There are some other minor shortcomings to the episode, too. Besides Monica being telegraphed as Richard’s future love interest, the Google stand-in Hooli and its instantly dislikable leader Gavin Belson seem to be set up early on as Richard’s antagonist. It’s easy to see events play out where the coders at Hooli try to reverse engineer Richard’s code after he spurned Belson’s offer to buy out the technology for a cool $10 million. Hopefully Judge will avoid making it a predictable slobs versus snobs comedy where Richard and his rag-tag group of friends are constantly butting heads with the bullies at the bigger, more entrenched tech company.
Not all the jokes in the episode land, either. Early on there’s a joke about a dating website for people with Asperger’s that is little more than an observation that people with Asperger’s are socially awkward. Later on there’s a shot of a comically small car where the joke is, “Hey, look at how small that car is.” These are the sort of low-hanging fruit that The Goode Family swiped at and missed, and if Silicon Valley is going to avoid the fate of that rather dreadful show then it’s going to need to try harder than that.
If it seems like I’m nitpicking, that’s only because overall I’ve really enjoyed what I’ve seen of Silicon Valley so far, and I want it to live up to its full potential. With Middleditch in the lead as Richard, Judge has given us a character that is a rarity in cable sitcoms these days: a well-intentioned, affable person whom viewers can root for. Compare that to, say, Girls, where the writers almost dare audiences to like the generally awful characters. There’s something to be said for that approach, too, but it’s a breath of fresh air to be given characters that are likeable for a change.
There is a lot of potential for some hilarious satirization of real-life Silicon Valley culture with this show as well. Judge is a brilliant satirist when he’s at his best, such as with the MTV culture-skewering Beavis and Butthead and the corporate culture-skewering Office Space. The success of the show will depend on the strength of the characters, which should be easy given the acting talent involved, and the Judge’s ability to make it relatable to non-geeks who might not know what a compression algorithm is or why a really good one might be so desirable as to warrant a $10 million dollar buyout offer.
If Judge can deliver on the promise of the show, then Silicon Valley could very easily end up being another comedy hit for HBO. It’s got the talent both behind and in front of the camera to succeed, and just needs to avoid veering into the disappointing terrain of Judge’s recent cinematic and TV misfires. The tech industry has long been due for a really good satire, and this may very well be it.