When “Silicon Valley” launched in 2014, Pied Piper was just a tiny tech startup.
As one of HBO’s top-rated comedies reaches its final episode Sunday (10:06 EST), the burgeoning company is on the verge of a multibillion-dollar valuation. After creating a game-changing digital network through a combination of genius and accident in last week’s episode, Pied Piper is about to achieve its greatest success, but there’s always the chance for something to go very wrong as it launches the network with partner AT&T.
Much has changed for CEO Richard Hendricks and his Pied Piper colleagues over the past six years, just as it has in the real Silicon Valley home of the tech industry.
Tech, often heralded for its potential to advance society, is now viewed more skeptically by the media and some of the public. Once-lauded titans such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are subjected to greater criticism on issues ranging from privacy to election interference.
“There’s been a lot more of a spotlight on (tech) since we started, more coverage of the internal workings of it and the media being more critical, whereas it use to be sort of a lovefest about these wonderful people making the world a better place,” says executive producer Mike Judge, who worked in tech briefly before moving to TV (“King of the Hill”) and film (“Office Space”).
“Silicon Valley” represents the best and the worst of tech, as CEO Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch) struggles to maintain his values and create a safe and efficient internet while being buffeted by competitive pressures, amoral billionaire competitors and the temptation to cut corners that can lead to devastating results.
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Judge says he focused Pied Piper on digital compression, a more mundane subject than some glamorous app, because it was grounded in reality, could be applied across the industry and relieved writers of feeling pressure to come up with a novel, billion-dollar idea.
“It’s like when you’re writing a movie about a band that has a hit song. That song would need to be a hit in real life for it to be believable,” he says.
Although the show drills for laughs with satirical exaggeration, executive producers Judge and Alec Berg (“Barry”) tried to accurately depicti the tech world by hiring industry consultants.
“We really committed ourselves to the reality of that business,” Berg says. “It’s also made it much more difficult to write. It’s the first (show) I’ve ever worked on where you could come up with a story idea and just be wrong. It was always, ‘Is this funny? Is this true to the characters?’ But now you’d come up with something you’d love and run it by the tech consultants and they’d go, ‘Nope.'”
Those limitations led to deeper technical discussion and eventually more interesting story ideas, he says. “That was a gift that just kept on giving.”
The real and fictional Valleys can bump into each other. Richard made a heroic if physically inept speech before Congress in October’s Season 6 premiere, just four days after a real-life, decidedly more tense Zuckerberg appearance.
At one point, “our tech consultants were saying we’ve got to do something with cryptocurrency, and we were thinking the public doesn’t really know about that. By the time the (episode) came out, everybody was going crazy over cryptocurrency,” Judge says.
The real Silicon Valley has noticed. Microsoft legend Bill Gates praised the show’s depiction of the tech world in a 2018 blog post and Middleditch says he gets positive feedback from tech workers.
“Either someone will say, ‘That one scene happened to me. It’s like you had a camera there. It feels like a documentary,’ or I’ll get, ‘I tried to watch the episode but I can’t because it makes me relive the trauma (of) a startup,’ which is equally a great compliment,” he says. “Like we got it right so hard we triggered you.”
As perceptions of tech have changed, “Silicon Valley” has evolved, says Middleditch. “The show started out as a satirical commentary on some of the absurdities that surround the industry,” he says. “And then, as mirrored in real life, things got a bit more dire and the show offered a little more depth.”
Despite the tech world’s problems, Middleditch says he believes many in the industry maintain their altruism. And Judge says Richard exemplifies that real-world tension.
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“Is there a responsibility to humanity with what they’re doing, or are they just going to get rich and not care about the consequences?” he says. “That’s been Richard’s journey. It would have been a lot easier if he he didn’t have any morals.”
The writers tried to avoid getting too high-minded, however. “Silicon Valley” is a comedy and Richard and his colleagues can be jerks – as can people in any industry.
“If you understand the emotions behind what the characters do, I think you identify with them. It doesn’t mean they have to be slick, charming, good-looking and happy all the time,” Berg says. “I work on (another) show where the lead character is a guy who kills people. Because he instinctively knows there’s a better way forward and he’s trying to get there, you forgive a lot.”
Say what you will about the shortcomings of the Pied Piper gang. They only talk about killing people.
