Silicon Valley: “Fiduciary Duties” Review

“Silicon Valley” turned in another solid effort this week as Richard dealt with having Erlich on the board and his lack of vision for the company.

Note: The following review goes into detail about the episode. SPOILER ALERT!

“Silicon Valley” continued its send-up of the world of tech companies this week in an episode which saw Richard having to decide whether or not to make Erlich a board member after a night of drinking, while also needing to explain his convoluted vision for the Pied Piper Company to financier Peter Gregory.

The opening, featuring Richard’s super chilled out, new-age lawyer was hilarious. I loved his speech about hating how many of Peter Gregory’s tech start-ups couldn’t put their ideas into words as Richard struggled to find how to describe his own company. While I do think that Richard’s “I don’t know what I’m doing!” stick has been leaned on a bit too heavily sometimes, it hasn’t stopped delivering, with Thomas Middleditch’s offbeat persona mixing well with the physical comedy.

The rest of the episode dealt with a Toga Party featuring awesome bits like actresses who “hire themselves out to parties and pretend to be interested in the guests” and Richard’s drunken offering of a position on Pied Piper’s board of directors to Erlich. This move actually makes a lot of sense, considering Erlich’s role in the company was fairly vague until now, and it made for a great confrontation between Erlich and Richard as Richard told him he wasn’t going to be a board member. Erlich can sometimes be annoying, but T.J. Miller nailed it this episode, making Erlich equal parts genius and asshole as he tried to position himself as “The Jobs to Richard’s Wozniak.” I also loved Jared’s reaction to the news, being more upset he wasn’t invited to the party than the fact that Richard added a board member without consulting him.

(Credit: HBO)

The B-Story this week shifted over to Hooli, as Bighead was removed from the programming of Pied Piper rip-off Nucleus and into… nothing. Finding out he was still under contract but no longer assigned to any projects, Bighead dealing with this actual corporate practice provided a few chuckles, as he did everything from bothering Richard to meeting a group of fellow “unassigned” employees to kill time at the office. Richard’s story resolved with Erlich meeting him before the meeting with Gregory, and pledging to help him whether he was a board member or not. Erlich’s competency in the meeting provided more usefulness to the character in terms of the company, and the meeting itself did provide an interesting wrinkle to the plot with the revelation that Peter Gregory and Hooli-founder Gavin Belson were once friends. The biggest flaw of the episode was probably the lack of Peter Gregory, who got very few lines this week after his hilarious storyline in the last episode. Gilfoyle and Dinesh were also underutilized this time around, which makes me a little worried the show’s large (and expanding) cast might mean some characters get lost in the shuffle.

THE BREAKDOWN

Overall, this was another solid episode of “Silicon Valley.” The main cast still does great work, and there should no question that Mike Judge knows exactly what parts of the tech industry to parody. The show’s large cast could be troublesome going forward, as I’d hate to see great actors like Martin Starr and Kumail Nanjiani wasted. Of course, “Silicon Valley” hasn’t turned in a bad episode yet, and I’m quite intrigued to see how it moves forward now that everyone in the house (including Erlich) has a role in the company.

How are you liking “Silicon Valley?” Still not watching? Let us know in the comments below.