Jared’s little tizzy over feeling like he’s not really part of the company at least builds on last week’s cargo container cruise, and ties into the week’s theme that sees the guys turn into bumbling idiots as soon as women enter their lives. Monica shows the many ways that she is to Jared what everyone thought the Carver was to Richard, an upgraded version of one of the company’s moving parts, a lesser version of which everyone previously had to accept because they were what’s available. The hilarious but sad thing about Jared is that he might just be the biggest believer in Pied Piper, and yet he hasn’t found a way to really integrate himself into the fold just yet. Again, my hope is that next week gives him the chance to make a move for himself, because even the whipping boy deserves a win now and then.
As for the dynamic duo of Gilfoyle and Dinesh, the hilarity of their usual bickering gets undercut by a subplot that’s too similar to what we got last week. Nanjiani and Starr have built a terrific chemistry together in such short order, so it was only logical their love-hate relationship would accidently cross over non-platonic territory at some point. Dinesh crushing on a girl for her programming skills, but then having his shot at romance spoiled by finding out Gilfoyle wrote the code* that so enticed him, makes for some hilarious exchanges, but covers territory a little too closely to last week’s sexcapade with Tara that wasn’t. Their relationship has been oddly imbalanced for a number of weeks as well, so here’s to hoping Dinesh gets the upper hand in the finale, so that the season’s rivalry ends on more equal footing.
*At the risk of sounding like I’m wearing my “Genius at Work” T-shirt today, didn’t we establish in episode two that Dinesh was the only one in the company who knows Java?
The evening even manages to find Erlich at his worst, but that’s something of a specialty for him. His taunting of other participants is obnoxious but in keeping with him as a character, as are his ridiculous demands of the teamsters setting up Pied Piper’s stage presentation. The more special lighting and effects he demands, the more excited we get to see him in action on the big stage; but of course that just makes it more obvious that there’s no way he’ll be doing the presentation, one way or another. We get just a taste of the full Erlich Bauchman experience before he gets tackled to the ground by a judge whose wife (and new wife) Erlich slept with. Risking Pied Piper’s future just to get laid is the dumbest thing Erlich’s ever done, but as Dinesh’s sticky-note Pros and Cons list made clear last week, a guy will throw a lot of self-respect and opportunities out the window when sex is on the table.
It’s hard not to wonder how the death of Christopher Evan Welch impacted development of this first season of Silicon Valley; “Signaling Risk” was a triumphant culmination of the strengths the show had built for itself up unto that point, but these last two weeks have felt more like a scramble to the finish line. Even off its game, Silicon Valley has an incredibly talented cast of young comedic actors at its disposal, and the gag writing is still great. “Proof of Concept” is a funny half hour of television, but I’m hoping it’s setting up a finale that’s funny and that cohesively moves these characters forward.
- Stray Thoughts
-The montage of Disrupt startups was the ultimate capper to the show’s running gag of terrible tech ideas and the buzz phrases used to sell them. The constant refrain of “making the world a better place,” and every single permutation of “Mobile, Local, Social,” imaginable had me rolling.
-I don’t care how they do it, but the show needs to figure out a way to get Andy Daly into every episode, even if he’s not playing the crazy doctor/inventor of the Panic-A-Tech. Just have him break out some of his other characters: maybe Forrest McNeil from Review could have an app for rating everyday life experiences, or poet laureate of the West Dalton Wilcox has some new vampire-detecting technology the world needs to know about.
-Bighead is really coming around to the rest/invest lifestyle. He’s got a boat now, and a boat guy (“You have to have a boat guy”). Another of my secret hopes for the finale is that he finds a way to cut ties from Hooli and rejoin Pied Piper, if for no other reason than because his nickname is getting a bit too literal. Is it possible he arranged for Richard to notice Sherry just to mess with him?
-Based on the beating he gives Erlich, it seems safe to assume that judge Dan Melcher does not have the same feelings about compersion that Gilfoyle expressed having last week.