlailFast
I think so -- in some of the show's scenes, you actually feel like you're
watching reality...which makes it a good deal funnier to me. Then again, I am
a bit of an SV cynic myself, so YMMV.

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yef
Very much a caricature, though some of the details were funny. Is Peter
Gregory supposed to be PG?

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jawerty
I think Peter Gregory is supposed to be Peter Thiel considering they described
Gregory's 100,000 grant similar to the Thiel Fellowship. But it might be PG.

~~~
wyclif
I'd like to see a real debate over whether the Peter Gregory character is
based on Theil or pg, that would be something entertaining to hash out.

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curiouscat321
There's a very good chance he's simply based on prominent VCs in general
(Theil, pg, maybe a little Andressean).

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FlailFast
Agreed -- seems like an amalgam. Another possible debate: who is Uhlrich based
on? Proto-Sean Parker?

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firebones
Spoiler.

The actor (Christopher Evan Welch) who plays him passed away from cancer this
past January. Not sure how much of the show was shot before he died.

Had the same thought about Uhlrich--Sean Parker, but only based on seeing "The
Social Network" caricature, with added Mike Judge doofus flair.

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mburst
Very cringe worthy but I'll probably still watch it since it comes on after
GoT

~~~
minimaxir
The cringe factor is intentional. That's Mike Judge's style.

