Day 51: The End of Silicon Valley (the show)

Today I watched the last episode of Silicon Valley on HBO. I have followed the show since it first began in 2014. From the start, I was hooked. It is a wonderful mix of nerd drama and jokes. It didn’t try to be like any other show. Their problems, every episode, seemed unsolvable. And somehow, every episode, they would solve the problem. Albeit, in many episodes, they solved the problem only to be thwarted yet again by one of the shows many antagonists. It was wonderfully stressful and funny.

Episodes ranged from brilliant to hilarious to somewhat dull. No artist is perfect all the time. But when the show was good it was GOOD. If you are into nerd humor. And even if you are not. There is enough suspense in every episode to entertain the moderate viewer. It wasn’t a show full of inside geek quotes and jargon. Sure, there was some of that, but not much. The dialogue was quippy and the technical stuff was explained well enough that it didn’t matter if you fully understood what the hell they were talking about. All you knew is that you wanted to see that band of geeks succeed and change the world. It really was inspiring at times. And also in the end.

I don’t want to put any spoilers in here. I am mainly writing this to express my gratitude for Mike Judge (creator of Beavis and Butt-Head, Office Space, and Kind of the Hill), the actors, and everyone else that worked on the show. It was good and it lasted the right amount of seasons. The characters’ problems sometimes seemed forced or magical, along with the solutions, but it was all well thought out. The last season pulled everything together nicely. And if you are a fan of the show I hope you agree. Like all shows that end, not everyone is going to like the ending. I particularly hoped for something different, but I am certainly not disappointed; I enjoyed every minute of the last season. There are very few shows that can combine humor and suspense the way they did. There were times that I was in tears in laughter. And there were plenty of times that I ended the show with the phrase, “Oh, shit!” both in worry and joy.

And when the shows end, take note to the heavy-hitting songs they find. That crew has some good musical taste. The three most notable songs that I discovered from that show were You Came to Party by Too $hort, Nobody Speak by DJ Shadow featuring Run the Jewels (one of the best music videos of all time), and the one from this past season is Comin’ Thru by Chali 2na.

In our world with so many freaking shows out there, there is not a show like Silicon Valley. It is funny, it is binge-worthy (at one 25 min/episode), and it just might make you rethink this wonderfully monitored thing we call the Internet.

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Author’s Note #1: I am a little bummed that the show is over, but all great things must end to lead the way to the next great thing.