S03.E07: To Build a Better Beta

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

When the guys decide to release the beta version of Pied Piper, they receive an unexpected response. With a limited number of beta invites each, Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) worries about his lack of friends, while Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) looks to catch him in a lie. Monica (Amanda Crew) worries about how to deliver criticism. Facing financial woes, Erlich (T.J. Miller) considers a big decision, and Gavin (Matt Ross) challenges the Nucleus team to do the impossible.

Promo:

[hincandenza]

Wait, was that Milena Vayntrub (the AT&T girl and Gilfoyle's Satanist girlfriend from season 1) that was on the monitor at :23?

[LCanterbury]

17 hours ago, hincandenza said:

Wait, was that Milena Vayntrub (the AT&T girl and Gilfoyle's Satanist girlfriend from season 1) that was on the monitor at :23?

There was a throwaway line this week that Gilfoyle has a girlfriend so I guess it's still Tara from season 1.

[qtpye]

I remember Gilfoyle's girlfriend being really nice, so I'm glad that they are still together (I guess Satanists are fairly committed to relationships).

Do you think Erlich will be forced to sell his house, since it is his only valuable asset (real estate in San Jose is like gold).

[castersugar]

Huh. They actually used Phil'z coffee cups. I wonder if it was a product placement?

[chocolatine]

I can't believe none of the guys noticed that Monica was wearing her bad news sweater when she first came to the house to talk about the beta. I thought at least Jared would have picked up on it.

I'm with Monica on Slack, I've used it for a couple of projects and still don't understand what the big deal about it is.

47 minutes ago, castersugar said:

Huh. They actually used Phil'z coffee cups. I wonder if it was a product placement?

They've filmed at a Philz before, so probably yes. It does seem organic though, since Philz is such an SV institution. Speaking of Philz, was that the real Kevin Smith that Gilfoyle befriended there?

[pivot]

So with Erlich selling his shares in Pied Piper does that mean they can finally write his character out? He hasn't had a purpose since season 1 and I am ready for him to go. 

[henripootel]

So Erlich has a stake in a potentially billion-dollar company and nobody will lend him enough money to stave off his creditors for a while?  And the DA is just so bored with a slam-dunk ponzi scheme she just declines to pursue it?  And why on god's green earth would anyone at Hooli looking to snag PP's beta (and maybe steal it, again) leave a fucking trail a mile wide right back to Hooli corporate?  

There was some okay stuff in this episode but they keep driving it along with shit that makes me think they're not even trying.  And my tivo cut off the preview for next week, so how are they gonna pull the football out again and make PP land on their asses?  I'm confident that this'll happen as watching them fail constantly is 'hilarious'.  

[hincandenza]

2 hours ago, henripootel said:

So Erlich has a stake in a potentially billion-dollar company and nobody will lend him enough money to stave off his creditors for a while?  And the DA is just so bored with a slam-dunk ponzi scheme she just declines to pursue it?  And why on god's green earth would anyone at Hooli looking to snag PP's beta (and maybe steal it, again) leave a fucking trail a mile wide right back to Hooli corporate?  

There was some okay stuff in this episode but they keep driving it along with shit that makes me think they're not even trying.  And my tivo cut off the preview for next week, so how are they gonna pull the football out again and make PP land on their asses?  I'm confident that this'll happen as watching them fail constantly is 'hilarious'.  

Ha ha, welcome to the dark side, my friend.  Pull up a chair, they're quite cozy. :) I'll agree that there were more laughs this week than the last episode, and other than Monica's inexplicable inability to articulate what she doesn't like (which throws up the usual bright red warning flag) they had a good week.  I just can't understand how a long-time creative force like Mike Judge is so tone deaf with this 0-100 and back to 0 again pattern of every obstacle being a major existential disaster for PP.  Seinfeld showed us years ago that you can find great humor even in the little things, and the best part of this show has been when it mines those areas, not the "Oh god the sky is falling" absurdity we got so often.  Heck, even Richard was turned back down to a mellow 3 or 4 this week, neither shooting himself in the foot or behaving like a crazy person.

Also, Jared continues to impress; I keep enjoying this one repeated gag, where we find out that in spite of his obviously horrific upbringing, he turned out to not only be a smart, capable optimistic business person, but apparently a suave, charming, social networking badass among everyone who isn't at Pied Piper.  He's like the more well-adjusted Kimmy Schmidt (which would be neat, since both of them were on "The Office" together).

My reaction to the entire Bighead/Erlich subplot was the usual forehead-slapping exasperation.  God, this whole silly plotline about Bighead blowing $20M is just frustratingly stupid and poorly researched.  All I could think was:

I mean, for starters, I know that a general partnership is supposed to mean they can be held personally liable for the debt, the only debt the partnership has is to the catering company; forming a partnership doesn't mean that Erlich is somehow responsible for all private debts that Bighead has rung up. Not to mention, his house would never be in jeopardy, as I believe in most every state of the union the primary residence is generally off-limits to creditors, and I doubt a percentage stake of future shares in a non-public pre-IPO company are really something that can be clawed back for actual cash. Also, how- if Bighead basically rented everything- did he have any creditors?  Creditors are when you have debt because you got a loan to buy things, unless we're to believe he got a credit card with zero limit somehow.  It sounds like Bighead was paying cash for everything, somehow blowing $6M in a few weeks just writing... checks, I guess?  God, this whole thing is just so stupid, I don't know how the writers can even face their families at Thanksgiving with this dreck.

Yeah, other than setting up some confusedly toned pro/anti satire (I couldn't tell?) about "rich SV white male", why was Bachmann at City Hall, instead of you know an actual lawyer starting a class-action lawsuit?  Plus as you note this is a slam-dunk, headlines-grabbing Ponzi scheme; this guy was basically Bernie Madoff, and no one seems to care about the many laws broken and financial issues at play.  The two idiots are treating this like they're looking for a stolen bike, not trying to get back the $6M that was stolen from them by a business manager who is somehow neither in handcuffs or fleeing the country.

I don't know where they're going with this Bachman story, and I don't think I care, although they've been cagy to not have him say he was selling his shares.  I could speculate on why or why not, but it would waste all of our time since these writers make no sense.  I'm not a lawyer but it just irks me so much that these TV writers, who are supposed to be professionals, can't even spend $75 to treat a local law professor or attorney in this specialty to a nice lunch, just to gauge the plausibility of their major story arcs of the season.  Who knows, you might even hear a funny story about a real case that inspires you to a really neat twist on your original idea.  

Bunch of rank amateurs, although I'm the dummy who keeps watching.  I guess I just need that come down from the intensity of GoT before bed, something light and kind of mindless.  Watching this show is like watching "Good Will Hunting" in reverse, where by the end you're kind of sad for him that he wasted all that potential and is now stuck as a janitor at a local college... but also kind of feeling like he deserves it for all the dumb mistakes he made that led him to this low point.  Or I suppose, more accurately it's the movie "Idiocracy" if the cameras had been facing the other direction.

Edited June 6, 2016 by hincandenza

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I was surprised that for once Erlich did the responsible thing. I mean, it was only after he was threatened but still.

For some reason, Jian Yiang's middle school level crank calls to Erlich cracked me up, mostly because they were just so bad.

I also loved that despite Dinesh and Guilfoyle always picking on Jared, he is the one who has lots of friends and is more sociably adept than they are. Guilfoyle's attempt to make a friend at Philz was kind of sad.

[RCharter]

On 6/2/2016 at 8:01 AM, qtpye said:

I remember Gilfoyle's girlfriend being really nice, so I'm glad that they are still together (I guess Satanists are fairly committed to relationships).

Do you think Erlich will be forced to sell his house, since it is his only valuable asset (real estate in San Jose is like gold).

No, he sold his PP shares back to Arivga to raise the money.

I realize this show is about tech, and not the law, but in what universe does a DA refuse to go after a business manager with a number of hi-tech clients that is probably misplacing and embezzling funds?  Is she sincerely pretending as though there are some poor people that the money was embezzled to and therefore a jury won't find a money manager guilty of embezzling funds?  Furthermore, failing to pay a vendor is not a criminal matter, its a civil one.  That scene was annoying.

On another note, how adorable that Jared's imaginary friend was Harriet Tubman!

Edited June 6, 2016 by RCharter
because Jared is adorable!

[candall]

They were smart to bundle SV and Veep with GoT.  The three of them make a nice Sunday night block and otherwise HBO's half-hour comedies are so hit or miss.  (Ballers?  Yeesh.)  Everyone on Veep is unpleasant these days, so thank goodness for sweet Jared.  I'm really enjoying his story development as a charmer.

Agree that the Erlich stuff is about as incorrect as it could be, but that doesn't slow anyone down on this show because the writers care more about replicating their standard irony:   an injustice boomerangs and lands x in even hotter water.

[Should Be Working]

Since, as we all know, Mike Judge is bound and determined to make PP fail at every opportunity, one tends to be on the lookout for early signs of its next catastrophe. And, as was noted previously, Monica's uncharacteristically inarticulate but very obvious dislike of the beta product is a red flag if ever there was one. She registers initial disappointment with the user interface and then tells Richard the product is too "engineered." Well, at least it sounds like an interface thing and not a problem with the underlying functionality and performance of the app. (If the user interface did really have to be improved upon, Gilfoyle could do it while eating lunch.) Laurie says not a word to Laurie, in fact walks out of the launch decision meeting with a smile plastered on her face. So no big deal, right? Wrong.

Edited June 6, 2016 by Should Be Working

[Traveller519]

I'll expect that the design issues will lead to them having to start dealing with the "right-brain" design types. Sort of like earlier in the season with the box.

It was still the right time to launch the platform, since they had basically burned through the first tranche under Jack. But now they've got a good working platform out there, which the tech world is lapping up. I'm sure the struggle will come from getting it to mainstream acceptance, which Hooli may be able to accomplish with an inferior product, given their market place.

I don't think it's major crisis but a new business challenge to encounter.

[lidarose9]

I have to admit, I laughed out loud when Gavin was screaming at them to cut the power to the building.

[Cherpumple]

On 6/6/2016 at 4:10 AM, chocolatine said:

I can't believe none of the guys noticed that Monica was wearing her bad news sweater when she first came to the house to talk about the beta. I thought at least Jared would have picked up on it.

I noticed that too! She is a true Autumn.

[PinkRibbons]

10 hours ago, lidarose9 said:

I have to admit, I laughed out loud when Gavin was screaming at them to cut the power to the building.

Me too! This episode was worth it for me just to see the look on Richard's face as he asked for and then watched as Guilfoyle deployed the worst he could think of. That was very satisfying.

I love that Guilfoyle of all of them is the only one in a steady relationship. I genuinely want to see him marry Tara and have little satanist babies.

I realize the thing with Monica not liking the beta is probably foreshadowing, but I would prefer if the show followed through with the fact that Monica in fact often doesn't have the right instincts. I remember how last season when Lori was rationalizing firing Richard, she mentioned the foray into video live streaming being a big misstep -- and that idea was completely Monica's. She was the one who told the PP team to immediately go to video after the Nucleus broadcast went tits up.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I feel like Pied Piper hasn't had a lot of victories since S1 so I loved Guilfoyle screwing with hooli before cutting off his connection. Watching Gavin get hysterical and screaming for someone to cut the power felt good. And of course he expected everyone to keep working without any power.

[CofCinci]

5 hours ago, PinkRibbons said:

I love that Guilfoyle of all of them is the only one in a steady relationship. I genuinely want to see him marry Tara and have little satanist babies.

She's cheating on him (even though they're in an open-relationship).  They're relationship will end and his best friend will be there to console him. 

[qtpye]

1 hour ago, CofCinci said:

She's cheating on him (even though they're in an open-relationship).

Or maybe he just thinks she is cheating on him, because he does not trust anybody?

[sjankis630]

I actually felt bad for the Hooli employees leaving yet again. They are douches but they were fired and the hired back as if they never worked there and then forced to basically quit.

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, sjankis630 said:

I actually felt bad for the Hooli employees leaving yet again. They are douches but they were fired and the hired back as if they never worked there and then forced to basically quit.

Don't worry, as soon as they change their LinkedIn statuses, they'll be inundated with recruiter emails, just like Gilfoyle was a few episodes ago. That part was true to life - there's a shortage of qualified software engineers, so recruiters court them aggressively.

[DrSpaceman73]

The DA was a real bitch in my opinion.  They had $6million, almost 1/3 of their money, stolen.  Ignoring that and then yelling at them to be sure and pay their debts. 

 

The Hooli scenes are always funny.  Gavin is an ass, but its great comedy. 

"I invited you to my wedding"  "Why?"

I hope the roll out goes OK.  I would think the underlying function of the app is much more important than the interface considering what the app is intended for.  Its not facebook or social media.  Its a technically based app, it seems. 

[RCharter]

^^its interesting, all this talk of the importance of user interface makes me think of Bing.  In spite of Microsoft being a HUGE behemoth, I don't feel like Bing really ever took off.  Although Bing is meant for a mass market, it just never went anywhere, and I think the interface is a big reason why.  The Google interface seems so much tidier and intuitive.  I've heard that in many ways Bing has better features, but people still want to use Google.

[Should Be Working]

A long article about the show published on June 9 in The New Yorker. Not so sure I agree with the title (it's no doubt the most accurate show about Silicon Valley yet broadcast, but doesn't nail it by a long shot). Still, the article contains a lot of interesting background information.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-silicon-valley-nails-silicon-valley

[guilfoyleatpp]

I'm not entirely sure I buy the DA not being that interested. I'm also not sure how they'd get in front of a DA that quickly, but I'm willing to handwave that.

I'm sure that neither Big Head or Erlich has any political capital in SV, which is the only reason I could think of that the DA wouldn't give two shits.