Silicon Valley season 4 episode 7 review: Ed Chambers and a patent troll

For most of Silicon Valley season 4, the main criticism is still that the show is in the process of spinning its wheels. While still funny, there isn’t too much in the way of progress when it comes to Richard Hendricks becoming the next big tech guru.

Tonight, Richard’s latest hurdle came in the form of a patent troll, one who was intent on using his patent in order to screw Richard out of plenty of cash. He tried to form a coalition of several companies to battle him, but that didn’t work and instead the troll’s price went up.

Consider this a classic case of Richard coming up with an idea that was great in theory, but terrible in practice. He was cheap, and it came back to bite him until he figured out a way in which to fight back. This part of the story unfortunately wasn’t that funny or interesting; the gag about Richard slowly losing his height because of bone density, however, was something else.

As for some other highlights of the hour.

Jian Yang’s smart fridge

This was stupid, but also hilarious. Jian Yang used his new-found money in order to buy a smart fridge for the incubator. As a result of, nobody else could get the food that they wanted. It took a good twelve hours for Gilfoyle to hack into it, but in the end, it worked.

Jared becomes Ed Chambers

This was a brief gag, but learning that Jared had this guy in him all along — a confident, cocky ingrate who eventually got himself fired from an imaginary position.

Erlich and … basketball?

He managed to convince Laurie and Monica in order to get a job at their new firm, and now that he was in the world of VC, he needed to win the guys over. This included him partaking in a game of basketball, or at least showing up at Oracle Arena thinking that he was actually there to watch a Warriors game. Not so much. This showed further some of Erlich’s own struggles trying to fit in — he went on and on this week about how the Valley was a “boy’s club,” but he was every bit the outsider that Monica and Laurie were.

Overall

Another funny, solid episode of Silicon Valley, but given that this is a serialized HBO show, being funny really isn’t enough for it anymore. It needs to take another few steps before the show reaches its end in order to be thought of as one of the greats. Grade: B-.

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To preview the next Silicon Valley episode further, head over to the link here. (Photo: HBO.)