'Silicon Valley' episode 2x01 review: 'Sand Hill Shuffle'

Mike Judge’s comedy balance strives from his love of his characters, but reserved enough to poke fun readily at their expense. This is the formula at the heart of Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill, Office Space and now Silicon Valley, and it continues with the latter's season two premiere, "Sand Hill Shuffle.”

The Pied Piper gang comes back, but gone now is Peter Gregory, as the actor who portrayed him, Christopher Evan Welch, passed mid-way into production on the HBO’s series first season. While Welch died from lung cancer, Gregory’s death is intently made unclear, although something happened with a hippo, running and a gun. Nevertheless, Gregory too is now gone, and left in his wake is Laurie Bream (Suzanne Cryer), an equally over-calculated and emotionally devote personality who doesn’t quite have the sly charisma of the man before her but certainly holds her own.

While Gregory’s death looms over this premiere, the focus of this week’s “Sand Hill Shuffle” is actually on the tech nerds’ attempts to go through the persuasions of every VC in Silicon Valley. After their first meeting doesn’t go as planned, they learn by accident if they make their personalities overzealous and go straight for the trash talking, they get more potential earns and interest. So Erlich (T.J. Miller), of course, does most of the talking, while Richard’s (Thomas Middleditch) efforts to put people down come less fruitfully. This, by the way, plays into one of the problems Silicon Valley had last season and, so far, this season.

As a character, Richard is too insecure and vocally clumsy for his own good. Middleditch does a fine enough job with the material, but it seems Judge and his co-creators John Altschuler and David Krinsky, along with this week’s teleplay writer Clay Tarver, go too out of their way to make him the most awkward person on the planet. While it’s mean to be uncomfortable, it comes across as manipulative, and does feel genuine enough to be relatable. The lines he says can often be funny, so this isn’t a major put down, but it would be nice to see him toned down if just a tad.

The technology-loving world of Silicon Valley is meant to be brash and complicated and yet still somewhat childish, and these characters feel that quota appropriately. Miller seems to have the most apt opportunities to do as such, while the constant bickering between Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) are always exceptionally fun to watch. Yet there’s no real middle ground for Richard to flourish in, and that’s a bit of a problem as he’s our main character. This was something I had hoped Judge, Altschuler and Krisky’s show would fix this year, but it looks like it may be even worse than before.

Also, speaking of problems, in light of this week’s grim revelation, the tone of this episode has an odd back-and-forth between being lighthearted and grave. Judge, who directs this premiere, does a pretty good job at making sure “Sand Hill Shuffle” never gets too sad or sappy. But the comedy of the funeral scene, for instance, feels oddly disrespectful, as they’ve clearly have a lot of love for Welch and his work, but feel the pressure to make his death as humorous as possible.

While this can be distracting, Silicon Valley still finds great way to bring in the laughs, and there’s always a ready amount of belly laughs to be had here. Even though some characters are notably absent—where the hell is Big Head (Josh Brener)?—and others seem a little too flat, like the overly villainous Gavin Belson (Matt Ross), there’s still that carefree spirit alive here. Its unusual comedy style is quicker and more confident than ever in this week’s episode and it’s hard to believe this season won’t be just as fun and hearty as the last one. While the show still unfortunately has its problems, Pied Piper is a company still worth investing in.

Image courtesy of ACE/INFphoto.com