S03.E04: Clovis

[maraleia]

Jonah creates a crude viral video and Dan intends to spread a rumor about Chung.  Meanwhile, Selina tries to cope when questioned during a fund-raising trip.

Discuss away.

[abcfsk]

Show goes from one classic episode to the next. Silicon Valley folks were painful but very familiar for anyone who's dealt with anyone like that. 

[Baltron9000]

Amazing episode. The strength of this show is all the little bits that come together to make each episode non-stop funny. The send up of those tech people was brilliant. Highlights to me were the 'Chung,Torture' word cloud, and Dan screwing Jonah so very, very well. I will never tire of Jonah getting pissed off. 

Signs I saw in the cafeteria "Velocity is it's own reward" and "Delete the Paste" 

Edited April 28, 2014 by Baltron9000

[charlieboo]

For all of her fumbling, Selena sure knows how to deliver a subtle slap-down and put someone in his place.

"Some people call me Madam Vice President. (pause) But you can call me whatever you want."

[Danny Franks]

Another quality episode. This show is consistently on the ball and as sharp as anything on television.

 

Loved the skewering of the Silicon Valley, geek-dreamer image. Craig and his staff were full of fun little moments, and poseur stuff like his unplanned, spontaneous "coding hour" made me laugh like an idiot. But I do admire companies like Valve, who follow such fluid business models and staff roles. It's a cool idea. Doesn't mean they can't make fun of it.

 

I did think the assistant woman was coming on to Amy, rather than offering her a job. And I'm still not sure she wasn't by the end of the episode. But Amy continues to be stupidly loyal to Selina, and I have to feel sorry for her.

 

I'm really enjoying Ben, this season. He seems so affable and tolerant of everyone (except Jonah, of course). Going out drinking with Dan, and listening to Dan wheedle about being made campaign manager was almost sweet, even if it was clear that Ben just wanted someone to get drunk with. And Dan continues to fuck Jonad's head up, and sabotage him, which is fun to watch. I also really enjoy the little Dan/Selina bonding moments over stuff like that, where these two utterly self-centred, ruthless people can just appreciate one another's deviousness. 

 

Loved how they set up the Clovis homepage/Chung torture gag, and the resulting word cloud. And Selina having plausible deniability because she clearly (and repeatedly) said that she didn't believe Chung would be involved in torture. 

[Catherinewriter]

Cra-eeg's assistant (Melissa?) just killed me with her escalating hate of the ping pong game. What a bunch of idiots, and yet Selina (oh, sorry, Madame Vice President) are another bunch of idiots in their own way.

[Baltron9000]

It was certainly idiots vs. idiots, but lord I do love OUR idiots. I really enjoy shows like this, I think the trope is called 'unsympathetic comedy protagonist' ala Seinfeld and It's Always Sunny. Now, some of our idiots certainly are sympathetic, but that doesn't stop them from being petty, stupid or any other negative thing. I love Dan because he's so utterly devoid of any redeeming values, I love Mike because he's simply shit at his job and I love Gary because he's such a soft lil' sweetie. But I would probably hate to hang out with any of them in real life. 

[homesickalien]

For me, this was the best episode so far. Not a bad moment. Smartch cracked me up.

[ganesh]

 

I did think the assistant woman was coming on to Amy, rather than offering her a job.

I don't know if it was in the script, but I think the actor was definitely playing it that way. On top of that, she pretty much was the only professional being surrounded by boys and I think she was attracted to Amy's no-BS.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Deleted scenes from this episode:

[Rinaldo]

Gary continuing his whisper-prompts to the point of explaining what a baby is was one of the funniest things I've seen in a while.

[scrb]

Clovis is suppose to be Facebook, with the hoodie wearing 26-year old billionaire and his female second in command being Cheryl Sandburg?

[ganesh]

It's not google? Because the color scheme was pretty much the same. I supposed it could be a conglomeration of the two.

[sorrywhat]

This episode was classic!  Amy being sent to flush the toilet - "What do these people do with their poop?  Send it to the cloud?"  Or the Clovis assistant telling the ping pong players to wrap the balls in socks to lessen the noise.

 

This cast is such a great ensemble.  As others have said, the characters are like a band of idiots and yet you grow to love each one of them because of what the actors are bringing to the table.    

[Jeezaloo]

 

It's not google?

Early on in the episode, Sue has a sort of throw away line, where's she's reading the veep's schedule to her. She points out that after Clovis, veep has a meeting at Yahoo, "but don't call searching the web googling" when she's there, because "at Yahoo they don't google, they yahoo." so Google, Yahoo and Clovis were all mentioned, and I assumed that Clovis was just some fictional search engine they came up with for the episode.

[Danny Franks]

Yeah, I think they were just creating a Google/Facebook/Apple/Valve/whatever company amalgam that would feel appropriately Silicon Valley. It all worked pretty well, even if I find Clovis an odd name to go for.

 

One issue I'm having with the show this season is that the characters are split up for large parts of (if not entire) episodes. No Dan and Amy bickering, no Sue skewering Gary, no Selina telling Jonad to fuck off. It's a little frustrating, because I like seeing all these characters play off one another, and communicating only via phone call doesn't quite fit the bill.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Although I know Jonad is like a cockroach who will never go away, I love that Dan killed two birds with one stone by not only getting the Danny Chung torture story to replace the Selina baby fracking story AND to screw Jonah. It's nice to see him get smacked down after all the assy things he has said and done.