TV Review: Silicon Valley 1×06 “Third Party Insourcing” & 1×07 “Proof of Concept”

Third Party Insourcing

I’m tackling two episodes together again because I was disappointed with an episode for the second time and didn’t have much to say about it. Maybe disappointed isn’t exactly the right word. “Third Party Insourcing” just felt very run-of-the-mill to me. There was only one plotline in the episode that I found interesting although there were individual moments that I enjoyed. I’ll start with the B-plot with Gilfoyle and Dinesh. I love watching Martin Starr and Kumail Nanjiani play off each other and they’ve been a consistently strong pairing in this first season. It’s unfortunate that their plot this week involves bringing in Gilfoyle’s girlfriend, Tara,  just so he can trick Dinesh into thinking she wants to have sex with him. Given the noticeable lack of female characters on the show it’s a shame that she’s immediately thrown into a story involving two guys in the house literally arguing over who she would rather screw. The story does have its moments though, Erlich trying to show off his hot bod and emerging from the pool to find Tara gone was funny little moment, the best part being Dinesh’s pro and con list for sleeping with Tara.

The A-plot involving “The Carver” didn’t really hit for me. Whether it was Austin Abrams’ performance as Kevin or just the way the whole thing played it, it felt like an obstacle manufactured by the writers and less organic than the other problems the Pied Piper crew has dealt with. However just like with Dinesh and Gilfoyle’s plotline, there was a great comedic moment that made the plotline worthwhile. Watching Erlich slap a kid across the face really shouldn’t be that funny but it killed me. T.J. Miller sells the hell out of the scene and it’s the small details like throwing the bike over hedge that really make it work. I also loved the shot of Richard standing behind Erlich and identifying the kid that played him. It was like a kid bring his older brother out to the playground to beat up a bully.

Now the stand out part of the episode was Jared’s plot. Zach Woods is quickly becoming the MVP of the show with the specific mannerisms he’s imbued Jared with. It also helped that he had the most absurd story of all and that really made it stand out. Most of the satirical elements of the show focus on the fact that technology often makes life more complicated. As amazing as technology can get nothing can ever be fool-proof. When Peter Gregory’s self-driving cars malfunction, they take Jared on the ride of his life. Watching Jared’s confusion slowly grow into full-blown panic was fantastic and I loved the little song he sang to calm himself down. The final reveal that Gregory’s island was run entirely by automated machines was the perfect ending gag.

Proof of Concept

Oh Jared. The poor guy can’t catch a break. I have to give Zach Woods props again for his portrayal of Jared. Watching Monica slowly take over his job and have nobody really notice his frustration was amazing. He just looked exhausted and worn out and Woods plays everything very small until his final conversation with Monica. Jared’s always been kind of an outsider to the group and this plotline builds on moments in previous episodes like him missing Peter Gregory’s charity party and Erlich having him stand away from the group for the company photo. If you stop think about it, Jared is an essential part of the company because he brings skills to the table that nobody at the hacker hostel has. His impassioned speech mentions exactly none of these skills in a hilarious fashion. Having Jared’s story dovetail with Richard’s obsession storyline was a clever way to wrap up both plots and leads to a nice scene where Jared gets the gratitude he deserves.

The real story this episode is Tech Crunch Disrupt and the rush to complete the Pied Piper live-demo. In classic sitcom fashion Richard becomes distracted from the task at hand when a female conference attendee claims that after dating for a short time Richard became obsessed with her. The stakes aren’t very high and I never really got the feeling that Richard wouldn’t finish the demo and it seems the story existed only to get a few laughs from Richard creating awkward situations for himself over and over again. The other potential obstacle for the team involves Erlich having slept with the wife of one of the competitions judges. Again the stakes aren’t very high because that’s not really what SIlicon Valley is interested in and this does lead to a hilarious final scene. I loved the opening seconds of Pied Piper’s presentation with Erlich going full Jobs before being attacked by the judge.

The Gilfoyle and Dinesh show continues to involve sex and it was able to be very funny without marginalizing another female character. I was very happy to see that AJ Michalka’s conference attendee wasn’t just there for the guys to fight over. Kumail Nanjiani has a really expressive face and it watching him struggle with his umm, attraction, to Gilyfolye’s java code as he tries to make Michalka was really funny. I like the way the interactions between the different members of the team are really starting to feel lived in and organic. This was another solidly funny episode heading into the finale where I assume the stakes will be higher as we find out how Hooli’s Nucleus project stacks up against Pied Piper.