S05.E01: Grow Fast or Die Slow

[chocolatine]

This was underwhelming. I understand that a season premiere needs to set up the storylines for the season, but it also needs to have something laugh-out-loud hilarious, especially after a nine-month hiatus. I thought last season's premiere managed that much better with the Richard & Russ convo in front of the school. This one only had a few semi-funny moments, like Ron LaFlamme reading Jian-Yang's made-up letter from Erlich and Jared's comment that with 30 coders they'll be "huddled like the Branch Davidians." I missed the Dinesh and Gilfoyle repartee.

The actual plot sucked as well, same old same old. Richard has become so unsympathetic after four seasons of incompetence and self-sabotage that I'm starting to root for Gavin.

[clack]

I find Jian Yang irritating, and not in an entertaining way. And why would a coder being alt-right be a disqualification in Gilfoyle's eyes? Has he had a political conversion?

I'm worried that the writers have no new stories to tell. How often do we have to go over the same ground?

[chocolatine]

2 minutes ago, clack said:

And why would a coder being alt-right be a disqualification in Gilfoyle's eyes? Has he had a political conversion?

It's customary for employers to vet a prospective hire's online presence. I'm guessing the guy who they said was "definitely alt-right" vocally espouses his views on social media. And it disqualifies him in Gilfoyle's - and almost all other employers' - eyes because it's a liability. If he says something hateful at work, or better yet, sends a company-wide email, the company will be sued faster than anyone can say "hostile work environment."

[Cthulhudrew]

Jian Yang became disturbingly creepy this episode. That was a complete about face that I don't care for.

[clack]

9 hours ago, chocolatine said:

It's customary for employers to vet a prospective hire's online presence. I'm guessing the guy who they said was "definitely alt-right" vocally espouses his views on social media. And it disqualifies him in Gilfoyle's - and almost all other employers' - eyes because it's a liability. If he says something hateful at work, or better yet, sends a company-wide email, the company will be sued faster than anyone can say "hostile work environment."

Gilfoyle is a Satanist, a racist, and a sexist. It is out of character for him to object to employing a right-wing coder, is what I'm saying.

[ottoDbusdriver]

I liked all the new changes to the opening sequence from S4 -- the Juicero building forming and then falling apart, the self-driving Tesla trucks everywhere, the Russian Facebook sign, and the yellow Coinbase tower.

The Theranos and Slack buildings have been rebranded for Uber and Lyft.  Alibaba group building (formerly Yahoo building) is not branded at all.
Facebook campus has a separate Oculus building, and a Whatsapp building.

There is also a free-standing crane with a buzzsaw at the end with various cryptocurrency logos floating about it in succession.

There's probably more.

[riprock]

I had a few laugh-out-loud moments - Gavin accepting his award by comparing Hooli search to the wonders of the world, Patrice getting fired and referred to in the past tense in the same meeting, the recurring standing and gazing at the three programming stallions. There were no extended bits that went on forever, but you gotta earn those. 

Why couldn't they just fire 38 programmers after buying out Sliceline?

pleasantly surprised not to miss Erlich. 

Edited March 26, 2018 by riprock
Fixed secondary character's name

[clack]

I have a sinking feeling that they are going to try making Jiang Yang into the new Erlich.

[chocolatine]

24 minutes ago, riprock said:

Why couldn't they just fire 38 programmers after buying out Sliceline?

Most likely because they're on a vesting schedule, and the acquisition deal specifies that PP would have to buy out anyone they let go before vesting.

2 hours ago, clack said:

Gilfoyle is a Satanist, a racist, and a sexist. It is out of character for him to object to employing a right-wing coder, is what I'm saying.

What has he said that was racist or sexist? And he's never said anything negative about non-Satanist religions.

[riprock]

20 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

Most likely because they're on a vesting schedule, and the acquisition deal specifies that PP would have to buy out anyone they let go before vesting.

Yeah, I feel like that needed to be explained in the show. They depict Richard screwing both the Sliceline and Optimoji CEOs. Why he couldn't go all the way and get the deal he originally wanted doesn't make sense.

[Ellaria]

On 3/25/2018 at 11:05 PM, chocolatine said:

This was underwhelming...

...The actual plot sucked as well, same old same old. Richard has become so unsympathetic after four seasons of incompetence and self-sabotage that I'm starting to root for Gavin.

On 3/25/2018 at 11:27 PM, clack said:

I find Jian Yang irritating, and not in an entertaining way...

...I'm worried that the writers have no new stories to tell. How often do we have to go over the same ground?

I agree and, honestly, I think that I am done with this show. Richard stopped being entertaining (IMO) last year. Time and time again we see him self-sabotage only to find some small and temporary measure of success. And I could really do without his vomiting routines.

Jian Yang IS irritating and it looks like he will occupy a larger part of the story. The New Ehrlich. Ugh!

I believe that the writers don't have anything interesting left to say. It is a shame. This show was a breath of fresh air in the beginning. Now it has grown stale.

Edited March 27, 2018 by Ellaria Sand

[bethster2000]

I missed Ehrlich.  A lot.  There, I said it.

[MaggieG]

On 3/25/2018 at 11:05 PM, chocolatine said:

This was underwhelming. I understand that a season premiere needs to set up the storylines for the season, but it also needs to have something laugh-out-loud hilarious, especially after a nine-month hiatus. I thought last season's premiere managed that much better with the Richard & Russ convo in front of the school. This one only had a few semi-funny moments, like Ron LaFlamme reading Jian-Yang's made-up letter from Erlich and Jared's comment that with 30 coders they'll be "huddled like the Branch Davidians." I missed the Dinesh and Gilfoyle repartee.

The actual plot sucked as well, same old same old. Richard has become so unsympathetic after four seasons of incompetence and self-sabotage that I'm starting to root for Gavin.

I was rolling at this comment. So much so that I missed what Richard said right after and I had to rewind. I also laughed at both Richard and Jared tripping over the outlet in the beginning of the episode

[kieyra]

On 3/26/2018 at 9:41 AM, clack said:

Gilfoyle is a Satanist, a racist, and a sexist. It is out of character for him to object to employing a right-wing coder, is what I'm saying.

Nah, the word you're looking for is 'misanthrope'.

[Subrookie]

On 3/25/2018 at 8:27 PM, clack said:

I find Jian Yang irritating, and not in an entertaining way.

I didn't find Jian Yang's story interesting at all. So, he's going to pretend Ehrlich is dead by buying a fat, white guys body in Cincinnati then shipping it to China and back. What about that is funny? Then he wants to steal his house and 10% in PiedPiper? 

On 3/26/2018 at 8:51 AM, riprock said:

I had a few laugh-out-loud moments

It was a little funny that whatever her name is had a kid and was back in the office the same day. Because it was rediculous. The funniest part of the episode IMO was Richard buying a ton of pizza to force the other CEO out of business. 

On 3/26/2018 at 3:48 PM, Ellaria Sand said:

Richard stopped being entertaining (IMO) last year.

The puke joke fell flat for me. As did the gulping in the florescent lit room. This show can be better than it is being. His best scene was buying out the pizza app. 

19 hours ago, bethster2000 said:

I missed Ehrlich.  A lot.  There, I said it

I don't think he's coming back. 

I really want to like this show. But, the writing hasn't been great recently. I find Gavin much more interesting than anyone else. 

[chocolatine]

37 minutes ago, Subrookie said:

It was a little funny that whatever her name is had a kid and was back in the office the same day. Because it was rediculous.

I thought it was a dig at Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who only took two weeks maternity leave after giving birth to twins.

[Subrookie]

1 hour ago, chocolatine said:

I thought it was a dig at Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who only took two weeks maternity leave after giving birth to twins.

Right, but didn't she also have a play area built next to her office for her kids? I'm a twin dad. I don't think anyone I know would relate to her experience, since I'm sure she had a full time nanny. 

[chocolatine]

5 minutes ago, Subrookie said:

Right, but didn't she also have a play area built next to her office for her kids? I'm a twin dad. I don't think anyone I know would relate to her experience, since I'm sure she had a full time nanny. 

Exactly, nobody can relate to Marissa Mayer, and nobody can relate to Laurie Bream. The show ratcheted up the ridiculousness with Laurie by having her come back to work the same day she gave birth, with a completely flat belly, and the baby presumably already being in the care of a nanny. It was unrelatable on purpose.

[Subrookie]

You're explaining the joke, which means it wasn't really that funny. 

[chocolatine]

1 minute ago, Subrookie said:

You're explaining the joke, which means it wasn't really that funny. 

I never said it was.

[Time Out]

I'm really over Richard's incompetence shtick. He has become absolutely not funny for me. The others have pretty much just become caricatures of themselves and just phone it in. I'll give it two more episodes, but if there isn't significant improvement, I'm out. There are simply too many good shows on right now to make it worth trying to find a reason to stay with this one.

Edited March 28, 2018 by Time Out

[bethster2000]

1 hour ago, Time Out said:

 

I'm really over Richard's incompetence shtick. He has become absolutely not funny for me. The others have pretty much just become caricatures of themselves and just phone it in. I'll give it two more episodes, but if there isn't significant improvement, I'm out. There are simply too many good shows on right now to make it worth trying to find a reason to stay with this one.

 

My husband works, lives, and breathes in the same world depicted on this show, and it has been a very guilty pleasure for him.  He was always impressed by how much it got right, which of course made it even funnier for him.  He walked away from this episode scratching his head.  Not funny, not accurate, and as you so astutely observed, the others have become parodies of themselves and just phoning it in for a paycheck.  And a numbskull like Richard would be blacklisted in the industry after the stunts he has pulled.  IT is a notoriously gossipy industry.  Richard's incompetence would stick to him like tar.

Jian Yang is a sociopath.  Not funny.  I know the guy who plays Ehrlich is a mess and a pain in the ass to work with.  He's also the funniest character on the show.  Husband and I really thought his absence was glaring.  It's true that he's not coming back, and that's a real shame.

[MaryWebGirl]

On 3/25/2018 at 8:05 PM, chocolatine said:

I missed the Dinesh and Gilfoyle repartee.

They had to spend a lot of time setting up the plotlines for the season, so it mostly focused on Richard. Also in reality Kumail could have been deep into Oscar campaigning and wasn't as available for filming (I think he also has a few different projects lining up). I hope the lack of Dinesh and Gilfoyle isn't a trend, though.

[gingerella]

This show sucks now. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Clips:

Goodbye, Bachman

Let's keep it clean

[lucindabelle]

I miss the Richard of the first season was dirty but not complete the phone and had a good heart and we got to see his brilliance more. The finale of season one still stands out in my mind as just a classic especially when we got to see that Ehrlich can code 2. “Let’s call that Dick 2F”

[Camera One]

I forgot which season I stopped watching the show.  Good thing for this forum I could see I watched the last episode in 2018.  

I considered starting from the beginning again, but I watched this episode and it was pretty understandable and basic, so I guess I will just continue from here.  I didn't find it that funny, and it was mostly uneventful.  It was kind of annoying that they lost out on hiring those engineers who really wanted to work on this new project because of their pickiness.