TV REVIEWS: SILICON VALLEY

Mike Judge’s latest comedy series, Silicon Valley, which premieres Sunday night on HBO, has garnered some terrific reviews from TV critics but a mixed reaction from Silicon Valley itself. Each of the characters, writes Robert Bianco in USA Today, “can be uproariously funny in his or her own way.” Given Judge’s previous work (King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head, Office Space), comments Verne Gay in Newsday, “no one should be surprised to learn Silicon Valley is funny. The surprise is just how funny it can be.” David Wiegand in the San Francisco Chronicle called it the “best tech show yet,” adding, “prepare to laugh your ass off.” It is, he said, “not only the best show about the culture-dominating tech world to date but one of best new shows of the season.” Robert Lloyd in the Los Angeles Times notes that Silicon Valley is Judge’s first live-action TV series and “in its deceptively modest way, is a great one.” But clearly not everyone in Silicon Valley appreciates being satirized. The business tech news site re/code said that at a screening of the first two episodes this week, the audience of about 400 “responded with laughs and sighs” to the behavior of the characters. But at a party following the screening some clearly did not appreciate the satire, including Tesla founder Elon Musk. The characters depicted as software engineers were not the software engineers he knew, Musk indicated. “Software engineers are more helpful, thoughtful, and smarter. They’re weird, but not in the same way.” John Lee, who works at Viber, the online phone application, told re/code: “It’s an interesting way to see how the rest of America sees Silicon Valley — awkward, nerdy, money obsessed but like to talk about helping the world — which is somewhat accurate, but we’re a lot more.”