Silicon Valley: Bachmanity Insanity
May 30, 2016 11:43 AM - Season 3, Episode 6 - Subscribe
Richard's new relationship is threatened by neuroses; Big Head and Erlich's launch party has snags; Dinesh falls for a foreign coworker.
I recognized Winnie's actor from Fort Tilden so I looked her up and what the christ she's Chris Elliott's daughter
His other daughter, Abby Elliot, did a stint on Saturday Night Live too.
posted by bluecore at 12:34 PM on May 30, 2016
His other daughter, Abby Elliot, did a stint on Saturday Night Live too.
posted by bluecore at 12:34 PM on May 30, 2016
"Aloha..."
"That's Hawaiian for hello! Oh, and also goodbye..."
[smash cut to end credits]
I lol'd.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:47 PM on May 30, 2016 [9 favorites]
"That's Hawaiian for hello! Oh, and also goodbye..."
[smash cut to end credits]
I lol'd.
posted by Rhaomi at 2:47 PM on May 30, 2016 [9 favorites]
Jarred's line about his "stuffed animal" named Winnie got the biggest laugh of the night for me. So continues my love of all things Jared.
posted by noneuclidean at 3:23 PM on May 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by noneuclidean at 3:23 PM on May 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
Team Jared!
Also, the look on Dinesh's face after Elizabet hung up on him was heartbreaking. I can't quit this show because Kumail Nanjiani is too damned good.
posted by Dr. Zira at 3:31 PM on May 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also, the look on Dinesh's face after Elizabet hung up on him was heartbreaking. I can't quit this show because Kumail Nanjiani is too damned good.
posted by Dr. Zira at 3:31 PM on May 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
This was a weirdly personal episode -- the only movement on the business aspect was that Gavin's going after Big Head (though he doesn't know it yet). I like the acknowledgment that these people occasionally have social lives, but two out of the three plotlines? And the third was basically the same "Oh, hey, lots of money isn't infinite money" that we've seen before. Some good jokes, but kind of a letdown, all in all.
posted by Etrigan at 6:28 PM on May 30, 2016
posted by Etrigan at 6:28 PM on May 30, 2016
As a Python programmer, I understand clicking on spaces on the keyboard was a required plot point, but I too would have been peeved.
As a person who reads the news, I wonder how long until Gavin Belsen funds someone else's lawsuit against CODE/RAG.
posted by kandinski at 8:18 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
As a person who reads the news, I wonder how long until Gavin Belsen funds someone else's lawsuit against CODE/RAG.
posted by kandinski at 8:18 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Erich spiking his drink with stolen Tres Comas tequila: he's good at keeping his own expenses down.
posted by cardboard at 9:19 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by cardboard at 9:19 PM on May 30, 2016 [1 favorite]
Jarred fucks.
posted by bondcliff at 6:31 AM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by bondcliff at 6:31 AM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
I totally agree with Richard.
Tabs. Always tabs. How can you even think of using spaces?
posted by Catblack at 10:10 AM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Tabs. Always tabs. How can you even think of using spaces?
posted by Catblack at 10:10 AM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Yeah, but Richard uses tab-spacing of 8 which is barbaric for C code with any significant indentation.
I don't particularly like the Erlich storyline; previously his venality was more petty, but in this arc he's pretty much straight-up robbing Bighead blind. Sepinwall's review had an interesting take on this:
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:49 AM on May 31, 2016
I don't particularly like the Erlich storyline; previously his venality was more petty, but in this arc he's pretty much straight-up robbing Bighead blind. Sepinwall's review had an interesting take on this:
Big Head had to lose his fortune sooner or later, if only because Richard having a best friend with $20 million in the bank would have been too obvious a Get Out of Jail Free card for the show to play during one Pied Piper crisis or another.I'm guessing that having a tech blog in your pocket is going to turn out to be useful to either Erlich or Pied Piper at some point down the line.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 10:49 AM on May 31, 2016
Richard may have arrived at the 8:1 ratio because he codes in a proportional font with narrow spaces.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:55 AM on May 31, 2016
posted by paper chromatographologist at 10:55 AM on May 31, 2016
he codes in a proportional font
OH GOD NO
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:09 AM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
OH GOD NO
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:09 AM on May 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
I don't particularly like the Erlich storyline; previously his venality was more petty, but in this arc he's pretty much straight-up robbing Bighead blind.
It looks like it, but all of the money really is going toward making Bachmanity a thing, and Erlich still sees himself as a Successful Internet Businessman Who Should Be Emulated, and that the Silicon Valley* aesthetic demands these huge parties and ridiculous perks to show that you are a S.I.B.W.S.B.E.
* -- The real SV, not the show.
posted by Etrigan at 11:21 AM on May 31, 2016
It looks like it, but all of the money really is going toward making Bachmanity a thing, and Erlich still sees himself as a Successful Internet Businessman Who Should Be Emulated, and that the Silicon Valley* aesthetic demands these huge parties and ridiculous perks to show that you are a S.I.B.W.S.B.E.
* -- The real SV, not the show.
posted by Etrigan at 11:21 AM on May 31, 2016
Gavin's meeting with his lawyers was really the best comedy in the episode for how he kept circling back ( . . . unless?) to seeing if he could have the protestors harmed.
Generally, Gilfoyle is a little too caustic for me to really enjoy him, but the line reading of "Which do you think it is? I'm on the fence" was so great, I have to appreciate it.
For some reason, I'm not surprised that Jared gets very laid. His brand of masculinity has to be a welcome change in Silicon Valley.
posted by gladly at 11:55 AM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]
Generally, Gilfoyle is a little too caustic for me to really enjoy him, but the line reading of "Which do you think it is? I'm on the fence" was so great, I have to appreciate it.
For some reason, I'm not surprised that Jared gets very laid. His brand of masculinity has to be a welcome change in Silicon Valley.
posted by gladly at 11:55 AM on May 31, 2016 [2 favorites]
Gavin's meeting with his lawyers was really the best comedy in the episode for how he kept circling back ( . . . unless?) to seeing if he could have the protestors harmed.
The utter lack of response killed me every time. They knew that they couldn't say or do anything, because anything remotely positive would get people killed and them blamed, but anything remotely negative would get them fired.
posted by Etrigan at 12:03 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
The utter lack of response killed me every time. They knew that they couldn't say or do anything, because anything remotely positive would get people killed and them blamed, but anything remotely negative would get them fired.
posted by Etrigan at 12:03 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
So I'm by no means a hardcore developer, but I do code daily in SAS. This episode got me thinking about tabs vs spaces in a way I hadn't before. I'm hoping the following question will not blow up this thread. How would formatting with tabs look different for different people? I thought tabs were just represented as the width of four spaces (in monospace font), so wouldn't look any different than if someone just used four spaces for each indent. Is it represented differently in different text editors?
posted by noneuclidean at 12:20 PM on May 31, 2016
posted by noneuclidean at 12:20 PM on May 31, 2016
I thought this episode was pretty bad and not funny. Richard's characterization went out the window to serve a predictable plot (and one that gets the details annoyingly wrong, too, since spaces are the prestige option in light of their not being the default, though at least they got it right with emacs vs. vim (I like vim myself but emacs indisputably has a stronger Real Programmer aura)). Erlich of course has already become a plot device more than a character, so pretty much everything about this episode was boring.
Jared humor is always sublime even when the episode isn't great, though, which in a meta way really suits his character.
posted by invitapriore at 12:31 PM on May 31, 2016
Jared humor is always sublime even when the episode isn't great, though, which in a meta way really suits his character.
posted by invitapriore at 12:31 PM on May 31, 2016
I'll just channel my inner Richard here for a second...
noneuclidean, as a hard-core tabber, I write code that can be viewed sanely with *any* tabstop setting (> 1). There's a whole indentation vs formatting distinction involved though, so it takes some discipline to get Right.
And sure, :set expandtab but you still have to hit backspace 4-8 times to un-indent code, or use a vi command like << instead of a single backspace for tabs.
... Whew! So, I get the feeling spaces are winning in a pretty big way these days. ghc even warns about every tab-indented line now. We'd probably be better off if Tab had never been invented.
posted by joeyh at 2:27 PM on May 31, 2016
noneuclidean, as a hard-core tabber, I write code that can be viewed sanely with *any* tabstop setting (> 1). There's a whole indentation vs formatting distinction involved though, so it takes some discipline to get Right.
And sure, :set expandtab but you still have to hit backspace 4-8 times to un-indent code, or use a vi command like << instead of a single backspace for tabs.
... Whew! So, I get the feeling spaces are winning in a pretty big way these days. ghc even warns about every tab-indented line now. We'd probably be better off if Tab had never been invented.
posted by joeyh at 2:27 PM on May 31, 2016
You guys are missing why tabs are better. They are better because on my computer they show up as a 2-space indent with my non-proportional font. And yet if Richard looks at the same file on his computer they will show up as 8-space tabs in whatever absurd font he wants!! They make the spacing right for everyone else using the same file, forever. Spaces are defined by the original person who did the spaces and will always be off for everyone else. That is why it matters and I don't understand why the show didn't explain that tabs are OBJECTIVELY better for this reason!!!
posted by goneill at 3:23 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by goneill at 3:23 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
I feel like if this was a show about 6 thirty-something aged dudes who just worked all the time and never dated at all it would be really unrealistic. Even shows about dating talk about business and work sometimes. Balance is good.
posted by bleep at 3:27 PM on May 31, 2016
posted by bleep at 3:27 PM on May 31, 2016
How would formatting with tabs look different for different people? I thought tabs were just represented as the width of four spaces (in monospace font), so wouldn't look any different than if someone just used four spaces for each indent. Is it represented differently in different text editors?
You've just explained the issue: YOU THOUGHT tabs were four spaces. My editor has tabs configured as two spaces*. Someone else might have theirs configured as 5 spaces, who knows.
In fact, some languages (YAML for example) will not allow tabs anyway, so might as well not be an asshole and just use spaces.
* Actually, my .editorconfig just converts all the tabs to two spaces upon save, I never actually save any tabs.
posted by sideshow at 3:39 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
You've just explained the issue: YOU THOUGHT tabs were four spaces. My editor has tabs configured as two spaces*. Someone else might have theirs configured as 5 spaces, who knows.
In fact, some languages (YAML for example) will not allow tabs anyway, so might as well not be an asshole and just use spaces.
* Actually, my .editorconfig just converts all the tabs to two spaces upon save, I never actually save any tabs.
posted by sideshow at 3:39 PM on May 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Thanks for the explanation joeyh and sideshow. Makes sense.
posted by noneuclidean at 3:51 PM on May 31, 2016
posted by noneuclidean at 3:51 PM on May 31, 2016
Erlich wastes all of Big Head's money just in time for Gavin to sue him for everything he has, which is now nothing. Somehow underpants gnome style Big Head makes good again.
posted by onya at 12:46 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by onya at 12:46 AM on June 1, 2016 [2 favorites]
And then Gavin loses and has to pay a countersuit and Bachman and Big Head are rolling again. When does Lloyd Braun get out of jail?
posted by rhizome at 2:25 AM on June 1, 2016
posted by rhizome at 2:25 AM on June 1, 2016
And then Gavin loses and has to pay a countersuit and Bachman and Big Head are rolling again.
No, in true Erlich fashion, he has to break his partnership with Big Head when the finances dry up, then Big Head goes on to strike it rich again. Like the blog he was forced to buy becomes the next Buzzfeed and is suddenly re-bought by a media giant for 100x what he paid.
posted by bluecore at 5:36 AM on June 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
No, in true Erlich fashion, he has to break his partnership with Big Head when the finances dry up, then Big Head goes on to strike it rich again. Like the blog he was forced to buy becomes the next Buzzfeed and is suddenly re-bought by a media giant for 100x what he paid.
posted by bluecore at 5:36 AM on June 1, 2016 [4 favorites]
Does anyone else feel like the tech blogger is a fictional representation of Kara Swisher?
(I mean specifically back when she was Yahoo's biggest thorn in its side, not the current running-for-mayor-of-SF Kara Swisher).
I've kept up with her writing for years and I know they don't make outright references or analogues to the companies or individuals they're parodying, but that's my gut feeling: CODE/RAG = re/code = Kara Swisher.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:52 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
(I mean specifically back when she was Yahoo's biggest thorn in its side, not the current running-for-mayor-of-SF Kara Swisher).
I've kept up with her writing for years and I know they don't make outright references or analogues to the companies or individuals they're parodying, but that's my gut feeling: CODE/RAG = re/code = Kara Swisher.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 8:52 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
From the Reddit thread: Winnie's github account
posted by motdiem2 at 11:26 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by motdiem2 at 11:26 AM on June 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
Kara Swisher has appeared on this show more than once as herself (s1e8, s2e3). But Google coexists with Hooli on this show, too.
posted by aabbbiee at 2:19 PM on June 1, 2016
posted by aabbbiee at 2:19 PM on June 1, 2016
Erlich Bachman is starting to remind me of Taco from the later seasons of The League, where the writers lost track of how to portray him as thoughtless but not actively malevolent and just turned him into a raging asshole.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:13 AM on June 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:13 AM on June 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
There's a damn good reason that Google's house style guide bans tabs. The whole point of a house style is consistency and precision, not "make this shit look however you want, lol".
Jesus fuck this episode was too real.
posted by Itaxpica at 9:43 AM on June 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
Jesus fuck this episode was too real.
posted by Itaxpica at 9:43 AM on June 4, 2016 [4 favorites]
Yep. I realize the story is floundering a bit, but perhaps that's a metaphor for the subject matter? I'm reaching because I'm also willing to forgive a lot due to the topic of the show. But I did like this episode in spite of more momentary characters (what's the opposite of a cameo?), like did I already forget what happened to the Asian kid at Bachman's? I think I did, unless they've just ghosted him. Maybe he's at the Big Head compound.
Anyway, point being: this was a new kind of side episode in a series full of side episodes. I have to think that eventually we're going to find out that they started out with four or five seasons completely written and oriented around Christopher Evan Welch, and then went oshit.
posted by rhizome at 11:35 AM on June 4, 2016
Anyway, point being: this was a new kind of side episode in a series full of side episodes. I have to think that eventually we're going to find out that they started out with four or five seasons completely written and oriented around Christopher Evan Welch, and then went oshit.
posted by rhizome at 11:35 AM on June 4, 2016
Jarred fucks.
His life story is revealed to be sadder and sadder, and yet he stays happy and upbeat.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:30 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
His life story is revealed to be sadder and sadder, and yet he stays happy and upbeat.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:30 PM on June 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I am finally catching up on these Silicon Valley episodes after taking a long break because the show often stresses me out even though I still like it.
It occurred to me that Jarred basically occupies a similar space that Kenneth did on 30 Rock. Vague yet comical backstory, upbeat, sweet disposition, often dumped on and taken advantage of, worshipful of another character (Tracy Jordan in Ken's case, Richard in Jarred's case).
posted by Green With You at 11:02 AM on April 25, 2017
It occurred to me that Jarred basically occupies a similar space that Kenneth did on 30 Rock. Vague yet comical backstory, upbeat, sweet disposition, often dumped on and taken advantage of, worshipful of another character (Tracy Jordan in Ken's case, Richard in Jarred's case).
posted by Green With You at 11:02 AM on April 25, 2017
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posted by paper chromatographologist at 12:29 PM on May 30, 2016 [7 favorites]