The free trial period of HBO will end in two days, and I have watched all six seasons of “Silicon Valley”. Now I will be waiting for the launch of HBO Max to finish all the “Big Bang Theory” that I missed before, and all the “Friends” episodes that I didn’t watch when I had Netflix last year.
The thing I like most is that it talks about the chaos and turmoils of the Silicon Valley startup world. Everything that happens in those episodes actually happens. Although I don’t know if it really happens, I feel that it really happens. It has a real world feel to it. Sometimes it only takes several hours for the plot to go from a big triumph to a serious disaster. The turnover is quick and dramatic. Sometimes I almost feel it’s a bit too melodramatic, but that’s just the true nature of the giddiness of the Valley life–the reality is more dramatic than real dramas.
The next thing I like is its inclusion of characters like Dinesh and Jian-Yang. I am a great fan of those plots in which diversity causes stress and conflict. I wish there are more of it, but I’m content with what I have seen. Dinesh is so Americanized that he almost lost his Pakistani traits. Not that I know what Pakistani traits are. I don’t. Other than Dinesh’s look, I don’t see anything that’s distinctively immigrant about him. His English is perfect; his body language no different than others; his interests very nerdy. I just think that in the real world, Dinesh would have already been married to a beautiful Pakistani girl that his relatives had pressed him to marry. If the show portrayed Dinesh in this way, it would have made the antagonism between Dinesh and Gilfoyle less interesting, their conversation less captivating.
Jian-Yang’s character has a lot of potentials. His chemistry with Erlich is great, but could be better. For a while, I wished their chemistry can equal or even surpass what’s between Larry and Leon in “Curb Your Enthusiasm”, but that kind of level was not achieved at the end of Season 4, after which the Erlich character is gone. I often imagine if it is up to me, what I can do to make Jian-Yang’s character better. What plot and what language can push it to another level?
Haoyan Do 