‘Silicon Valley’ season 2, episode 3 review: Billboards and Big Heads

The third episode of “Silicon Valley” season 2 finally did bring something in forward progress that the team at Pied Piper was looking for. Was it the type of forward progress they really needed, though? For the time being, we’re concerned.

Tonight’s episode brought us the introduction of Russ, an eccentric-but-successful billionaire who was popular twenty years ago, mostly because he managed to bring radio to the internet. Yes, we feel rather confident already in saying that it feels almost like this guy was meant to just be a combination of Mark Cuban (who was originally famous for broadcast.com) and some of those jerk billionaires you tend to see who got a lot of money from their parents. He was offering Richard and Pied Piper a way out, and a chance to do something that no other company was: Not have to take money from Gavin and Hooli in what would essentially be a buyout.

Here is the problem: Russ’ whole promise of being hands-off was a lie. He’s the uncle who tries really hard to be cool, even though he has no real idea of what it means to actually be cool. This mean him offering ridiculous suggestions, harassing the team during a meeting, and erecting a giant billboard well before the team was really ready to have one. Actually, he erected 15 of them, including one right outside of Gavin’s window. Funny stuff, but not right for business. It was enough to make Gavin consider a last-resort option, per his attorneys: Use someone in Big Head, who has seemingly been hanging out on the roof since season 1, as a pawn so that they can prove that they have the real architect of the technology still in-house.

Comedy-wise, this wasn’t as strong as last week. Monica felt somewhat shoehorned in, but we did enjoy Erlich’s desperate attempts to impress Russ very much and also the entire opening gag that revolved around Jared and his knowledge of Julia Roberts movies. Grade: B.

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