Silicon Valley, created by the luminously-talented Mike Judge (Beavis and Butthead, Office Space), is a very clever sitcom.
A satire of the technological hub centred around San Jose, California, and the startups it incubates so effectively, it is witty, perceptive, peopled by flawed but irresistible characters and according to sites like TechCrunch, a startlingly accurate portrayal of life in the grimly competitive, adrenaline-rushing world of tech startups:
“For insiders, it holds up a mirror that reflects both the attractive and ugly sides of the startup world, with an accuracy that simultaneously brings on nods and squirms. For outsiders, the series offers a fictionalized look at the esoteric community, eliciting cheers along with copious amounts of schadenfreude.”
And now it’s back with a second season, where the sweet, sweet victory enjoyed by the little startup that could Pied Piper, founded by Richard (Thomas Middleditch) and given haphazard life by his motley team – Erlich (T. J. Miller), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Erlich (T.J. Miller), Jared (Zach Woods) and Dinesh (Kumail Najiani) – is giving way to the harsh realities of life in the real world where you are only as good as your ability to keep ahead of your competitors.
It’s the dawning realisation that things may get darkest before the dawn that has Richard, not the possessor of the strongest of constitutions (physical, mental or emotional), wondering if he can get Pied Piper to be as successful as he knows it can be before Gavin Belson’s very well-funded Nucleus, which is playing hard and fast in the same technological pond with an inferior product, races ahead of them.
And as you can imagine, all the pressure and stress leads to some very funny and quite snarky professional and personal interactions, which get some airing in the newly-released full trailer.
Life wasn’t meant to be easy true but thankfully somewhere in the midst of all the ulcer-inducing agony and striving and human contrariness, there’s also a great deal of humour to be had, all of which Mike Judge and his writers have no doubt distilled into what looks to be a very funny second season of Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley returns on 12 April 2015 at 10/9c and in Australia on Showcase (Foxtel) shortly thereafter.