I actually liked Betas, which is Amazon's Silicon-Valley-based show. I hated it at first (it made me cringe a lot), but then I realized it wasn't that the writing was bad. Rather, it was so spot on, it made me cringe because I know people (and companies) like that.

Once I realized they were in on the joke, I liked it a lot better.

They clearly knew SV culture really well. There were a lot of great references, and many scenes were clearly shot in SF.

http://www.amazon.com/Pilot-HD/dp/B00CDBX1PA

I felt beyond the specific area, it was extremely good at capturing the weird zeitgeist of millennial culture - not the living-with-parents-unemployed-loser stereotype, but the confused generation of people who grew up along with the internet. I can't really think of a specific instance of this, but the characters on the startup team had very specific, subtle character traits that I associate with people I know who are 20-30 right now.

Maybe it's just the HBO polish but Silicon Valley seemed to be better overall than Betas. At least in the pilot, I had empathy for Richard (the lead in SV) - Tre (the lead in Betas) always seemed like kind of a dick to me. The self-aware parody seemed just a bit too high in Betas; so far, SV as much more restraint.

Once SV fleshes out the supporting characters and the main arc, it will be interesting to see if my opinions are still the same.

It's a liquified HackerNews shooter.

Which means: I loved it, and we will be quoting these episodes ad nauseam.

Couple of duds in terms of jokes, but the ones that hit pierced the heart.

If you haven't seen it yet, HBO have put the whole first episode on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvkmsI54ss4

It was excellent.

Spot on. Every company changing the world with <some random buzzword infested phrase>. Great.

Like the Thiel spoof.

In my experience, people in SV are not nearly as awkward as the show portrays them.

I liked original versions of Pirate of Silicon Valley, and original Office Space - nothing beats those two movies on Startups.

However, the theme (and reality) of entrepreneurs facing all sorts of challenges and storms, and still stand like a mountain to support their products/platforms/ideas reminds us how power a human being is! just amazing...

I hated the first ten minutes of it, but by the end I found myself laughing, so I'm curious for more.

Particularly the "I memorized the hexadecimal times tables when I was 14 writing machine code", for whatever reason, made me laugh a lot.

I think it's hilarious, and unlike lots of "nerd" based shows I think it's even MORE funny as someone who knows the industry. Then again, I've always been a sucker for T.J. Miller.

Question from someone who hasn't seen it: would an average non-startup culture person (e.g. my wife) possibly enjoy this show? I'm worried it's too niche...

I don't think so but with that said the show is only 30min so you don't lose much by watching 1 episode.

I watched it with a friend and my girlfriend. Girlfriend stopped paying attention to it, but my (non-tech) friend enjoyed it.

It's a constant stream of ridicule. Would be much better if it slowed down at least once in a while. Think Valleywag but even shallower and more intense.

It was witty, charming, and cringe worthy. Reminded me of The Office. I am probably a sucker for single camera comedies, but it seems worth watching.

Is it worth downloading and watching?

I think so -- in some of the show's scenes, you actually feel like you're watching reality...which makes it a good deal funnier to me. Then again, I am a bit of an SV cynic myself, so YMMV.

Very much a caricature, though some of the details were funny. Is Peter Gregory supposed to be PG?

I think Peter Gregory is supposed to be Peter Thiel considering they described Gregory's 100,000 grant similar to the Thiel Fellowship. But it might be PG.

I'd like to see a real debate over whether the Peter Gregory character is based on Theil or pg, that would be something entertaining to hash out.

There's a very good chance he's simply based on prominent VCs in general (Theil, pg, maybe a little Andressean).

Agreed -- seems like an amalgam. Another possible debate: who is Uhlrich based on? Proto-Sean Parker?

Spoiler.

The actor (Christopher Evan Welch) who plays him passed away from cancer this past January. Not sure how much of the show was shot before he died.

Had the same thought about Uhlrich--Sean Parker, but only based on seeing "The Social Network" caricature, with added Mike Judge doofus flair.

"No, don't go back to college!"

Yeah, it's Thiel.

BTW, the TedTalk douchery send-up was hilarious as well.

Very cringe worthy but I'll probably still watch it since it comes on after GoT

The cringe factor is intentional. That's Mike Judge's style.