Silicon Valley - Founder Friendly - Review: "Richard Is Fired"

Silicon Valley Season 3 Episode Guide
3.01 "Founder Friendly" - Review!
3.02 "Two in the Box" (Airs May 1)
3.03 "Meinertzhagen's Haversack" (Airs May 8)
3.04 "Maleant Data Systems Solutions" (Airs May 15)
3.05 "The Empty Chair" (Airs May 22)
3.06 "Bachmanity Insanity" (Airs May 29)


Silicon Valley 3.01 "Founder Friendly"
Directed by Mike Judge & Written by Dan O'Keefe

I mentioned in my Veep review about how the other HBO series was the best comedy on TV right now, but the truth is, there's another Sunday night show on the same network that's very capable of taking the top spot, and it's a pretty close race between both shows in terms of quality and sheer entertainment value. That series of course is Silicon Valley, which returned in a great way for Season 3 as it really hit the ground running once again, delivering a fantastic half-hour that dealt with the fallout that Richard has now been fired from Pied Piper, the company that he helped create. It's scenario that reminded me of Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs movie that came out last year, and was really good, despite not attracting a lot of box-office love. Fassbender's Jobs didn't create Apple, of course, but he did get fired from it after doing great work there. This is a bit on a smaller scale obviously, and Richard is far from the next Steve Jobs. But the show seems to be heading down a similar route this season, however it remains to be seen how long for and whether or not Richard will eventually return home.

Richard's firing has led to a demotion, but he ends up quitting anyway thanks to his wounded pride. This denies him the job of a Chief technology officer under the new CEO, Jack Barker, mainly because he lacks experience and all of his successes have been down to luck and coincidence as Richard is told by Laurie before his departure. It's quickly apparent why Pied Piper went with "Action" Jack Barker though, and you only need to take a look at his track record to find out why.

He's established not one, but two extremely wealthy companies and on top of that, has honoured his late mother by starting a fund for research into cancer. Jack's everything that Richard isn't, and Richard's ego means that he doesn't take it well, wanting to take his company back. However, Richard is facing opposition from Monica, who is likened to Judas by Erlich, and not even a comment about her being a spy for Richard is going to get her back in their good books, especially when Monica reveals that she used to go to Catholic School with Jack.

Richard instead has joined up with a video platform named Flutterbeam after being presented with some available CTO positions by Jared, who's excited by Richard's move. However the rest of the group are a more of a hard sell and eventually this leads to Gilfoyle and Dinesh deciding to stay at Pied Piper despite praising Richard for all that he's done, coming up with a R.I.G.B.Y ("Richard is Great, But, Y'Know") in the process. This means that for now at least Richard and Jared have to look for other options, for now at least, because Gilfoyle and Dinesh's own self-serving interests have cost them the access to the C-Code, which will no doubt create future problems. Speaking of future problems Richard could potentially still be wrestling with the decision to reject Barker, who claims that he needs Richard to help him do his job. So there's still plenty of interesting material that Silicon Valley will no doubt get back to next Sunday.

Gavin, meanwhile, has problems of his own, 1,700 of them, in fact. He makes some ruthless cuts in this episode by saying goodbye to almost everyone who was a part of the Nucleus team. Almost everyone that is, apart from Nelson Bighetti, who has been spared the axe thanks to a severance package of $20million and a promise about saying nothing about what happened at Hooli v. Hendricks. It's interesting to see the different approaches that Richard and Gavin are taking and how they'll collide over the course of the season.

One of the many things that I like about HBO is that they tend to renew certain shows early, and it's great to hear that Silicon Valley has already been confirmed for a fourth season, joining the ranks of Veep and Game of Thrones (renewed for Seasons 6 and 7, respectively) before the premiers. I can't wait to see what lies in store for us in all of these shows, because Sunday nights on HBO are still the best evening block of any network on television, which is something that hasn't changed from my Veep review. Rest assured, the writers will have plenty of laughs, and surprises, left in store.

Be sure to catch the next episode of Silicon Valley at 10pm on HBO and remember to leave your thoughts on the episode in the comments section below!

Overall Episode Verdict: A
Positives:
+New Status Quo
+Jack Barker
+"RIGBY"

About the Author - Milo MJ

Milo is an Arsenal FC supporter and loves TV shows like Battlestar Galactica, Justified, The 100, The Americans and Person of Interest. He reviews Black Sails, Hell on Wheels, Murder in the First, Narcos, Preacher, The Shannara Chronicles, Silicon Valley and Veep for Spoiler TV as well as books, films and games for his own blog The Fictional Hangout and contributes to comic reviews on a weekly basis for All-Comic.

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