Silicon Valley (Blu-ray) (2014)

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General		Extras
Category	TV COMEDY SERIES	Audio Commentary-Cast and Crew - 8 Episodes Featurette-Making Of-Making of Silicon Valley Featurette-Behind The Scenes-TechCrunch:Disrupt Featurette-Behind The Scenes-The Hacker Hostel
Rating
Year Of Production	2014
Running Time	230:00
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Mike Judge
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Thomas Middleditch Matt Ross T.J. Miller Kumail Nanjiani Martin Starr Josh Brener Christopher Evan Welch Amanda Crew Zach Woods
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	?	Music	None Given

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 French dts 5.1 (448Kb/s) German dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) Spanish dts 2.0 (768Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired French German Spanish Danish Finnish Norwegian Swedish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

     Is there a more witty and amusing comedy on TV right now than Silicon Valley? Sure, it doesn't have the broadness of that other show about nerds nor does it have the sharp societal impact of Broad City but it does have excellent writing and strong performances from a cast combining some relative newcomers with long-standing performers.

     Silicon Valley is for anyone who's ever asked the question - how come I work my life to get my bare material pleasures and yet some nerd can just build an iPhone app, sell it and become a multimillionaire overnight?

     Richard Hendriks (Thomas Middleditch) is a painfully shy computer programmer who works for a tech company called Hooli run by Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) in the heart of California's Silicon Valley. On the side he is developing a music app called Pied Piper in an incubator run by Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller), a Z-Grade venture capitalist. Erlich reminds Richard that they are there to make money and that nobody cares about his stupid app - he better wise up fast. The incubator is shared with programmers Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Former Freaks and Geeks actor Martin Starr) and Richard's best friend Big Head (Josh Brener).

     So who is interested in Pied Piper? Everybody and nobody. The app itself, which allows people to check copyright before using music files, is laughably bad but it just happens that the compression algorithm Richard has designed could be the future of music and video on the Internet. A bidding war develops between Gavin Belson and his arch enemy, wildly idiosyncratic genius Peter Gregory(Christopher Evan Welch). Belson eventually offers $10 million, Gregory offers $200,000 for a share in the company. It is seed money allowing Richard to become his own entrepreneur with the sky being the limit. Should he have taken the $10 million? Of course, but then we wouldn't have seen what happens when an inexperienced bunch of guys try to create an empire.

     Season One of Silicon Valley finished in June 2014 and was picked up for a second season which has just started on Foxtel in Australia. Season Three has already been greenlit. It is no surprise. The world seems fresh and interesting and the writing has enough comedy and character to interest a general audience. There are also some jokes thrown in there for the computer savvy geeks-when Gilfoyle describes Big Head as being "as useless as Mass Effect 3's multiple endings " I can't have been the only person giggling…

     The cast is uniformly excellent. Richard is perfectly played by Middleditch as a stereotypical programmer who begins to stretch his wings (only to have them clipped a couple of times!). TJ Miller is great as the boorish know-it-all Erlich. Gilfoyle is a dry character perfectly assayed by Martin Starr and Nanjiani, who previously appeared on Portlandia, is great as Gilfoyle's constant foil. Amanda Crew is the main female voice, as the assistant to Peter Gregory, who tries to keep her disassociated genius boss on track. And Zach Woods perfectly plays Donald "Jared" Dunn who comes to Pied Piper after defecting from Hooli. He is the straightest man on Earth - when Richard defends the name Pied Piper on the basis that it is a beloved children’s tale Jared points that that, after doing research, it is about "a nefarious flautist who murders children in an underground lair".

     Finally a word on the bosses - Matt Ross as Belson is an oily entrepreneur never too far from his personal spiritual advisor. Christopher Evan Welch created a unique character in Peter Gregory who appeared to have no relationship to the real world, only to triumph from his unusual perspective. Take the episode where he arranges for his assistants to buy every Burger King product solely for the purposes of working out an investment in sesame seed futures. Welch passed away through cancer after shooting five episodes. He brings something special to each one of them and will be missed.

Video

     Silicon Valley is shot on high-definition digital video. It comes to Blu-ray in the widescreen television 1.78:1 aspect ratio.

     The image quality on the Blu-ray is excellent. This is a show about nerds sitting around at their computers and attending meetings. There has been no attempt to stylize the visual production. It is simply a crisp and clear image.

     The flesh tones conveyed perfectly and the colours are vivid and lifelike.

     There are subtitles in English for the Hearing Impaired as well as a United Nations of other subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     Silicon Valley has a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. There are also 5.1 tracks in French, German and Spanish.

     This is perhaps overkill for a show which is largely about people chatting but it is impossible not to appreciate the quality of the sound presentation. The dialogue is crisp and clear and the limited surround sound effects are well conveyed. There is not an awful lot for the sub-woofer to do.

     Is it just me or does the opening theme sound similar to the IT Crowd theme?

    There are no problems with the sound transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
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Overall

     There are a number of extras on the Blu-ray.

Audio Commentaries

     There are audio commentaries for each of the episodes. Creator Mike Judge features in all of them, joined by various members of the cast and crew, making for entertaining listening.

Making Silicon Valley (12.32)

     This is a short feature which, truth be told, is entertaining enough as it includes interviews with the cast and crew and some background but doesn't get too deep into the show. Worth a watch...

TechCrunch: Disrupt (3.42)

     The journey to TechCrunch forms the narrative imperative in the second half of the season and the filmmakers were keen to work as closely as possible with the real TechCrunch people to get the scenes just right.

The Hacker Hostel (6.18)

     In a weird blend of character and actor T.J.Miller provides a tour of Pied Piper's HQ set, meeting all the wacky gang along the way.

     This is the same version as in other Regions. Buy local.

    Silicon Valley is a great show that many may not have seen due to its presence on cable TV. Now is the time to get the Blu-ray set and enjoy.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall