Silicon Valley: Exit Event
December 11, 2019 9:43 AM - Season 6, Episode 7 - Subscribe
Series finale. Ahead of a career-defining moment, Richard makes a startling discovery that sends the entire Pied Piper team racing to pull off a spectacular feat on the day of a big launch.
This was the most satisfying series finale I've watched in ages. The Big Head reveal made me laugh so hard. Just perfect.
And I guess this isn't a popular opinion, but I enjoyed Monica evolving/devolving from a somewhat generic character to one with flaws like everyone else. Not sure she would actually wind up at the NSA, but on the other hand I can imagine her winding up there through random events and spending a lot of time rationalizing it.
posted by queensissy at 10:24 AM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
And I guess this isn't a popular opinion, but I enjoyed Monica evolving/devolving from a somewhat generic character to one with flaws like everyone else. Not sure she would actually wind up at the NSA, but on the other hand I can imagine her winding up there through random events and spending a lot of time rationalizing it.
posted by queensissy at 10:24 AM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]
I thought it was totally fine. I also thought that Thomas Middleditch's delivery of the "we did okay" or "we did our best" line, can't remember the exact wording, was stellar. I really like him.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:45 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 10:45 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]
The young person not even knowing who tf Pied Piper were when they were visiting the old house was also spot on.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:49 AM on December 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 10:49 AM on December 11, 2019 [7 favorites]
After such a meh season I was very pleasantly surprised how they ended it. They let out all their crazy and just ran with it, and it paid off.
posted by KTamas at 12:46 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by KTamas at 12:46 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Agree entirely with queensissy about how much better the writing was for Monica here. She got to be so much funnier—greedy and lazy and flawed like everyone else. (Not coincidentally, there was no longer the tiniest hint that she’s a possible love interest for Richard, which I think there was in earlier seasons. In this season that wasn’t on the table at all.)
It was broad satire but very satisfying: they get to save the world from an industry that talks such a big game about saving the world. And they save the world not through their new invention but by destroying their invention. Good stuff. (Here is an article by a real-life tethics professor who doesn't agree!)
posted by miles per flower at 1:42 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
It was broad satire but very satisfying: they get to save the world from an industry that talks such a big game about saving the world. And they save the world not through their new invention but by destroying their invention. Good stuff. (Here is an article by a real-life tethics professor who doesn't agree!)
posted by miles per flower at 1:42 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
Was it ever states why Laurie ended up in prison? I'm assuming no but thought I'd check.
posted by Justinian at 4:06 PM on December 11, 2019
posted by Justinian at 4:06 PM on December 11, 2019
No, but she probably wouldn’t play ball with the DA and got Martha Stewarted.
posted by cardboard at 4:39 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by cardboard at 4:39 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
This concluded about as well as anything else I've seen end. The Pied Piper team members were true to themselves and ended with fates that not just fair but suitable.
Gavin, of course, doesn't deserve his success, but he's the kind of character that was not going to be broken. Ditto for Russ. I can even live with their victories because both characters, at times, showed either some glimmer of humanity or positivity or pathos or something.
Jian-Yang's success, however, just ticks me off. He was such a terrible, one-note character that just got worse and worse. His treatment of Monica, in particular, was deplorable and escalated throughout the end of the series, not to mention the implication he killed Erlich.
Despite some rough episodes and seasons, I'm glad I stuck with this throughout its entire run. Even though there was nothing left for the Silicon Valley team to do--they told the story they wanted to tell--I'm going to miss it, or at least miss the characters.
posted by sardonyx at 4:42 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
Gavin, of course, doesn't deserve his success, but he's the kind of character that was not going to be broken. Ditto for Russ. I can even live with their victories because both characters, at times, showed either some glimmer of humanity or positivity or pathos or something.
Jian-Yang's success, however, just ticks me off. He was such a terrible, one-note character that just got worse and worse. His treatment of Monica, in particular, was deplorable and escalated throughout the end of the series, not to mention the implication he killed Erlich.
Despite some rough episodes and seasons, I'm glad I stuck with this throughout its entire run. Even though there was nothing left for the Silicon Valley team to do--they told the story they wanted to tell--I'm going to miss it, or at least miss the characters.
posted by sardonyx at 4:42 PM on December 11, 2019 [3 favorites]
My favourite grace note for Monica was when they showed her phone screen had the same "Bitchard" tag as Jian-Yang, right after she'd cleared his awful girl code camp (not even a printed poster!) work crew. It was such a terrible, terrible up and down show with so much going on, and for all that, so much fun.
And Richard obviously ended up with Jared. DUH.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:43 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
And Richard obviously ended up with Jared. DUH.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 7:43 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm just glad TJM didn't show up.
posted by Pendragon at 12:58 AM on December 12, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 12:58 AM on December 12, 2019 [6 favorites]
My favorite reveal was Dinesh and Gilfoyle not only still working together, but co-owning the company and sharing an office. Best.
posted by something something at 7:29 AM on December 12, 2019 [8 favorites]
posted by something something at 7:29 AM on December 12, 2019 [8 favorites]
Well, I didn't think they would be able to pull it off (and they probably should have done it about two years ago), but what the hell, they really did manage to wrap it all up neatly, humorously, and realistically (within the universe of the show, at least).
I think the success of it was in realizing that the show was about Pied Piper, not about Richard or the Incubator Gang (and, as miles per flower points out, thank the gods they didn't try to make it about Richard-and-Monica), or even really "about" Silicon Valley itself. So when Pied Piper well and truly died, then so did the show.
posted by Etrigan at 10:48 AM on December 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
I think the success of it was in realizing that the show was about Pied Piper, not about Richard or the Incubator Gang (and, as miles per flower points out, thank the gods they didn't try to make it about Richard-and-Monica), or even really "about" Silicon Valley itself. So when Pied Piper well and truly died, then so did the show.
posted by Etrigan at 10:48 AM on December 12, 2019 [7 favorites]
Fantastic finale - fucking great, just on it, even if I can't shake the feeling that I wish the build-up had been as good because the finale was actually better than the season?
The one other thing for me, and to be honest in a way I'm glad it didn't: felt like there was a level of nastiness needed to make the satire work that the show shied away from here when it hadn't in the past? Monica being in the NSA was close, but I'd almost wanted a 'In The Think Of It' style 'the whole is rotten, you just sometimes get to forget'. The Valley came out relatively unscathed, or at least only vaguely condemned.
But then, Silicon Valley right? It was never that show, and in a way I'll personally remember it most as incapsulating the 2010s slow cultural realisation that the tech industry's problem isn't just silly bean bags or naive ambition or unhealthy hours - it's ferocious disaster capitalism that would carelessly destroy the world. Something the show wanted to tackle but was never equipped to...
It's strange, it's ended up being more of a nostalgic moment for me that I would have expected, considering I liked it but never took it too seriously. Glad I followed it.
posted by litleozy at 12:24 AM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
The one other thing for me, and to be honest in a way I'm glad it didn't: felt like there was a level of nastiness needed to make the satire work that the show shied away from here when it hadn't in the past? Monica being in the NSA was close, but I'd almost wanted a 'In The Think Of It' style 'the whole is rotten, you just sometimes get to forget'. The Valley came out relatively unscathed, or at least only vaguely condemned.
But then, Silicon Valley right? It was never that show, and in a way I'll personally remember it most as incapsulating the 2010s slow cultural realisation that the tech industry's problem isn't just silly bean bags or naive ambition or unhealthy hours - it's ferocious disaster capitalism that would carelessly destroy the world. Something the show wanted to tackle but was never equipped to...
It's strange, it's ended up being more of a nostalgic moment for me that I would have expected, considering I liked it but never took it too seriously. Glad I followed it.
posted by litleozy at 12:24 AM on December 16, 2019 [1 favorite]
My favorite reveal was Dinesh and Gilfoyle not only still working together, but co-owning the company and sharing an office.
I assume it is them that have the ONE REMAINING COPY OF THE SOURCE CODE that Richard couldn't find.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:39 AM on December 16, 2019
I assume it is them that have the ONE REMAINING COPY OF THE SOURCE CODE that Richard couldn't find.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 8:39 AM on December 16, 2019
it's funny, We had a deal, Kyle because my thought was immediately that it's with Monica bc of her job.
posted by KTamas at 9:57 AM on December 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by KTamas at 9:57 AM on December 16, 2019 [3 favorites]
Did anyone else get the vibe that Gavin and the dude that was actually writing the books settled down as a couple? Or was that explicitly mentioned and I missed it?
posted by lazaruslong at 10:40 AM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by lazaruslong at 10:40 AM on December 16, 2019 [2 favorites]
What a lovely, well-written bittersweet ending. Great supporting characters, Jared and Jian Yang were my favorite throughout, and Gilfoyle. I was late to this program because it was about Silicon Valley but Zach Woods won me over, he was great on The Good Wife and even better here. The tech jargon/resolutions approached Star Trek levels of impenetrability most of the time and that could be annoying.
It's so incredibly difficult to create a good series, and so rare. With all the dreck on tv, I'm just amazed and grateful when one succeeds.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:41 PM on January 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's so incredibly difficult to create a good series, and so rare. With all the dreck on tv, I'm just amazed and grateful when one succeeds.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 1:41 PM on January 18, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Pendragon at 9:53 AM on December 11, 2019 [5 favorites]