Starring: Thomas Middleditch, T.J. Miller, Josh Brener, Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Christopher Evan Welch
Creator: Mike Judge
Number of discs: 2
Studio: HBO Studios
DVD Release Date: March 31, 2015
Season: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Blu-ray: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 out of 5 stars
Whenever I see the name, Mike Judge, involved with a project, I immediately know that I need to watch it. Mike Judge is really an under appreciated director. Since creating “Beavis and Butt-head”, he has delivered a lot of great content. His latest TV show was the long running “King of the Hill”. “Silicon Valley” is an awkward, funny and very sarcastic comedy. If you are a nerd of any type and work in or are familiar with the technology industry this will be a home run for you. It is filled with all sorts of stabs at this ever-growing industry. The cast is just amazing together T.J. Miller is a rising star and he is going to do some really big things. Kumail Nanjiani is just amazing at whatever he does. Martin Starr is just so damn funny, I have no idea how he doesn’t crack a smile with some of the things he says. The season itself I felt lost a little steam by the end of the eight episodes but overall, it was a great season and I can’t wait to see what they have planned for season two.
Official Premise: From the offbeat mind of Mike Judge (Office Space, Beavis and Butt-head), this HBO half-hour comedy takes viewers inside the world of tech start-ups – and the socially awkward underdogs who try to navigate its lucrative potential. Starring a talented ensemble of young comic actors (see below) and veterans, Silicon Valley charts the rising fortunes of Richard, an introverted computer programmer who lives in a “Hacker Hostel” start-up incubator along with his friends Big Head, Gilfoyle, and Dinesh. These social misfits live under the watch of Erlich, a dotcom millionaire who lets them stay in his house for free – as long as he gets a 10% stake in their projects. Stuck working part-time at a large tech company called Hooli, Richard’s obscure website, Pied Piper, is going nowhere fast. But when a mid-level Hooli executive named Jared is apprised of the value of the site’s novel compression algorithm, Richard finds himself caught in the middle of an extreme bidding war between Hooli founder Gavin Belson and independent billionaire venture capitalist Peter Gregory.
HBO is releasing “Silicon Valley: The Complete First Season” as a combo pack with a Blu-ray and Digital HD copy included. The 1080p transfer and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track are standard for a half-hour comedy. Nothing spectacular but also no issues either. The special features included are impressive as well like the season. First off we have “Making Silicon Valley”, which is a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the show. “Tech Crunch: Disrupt!” looks into how this conference was created. “The Hacker Hostel” is a tour through the Pied Piper headquarters. There are episodes previews included to catch you up. Lastly there eight Audio Commentaries covering each episode with talent including with Mike Judge, Alec Berg, T.J. Miller and many more. These are worth the revisit of the season alone, since they are insightful and very funny.
