Shallow Thoughts: Silicon Valley and Colbert
April 11th, 2014
Shallow Thoughts: Vapid headline grabbing, meandering nothings and a false sense of importance
Posted By Casey
Silicon Valley
“Office Space” writer and director Mike Judge’s new show “Silicon Valley” debuted Sunday, and received primarily positive reviews. The show is about a struggling programmer, who suddenly garners the interest of tech moguls interested in investing in his ground-breaking code. For me, it’s always hard to judge a show from the first episode and this was no exception. There were funny jokes, but also lines that didn’t quite deliver. When jokes didn’t land, it often felt like it wasn’t due to poor writing, but rather, a lack of familiarity with the character. Overall, I found the combination of the show idea, the character types and the strength of the actors to be enough to at least interest me in watching more. It seems like there is a lot of potential, and I’m happy to see comedy veterans Martin Star (of “Party Down”) and Kumail Nanjiani in the show.
The Afghan Whigs…
Just released their first full-length album, since 1998. The Ohio rockers had played some reunion tours over the last few years, but apparently playing with Usher in 2013 at South By Southwest awoke an urge in the band to create new music. The single “Algiers” is clearly a very 90’s sounding song. At times the vocals evoke the crooning of Chris Isaak, and really, there are no production elements that distinguish this song as being a post-2000 release. The band has returned to the Sub Pop label and is currently touring.
March Madness
As a Badger fan, it was fantastic watching UConn walk away with another national championship. After watching Aaron Harrison display his brutal Big Ten slaying skills with yet another late game deep three, I knew I would be rooting for UConn. This game had been billed as a real underdog story, a seven seed playing an eight seed, which is unheard of. I feel like the strength of the draft class that this year’s Kentucky team had, in combination with the fact that this was a pre-season number one team that had under-performed might have been over-selling the underdog component of this NBA talent-loaded Kentucky team. All these factors only added to my happiness in watching them lose when it counted.
Colbert’s New Job
With David Letterman leaving his role on “The Late Show,” it’s been announced that Stephen Colbert will be stepping up and taking his role in 2015. When asked if he will still stay in his Colbert Report character, he answered “I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me. I’m looking forward to it.” It’s exciting to see Colbert step up into the national spotlight and take on such an iconic role, but it will be sad to see the Colbert persona die. Listening to Colbert in interviews, it’s very clear that he’s a likeable, intelligent and charismatic guy. I think this will go a long way in the interview portion of the show, and I’m hopeful that Colbert will do something inventive that breaks the norms of the usually tame late night television genre.
