A few thoughts on last night's Silicon Valley coming up just as soon as I simply imagine my skeleton is me, and my body is my house…
With this show, the default setting involves things working out badly for Richard. So the only question becomes exactly how a seemingly great situation will turn to horse manure. “Two in the Box” does a hilarious, agonizing job of leading us there, as we discover that Jack cares more about the company's short-term value than he does about Richard's vision of competing with Google and Facebook, prioritizing sales people – and giving them something easy to sell – over building the Pied Piper platform the way everyone had planned.
That the full revelation of Jack's vision occurs while we are all watching two horses have vigorous sex – possibly the most graphic sex scene in HBO history – is at once shocking and incredibly Silicon Valley, since this is a show where the hero's greatest creative breakthrough came as a result of a discussion of efficient masturbation technique. And the sales team falling in love with Richard's sarcastic suggestion for what the company shouldn't do is the exact kind of Catch-22-style black comic twist this show does so well.
Throw in Jared and Erlich each learning the perils of squatter's rights, a return visit from Andy Daly as the gleefully obnoxious doctor, and the fired Nucleus employees accidentally solving the middle-out algorithm while doing an idiotic task for Gavin on their way out the door, and you've got a terrific continuation of this season's stories.
And I have to admit: even with those frighteningly chipper salespeople, I wouldn't mind working in that office space.
What did everybody else think?