Silicon Valley: Artificial Emotional Intelligence
April 30, 2018 10:20 AM - Season 5, Episode 6 - Subscribe

Richard decides to help out Laurie; Gavin struggles to bargain with a new partner; Dinesh relishes a rare win.
posted by rhizome (20 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Was I more interested in a Gavin Belson storyline than a Richard storyline and a Dinesh/Gilfoyle storyline combined? That bodes ill.
posted by Etrigan at 11:17 AM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Dinesh thing was way, way overplayed. Kumail and Martin are so talented, and I feel they're kind of being wasted by the writer's room. I'm getting a similar feeling as when The Mindy Project started turning formulaic.

The whole "server credits" thing was a weird aside out of the blue and I don't really understand how that evolved into being.

I think I'm getting a sense of what frustrates me about this show: nothing ever happens for a reason. Shit just pops up sui generis, they deal with it in some way, but rarely are plot points integrated into the story, nor built up beyond mere acknowledgement.

Matt Ross directed this episode, so maybe that explains the relative strengths of the subplots.
posted by rhizome at 11:37 AM on April 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


I kind of thought that that was the point of the final twist in the Dinesh/Gilfoyle plot of this episode- everybody is sick of their entirely predictable shit.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:38 PM on April 30, 2018 [5 favorites]


Shit just pops up sui generis, they deal with it in some way, but rarely are plot points integrated into the story, nor built up beyond mere acknowledgement.

Honestly, this is pretty much my exact experience working for a growing public company the past several years. Things happen and everybody reacts and then a little while later something else happens and everybody reacts to that and forgets about the earlier stuff, and then a while later it's something else that happens, ad infinitum. Everybody talks a good game about having a business plan and vision and goals and all that, but in a rapidly changing industry it doesn't really work out that way. I can only imagine this issue is compounded when all of your top executives are essentially kids with no business schooling or experience. So, I like this about the show. It's true to life.
posted by something something at 12:45 PM on April 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


.

RIP Fiona
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:59 PM on April 30, 2018 [3 favorites]


Laurie having performance anxiety as CEO made no sense, given that she is a CEO of the company she founded. Okay, it's a VC and not a tech firm, but still, the position is equivalent.

We all know Fiona isn't dead, right? She's going to come back as some magical, networked, deus ex machina and save Jared, Richard and Pied Piper at the end of the season, correct?

There is no way Gavin should be that stupid or easily duped when it comes to a business deal, even if he was relying on his Chinese counterpart to get Jin-Yang's code. He may no longer be a tech genius on the cutting edge, but he should still be a sharp and crafty deal maker.

And I'm agreeing with everybody here, this really needs to be the end of Dinesh and Gilfoyle being bickering idiots.
posted by sardonyx at 2:42 PM on April 30, 2018


While I agree with the criticisms of the recent episodes I can't help but admit I heartily guffawed when they cut to Fiona getting brutally disassembled and Jared's horrified stare.
posted by Justinian at 2:48 PM on April 30, 2018 [7 favorites]


Laurie having performance anxiety as CEO made no sense, given that she is a CEO of the company she founded. Okay, it's a VC and not a tech firm, but still, the position is equivalent.

Nope. That’s why they had the bit with her waving off very real problems before she vomited — problems she hadn’t encountered before. She knows how to run a VC firm; she has no idea how to run a tech firm. She would have had the same reaction if she’d become the interim CEO of a midsize fast food chain or that appliance maker from earlier in the season. Businesses are different.
posted by Etrigan at 2:53 PM on April 30, 2018 [3 favorites]


Right up before she threw up I was thinking man, I would love to have a boss like Laurie. When the workers were like "We are having problems doing __" and "We're not gonna meet payroll" and Laurie was like "I hear you - keep trying" and "Thanks for your diligence". I would love to have a boss talk to act like they heard & understood what I was trying to tell them, just once in my life.

Also it seemed really short sighted to disassemble Fiona. There is no way that AI like that would be worth less than the price of scrap metal. But I guess that's another realistic plot twist. Short-sighted short-term decisions bc payroll.
posted by bleep at 3:41 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


She knows how to run a VC firm; she has no idea how to run a tech firm.

Similar to something something's commiseration on the realities of startup life, which I have also experienced, the "VC people can just run a company" is such a canard in the industry that I feel like the show undersold it. They should lampshade the truly pernicious and pervasive bits more.

Until I looked up the cast, I thought for sure Fiona was played by Christine Taylor.
posted by rhizome at 4:39 PM on April 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


Believe me, I have very little confidence in VC people being able to run anything that doesn't involve raiding inventories and selling off valuable stock for scrap metal prices, but I still think Laurie would have fared better under the pressure than she did. She still would have made short-term, potentially stupid decisions (dismantling Fiona, selling off credits to the first taker, etc.), but I can't see it phasing her to the point of illness. She would have just believed everybody else was incompetent and/or stupid. Character-wise, it just doesn't fit with miss had-a-baby-back-at-work-the-same-day.
posted by sardonyx at 6:36 PM on April 30, 2018


Well she has been struggling with post partum depression lately.
posted by bleep at 6:51 PM on April 30, 2018 [2 favorites]


It's safe to say that Laurie has never heard of Roko's basilisk.
posted by Pendragon at 2:02 AM on May 1, 2018 [3 favorites]


Whatever the quality of the show is now, the end credit tracks literally save the best for last.
posted by Apocryphon at 10:06 PM on May 1, 2018 [1 favorite]


Man, I really hope Kumail and Martin Starr are really disappointed in this episode. And, really, most of their characters' story arc this season. Dinesh has become so socially inept that the only path forward is for him to go full incel and shoot up the women in office.
posted by mullacc at 3:41 PM on May 2, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yeah it really seems like the writers have no idea what to do with those two and it’s very disappointing.
posted by bleep at 3:55 PM on May 2, 2018


Yeah it really seems like the writers have no idea what to do with those two and it’s very disappointing.

I've just caught up with this season and I'm, to some surprise, enjoying it - this is what this show should have looked like two or three years ago - but I agree with this. Richard, Jared, Laurie and Gavin are much more interesting at this point than Dineish and Gilfoyle, who always do the same stuff and it's not really funny anymore.
posted by breakin' the law at 4:12 PM on May 6, 2018




This reminds me that there are a couple episodes still to be posted.
posted by rhizome at 2:00 PM on June 1, 2018


Anyone else think the "less/fewer" code errors was a nod to Davos on GoT?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 3:18 PM on September 14, 2019


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