Gavin's interference causes Pied Piper to struggle with securing their expansion, while a nosy neighbor puts the guys at risk. Gilfoyle takes on the task of building servers, and an overstressed Richard reluctantly takes in Jared as a roommate. Big Head's management skills are questioned, and Nucleus' debut zeroes in on a big event.
Silicon Valley is halfway through its second season and now is the first time I've checked in with the tech comedy this year. So far, the season as a whole has been really good. Richard and the Pied Piper team have achieved enough of a reputation and success in their industry for people to recognize what they are trying to do. The lawsuit from Hooli has brought a nice narrative spine for the season as the two companies are racing to get their products to the market by January. Things haven't been going well for Richard. The bigger the company gets, the more complicated his reality gets. The lawsuit forced all of the investors to back out until only one obnoxious man remained. And now, the Pied Piper team has to forego office space because Gavin has turned all the hosting servers against their company.It's actually an interesting dilemma the show is in right now. Richard and the Pied Piper team are building their company up. As Richard notes, he has 5-6 people joining the company over the next few weeks. It does seem a bit silly that they are still operating out of Erlich's house. As this episode points out, it is a house in a residential neighborhood filled with families and pets. Richard is starting a business in a house that isn't even zoned for it. That could potentially be very devastating to Pied Piper. Everyone is working hard to get the company up and running by January. And yet, they keep running into these problems that have the possibility of destroying the whole company.
It's no wonder Richard has developed night sweats. Sure, the running joke about those eventually turning into wetting the bed never had that much weight and nuance to it. However, it does showcase just how much stress and pressure Richard is under right now. He wants to move the company to an official office. A place that is his and not just an incubator. He wants to give his employees the space they need to do an effective and efficient job. The space that they all agree on is just a couple floors down from a modeling agency. That's a great way to keep morale up for his employees.
And yet, Richard is unable to secure that space because the funds are so tight from all the problems that Gavin is causing. Now, the Pied Piper team has to build their own servers. It's a process that Gilfoyle says would be much better for the company in the long run anyway - considering Richard's code can process information faster than what the typical serve is accustomed to. But it is still disappointing that Richard and the company will have to remain at Erlich's house. Moving into an official space made it feel like they were all moving up in the world. It made this whole operation feel a little more official. However, such a move would change the basic environment of the show. So much greatness happens out of the team working out of Erlich's house. Changing that up does seem inevitable. But there's no reason the company has to grow that quickly. As the night sweats prove, Richard isn't ready for this amount of success and stress yet. It's an evolution and a process but right now it is good and stable to still be in Erlich's house.
In fact, Erlich doesn't mend that Richard, Gilfoyle and Dinesh are sticking around. The latest ideas coming from the young minds he is mentoring aren't all that great. He did gift a kimono to Richard as a parting gift. He was willing to embrace the empty space of his house again as he begins the search for the next big idea. However, there's a comfortability in having the Pied Piper guys around the house all the time. Sure, Erlich threatens the business' future by not having his house zoned for business. But that's also what adds to the excitement of the episode. His neighbor Noah is upset by the behavior of the guys in the house - considering there are families and pets living on the street. Of course, it comes with Erlich and Richard discovering that Noah is housing ferrets on his property which is apparently illegal in California. They strike a deal for both houses to keep operating the way that they have been. And yet, it did serve a purpose in fleshing out the atmosphere around Erlich's house. The main characters spend so much time there. Their presence obviously has to have an influence on the people elsewhere in the community. The show and the characters are inherently always interested in the future of the company. But this personal side of things is very important as well and is proudly on display throughout "Server Space."
Some more thoughts:
- "Server Space" was written by Sonny Lee and directed by Mike Judge.
- Big Head is now the sole head of the Hooli XYZ division as the other, more forward-thinking innovator leaves after seeing just how much of a farce it actually is. Gavin really is too comfortable having his employees watch their time building a potato launcher. But even the big inventions are ultimately just going to help monkeys masturbate and fling their poop. Despite all of that, Hooli still holds the power - even though it's not a company that inspires a whole lot of success.
- Also, Nucleus' debut is vastly behind schedule and Gavin has just accelerated the time table in order to be the streaming service for a big upcoming boxing match. Yeah, that sounds like a disaster of epic proportions just waiting to happen. It makes the future for Pied Piper look brighter though.
- The female engineer who insists on not being referred to as a female engineer really is a lot of fun - even though I have no clue what her name is.
- Andy Daly is a great and versatile performer and his recurring appearances as Richard's doctor are always a delight.
- Jared has always been this very specific character whose stories are often hit or miss. However, the randomness of him speaking German while he sleeps was just weird and odd enough to really work well.
- Jared to Richard: "Do you think maybe you sweat... from your urethra?"
