If you would like to read my review of the last season, click here.
Synopsis: Now that Pied Piper has ample funding and new offices, the pressure to get things right stymies Richard and forces him to grow the company in a way he hadn’t planned. A picky Dinesh and Gilfoyle question their ability to make good decisions. After returning to Hooli, Gavin worries about becoming antiquated. (HBO)
Writer: Ron Weiner
Director: Mike Judge
Rating: TV-MA
Running Time: 30mins
Airs: Sundays at 10pm on HBO Canada (Canada)/HBO (United States)
Another season, another new venture as the end of last season saw Richard and the guys from Pied Piper moving towards a decentralized internet. Now it was time to gear up with all the usual hijinks along the way. This season is also the first without T.J. Miller’s Erlich Blachman. His absence was definitely felt here but this episode made use of it in a hilarious way.
The episode started off with Richard showing the other guys a possible location for their new office space. What looked like a great space wasn’t the real space after Richard brought them to their real destination was a black site devoid of windows and full of trip hazards. Everyone was easily against it.
They quickly found another more adequate space but now they had to hire coders. They already had three stallions, however, they needed more. Gilfoyle and Dinesh were being needlessly picky about new hires. Meanwhile, Richard had to deal with a man named Duncan who was the owner of a pizza app called Sliceline which he thought was completely lame.
Gavin was worried about staying relevant. However, he still found a way to be a thorn in Richard’s side by hiring all the coders away from him, however, they didn’t want to work on the Hooli box 2 and began to criticize his antiquated choices. This was further reinforced when he was the youngest in a group photo of Innovation Hall of Fame inductees. Gavin considered abandoning the box 2 but luckily for him, the money generated on pre-orders for the box 2 made it worth it.
Another option presented itself when they had a chance to acquire the team of a failing company but Duncan showed up to ruin it. When Gilfoyle and Dinesh returned home, they found several people that Jian-Yang invited in their beds. With Erlich gone, he was trying to take everything that belonged to him, first by presenting a note from Erlich that he obviously wrote to LaFlamme and then trying to buy a cadaver to prove that he was dead. Duncan found another way to screw Richard by acquiring the company he was trying to acquire to work for Sliceline.
Unfortunately for Sliceline, Richard found a flaw in their business plan and exploited it in order to devalue them so he could acquire Sliceline. Instead of Laurie’s pregnancy being the joke, her lack of pregnancy became the joke as she remained unfazed by it all. She ultimately approved the acquisition, trusting her new partner Monica.
Richard was never the best at public speeches so when he was forced to speak to his new staff of 50 people, he began to vomit in his trash which was seen by everyone.
Overall, this was a great season premiere that didn’t waste any time by pinning Richard against Gavin and Sliceline. Richard prevailed against Sliceline but whether he prevails against Gavin remains to be seen. Beit the banter between the guys, funny lines from Jared, physical comedy with Richard, or Jian-Yang’s scheming, there were several hilarious moments to be had. While this was only the first episode and there will surely be a slight dip later on, this season is off to a promising start.
Score: 9/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.
