S01.E04: Fiduciary Duties

[Tara Ariano]

Richard regrets his drunken promise at Peter's toga party to make Erlich a board member, and later works on a presentation for Pied Piper's vision. Meanwhile, Big Head finds kindred spirits after being unassigned at Hooli; and an interesting connection emerges between Peter and Gavin Belson.

[badreputation]

Not a huge fan of the vomit gag at the end, but I did appreciate finally seeing what Erlich was actually good at. It helps explain the past success of Aviato and gives him a role within the show other than comedic relief.

 

Now that Big Head is unassigned, it seems like there's going to be less opportunity to contrast Pied Piper with Hooli's culture, so I hope that either his project-less status gets resolved quickly, or his screentime gets decreased further.

[LemonCakes]

I absolutely love Jared. His 'I'll just stay here because I look absurd' had me rolling. Glad Erlich had a moment to shine at doing what he does. The party was funny with the actress paid to talk to people and pretend to be interested in the party goers. I like this show but I don't think it's going to last long.

[chocolatine]

I like this show but I don't think it's going to last long.

 

It's been picked up for a second season, so it's going to last a while.

 

I agree that showing actual projectile vomiting was over the top, but up until then Richard's freak-out was very well done. I love that Jared is usually an insecure dweeb, but becomes a great problem solver in a crisis. 

 

Big Head needs to sit down at his desk every morning and work on *something*. Two years of inactivity is going to rot his brain.

 

Loved the cameo by Mad Men's Ginsberg as the hipster lawyer. Hope to see more of him now that Mad Men's done filming.

[larapu2000]

Loved the cameo by Mad Men's Ginsberg as the hipster lawyer. Hope to see more of him now that Mad Men's done filming.

 

I THOUGHT that's who that was!!  I didn't recognize him without the hair and terrible wardrobe, lol.

 

I agree, it was nice to have Erlich be something other than a buffoon.  They had made him seem like his startup was a total fluke up until this point.  Now it makes more sense.  

 

I loved when the crazy entrepreneur called Flo-Rida "Florida."  That made my night.

[Lady Grump]

Is this show getting consistently worse? Didn't laugh once this past episode. Curiously, does anybody know if toga parties are genuinely popular in Silicon Valley? It seems like every show /movie about the area has a toga party scene. I'm just about giving up on this show.

[Traveller519]

I've heard multiple say they worry that those outside the Tech Industry won't be able to relate to the show. I have never had any dealings with the tech industry other than giving them money for my devices. but I love the business model aspect of the show. It clearly captures the pains of any start up for the "idea-man" and shows what the process is like once you get past that "Shark Tank" pitch. It's one frustrating obstacle after another.

 

I'm hoping we'll see an episode where Dinesh and Guilfoyle get flushed out individually. Right now their scenes/dialogue is really based off of bantering with the other, but Dinesh is still one of my favorite characters.

[Lady Grump]

 

I've heard multiple say they worry that those outside the Tech Industry won't be able to relate to the show.

 

I'm a programmer -- though I've never been to Silicon Valley -- and have worked at a startup. And I'm finding it less and less entertaining. I can't STAND the main charachter's nebbishness anymore. Can he spit out a sentence without hemming and hawing? Just one. I'm sure he does, he's just too meek for my taste. Also, the jokes just seem like they're stuck in the 80s or something.

 

ETA: Veep "did" Silicon Valley this week, and it was much funnier, IMO.

Edited April 28, 2014 by Lady Grump

[chocolatine]

I'm a programmer -- though I've never been to Silicon Valley -- and have worked at a startup. And I'm finding it less and less entertaining.

 

 

I think mileage varies. I've been working in the internet industry for eight years, not physically in SV but with frequent trips there. First I worked for a large company, then for a start-up, the start-up just got acquired by another large company, and now I'm getting ready to jump ship and work on my own business idea. Knowing what I know about the industry and SV, I find this show entertaining, if not always 100% realistic. Especially for a first season I think it's really good.

[JTMacc99]

As is the same for any show that I stick with for a long time, I am watching the character development and especially the relationships between all of them. Adding in a competent dimension to Erlich was a very positive moment for me, as was Richard's respect for him.  On the other hand, Richard didn't really develop much at all in this episode. It would be nice to give me a reason to really like the main character.

[kieyra]

Now that Big Head is unassigned, it seems like there's going to be less opportunity to contrast Pied Piper with Hooli's culture, so I hope that either his project-less status gets resolved quickly, or his screentime gets decreased further.

 

 

Yeah, his role is getting really awkward. During the first half of the episode, it was clear that someone needed to be the anti-Richard for the company, and I kept thinking it would be Big Head and he would somehow reduce Richard's complicated company vision down to a single coherent sentence, or something, even if by luck. I thought it would happen when he came into the house on his lunch break. I thought we were finally going to find out what Big Head is *for*. But no. Which seems to be the pattern with this character:

 

At first they made us think that his value to Pied Piper would be because he's Richard's best friend and helps humanize him (or whatever). But no, Richard let him go.

 

Then they made us think his value to Pied Piper would be that he had insider info on the Hooli reverse-engineering team. But no, they kicked him out of that.

 

Then they teased the "Richard needs another board member but not Erlich" thing past us and brought Big Head into the middle of one of those scenes. But no, Big Head remains useless.

 

Either they're misusing this character or I have to stop trying to apply tropes to him. I guess he's just plain useless? 

Edited April 29, 2014 by kieyra

[Traveller519]

 

Either they're misusing this character or I have to stop trying to apply tropes to him. I guess he's just plain useless?

 

I'm kind of getting the sense that he is, unfortunately. He doesn't appear on the promo poster for the show. It almost seems like the "what do you do?" storylines reflect the writers inability to write him a good plot.

[RabbitEars]

Poor awkward Jared. "Were there gelatin shots?" I'm really enjoying this show.

 

I'm not in Silicon Valley, but I was once at a party like that with hired models standing around decorating the space. Why it would be a toga party, though, is beyond me. That's not an attractive look on anyone but the models.

[JTMacc99]

Poor awkward Jared. "Were there gelatin shots?" I'm really enjoying this show.

 

I'm not in Silicon Valley, but I was once at a party like that with hired models standing around decorating the space. Why it would be a toga party, though, is beyond me. That's not an attractive look on anyone but the models.

I am glad you posted that "Were there gelatin shots?", because seeing it in writing makes me realize how awesome that was. "Gelatin shots". Heh.

 

It's funny, I just caught a few moments of Animal House on TV last night, and it happened to be during the toga party. Definitely a different vibe.

[canter]

I love Donald, I mean Jared (heh) too. He's like the Gary (from Veep) of this show for me. 

 

So when Richard and Erlich were leaving their meeting with Peter Gregory, and noticed the photo of Gregory and Gavin Belson on the wall from years earlier, they asked Gregory if the two were friends and Gregory replied, "I thought so." Foreshadowing for the fate of Richard and Erlich? 

[RabbitEars]

 

So when Richard and Erlich were leaving their meeting with Peter Gregory, and noticed the photo of Gregory and Gavin Belson on the wall from years earlier, they asked Gregory if the two were friends and Gregory replied, "I thought so." Foreshadowing for the fate of Richard and Erlich?

I figured it was a callback to the Erlich photo session ("I'm iclonocasting a little bit"). But it wouldn't surprise me at all if it's also a big part of the future.

[chocolatine]

So when Richard and Erlich were leaving their meeting with Peter Gregory, and noticed the photo of Gregory and Gavin Belson on the wall from years earlier, they asked Gregory if the two were friends and Gregory replied, "I thought so." Foreshadowing for the fate of Richard and Erlich?

 

 

Seems likely. I don't even think they're friends now - Ehrlich just wants to be involved in a potentially profitable business and Richard needs a big-picture person. And co-founder relationships are always put to the test when running a business. My former boss, a CTO, once told me that things were sometimes so dysfunctional between him and the other C-level execs that they had to do mediation (the business version of couples therapy).

Edited May 4, 2014 by chocolatine

[lucindabelle]

It was refreshing to see Ehrlich come thoruh though. I loved how that ended. And yes, I love me some Jared. Could he be any sweeter or steadier?

[EricJ]

I'm kind of getting the sense that he is, unfortunately. He doesn't appear on the promo poster for the show. It almost seems like the "what do you do?" storylines reflect the writers inability to write him a good plot.

 

Actually, I think the writers know exactly what to do with him. Haven't you ever had, in a group of friends, the one guy who doesn't seem to actually be anybody's friend, yet always seems to be around? That's Big Head.

[radishcake]

Or that friend that stumbled ass backwards into a great paying job where they have almost nothing to do? Also BigHead