I love it when a piece of media/art is able to reflect the era in which it was made, and this show perfectly encapsulated Silicon Valley culture. Specifically, the rise and eventual decline of tech culture in the late 2010s. Many tech-evangelists started off with the goal of making the world a better place. Our main character, Richard is the same - he has a lot of faith in his algorithm and wants to turn it into a business. But by the end of the decade, with social media platforms breaking public trust and personalised newsfeeds accused of radicalising users, we see technology as no longer grand, but sinister. That’s why while I thoroughly enjoyed the show’s darkly comedic take on the industry and wished it would have gone on for longer, I also feel the ending came at a fitting time.
I’m gonna tell my kids one day to watch this show if they want to understand the absurdity of tech and app culture back in the 2010s.
I also greatly appreciated watching a character in a CEO postion whilst also struggling with social anxiety. Gives a lot of us socially awkward tech folk some hope 🥲
Also Jared Dunn is precious and Zach Woods is a gem for making him so!