Why So Blu?

Silicon Valley: The Complete Fourth Season (Blu-ray Review)

I’m going to start this one by giving you the same ramble I do year after year covering this HBO title.  Working in the IT industry myself I can’t tell you what a breath of fresh air it is to see people going through the same stress, trials and tribulations as myself in the industry.   I may not exactly be involved directly in a tech startup company, but I know how things work in corporate America/Silicon Valley and sometimes HBO’s hit comedy series Silicon Valley hits oh so close to home for me.  You can read all about my take on Season One in my 2014 Blu-ray review over here, Season Two here and Season Three over here.  However, today we’re here to discuss everything Season Four, which made its Blu-ray debut on September 12th.   So here we go!  Let’s SWOT things out accordingly down below.

Season 

As you can see from the still photo up above it’s good to be back here in Silicon Valley!  Once again Mike Judge and Alec Berg bring this Emmy dominated comedy back to HBO in its fourth season.  And just like the last season did this one picks up right where we left off the previous year.  So if you haven’t seen Season Three yet, you’ve been warned.  I’m going to spoil it for you right here.  This is your last chance to stop reading.  Okay.  Don’t say I didn’t tell you so.  Here we go!

Last season’s conclusion saw Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middletech) learning about Jared’s (Zach Woods) deception of fraudulently boosting Pied Piper app user numbers by utilizing a click-farm.  They agree to keep the secret to themselves, but Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) soon realize what is happening.  Erlich (T.J. Miller), on the other hand, doesn’t know about the real nature of the uptick of app users.  He starts rumors about it and plays competing VCs against each other, leading to a very lucrative potential Series B funding deal from Raviga rival Coleman Blair.  However, Richard ruins it all as he reveals the source of the uptick at the signing meeting.  This sends the company’s reputation plummeting.  Raviga wishes to no longer be associated with Pied Piper and moves to sell majority control to any investor.  Just when all hope looks lost an unexpected windfall from the sale of a blog they bought while business partners leads Erlich and Big Head (Josh Brener) to buy control of the company. This time though Pied Piper becomes a video chat company because of the sudden popularity of Dinesh’s video chat application, which he included on the platform.  Now we’re all caught up!

So not to beat a dead horse, but let’s go over some basics of this show once again before we jump right into the events of Season Four here.   Silicon Valley is an American comedy television series created by Mike Judge and a few others.  The series focuses on six young men who initially founded a startup company in…you guessed it… Silicon Valley, which for anybody that doesn’t know is in Northern California (think Cupertino area).  The series premiered on April 6, 2014, on HBO and consisted of only eight episodes.  Due to its overwhelming success HBO renewed the series for four seasons now, making it the greatest stay-at home date night in combination with Game of Thrones, which it originally followed (pretty much guaranteeing itself an audience).  This year was different with the fourth season here since Game of Thrones was MIA until this past July.  Therefore, I did not watch this season of Silicon Valley until the release of this Blu-ray set.

Now finally before we go on let’s recap the obvious.  Of course I’m talking once again about the need to reintroduce the major players…the cast…of the series.  Thomas Middleditch is our main protagonist Richard Hendricks, a Stanford University dropout and ex-coder at tech giant Hooli, who created the Pied Piper compression application, the reason we’re all here.  T. J. Miller, probably the most recognizable cast member from Deadpool, stars as Erlich Bachman, an arrogant entrepreneur who used to own 10% of Pied Piper and more.  Josh Brener returns as Nelson “Big Head” Bighetti who hilariously came into money last year with his departure from Hooli and lost it all thanks to Erlich.  Three more members of Richard’s troupe also return, Martin Starr as Bertram Gilfoyle, a LaVeyan Satanist programmer and Canadian illegal immigrant, Kumail Nanjiani as Dinesh Chugtai, a talented programmer originally from Karachi, Pakistan who is typically the victim of Gilfoyle’s embarrassing games and pranks, and my personal favorite, the very innocent looking Zach Woods as Donald “Jared” Dunn, an ex-employee of Hooli who quit the company in order to originally join the Pied Piper team as its CFO and business advisor.  He will do anything to protect Richard.  It’s quite funny!  The beautiful Amanda Crew is also back as Monica Hall, an ex-employee of Raviga Capital and ex-assistant to both Peter Gregory and later Laurie Bream (Suzanne Cryer).  Last but certainly not least, the charismatic leader of Hooli, Matt Ross as Gavin Belson returns again with Jack Barker (Stephen Tobolowsky), Pied Piper’s ex-CEO.

So now that we have all the trivial housekeeping accounted for let’s start chatting Season Four.  You ready?  Of course you are!  Season Four picks up right where the last one left off with Pied Piper now officially being known for their product PiperChat, a video chat app created by Dinesh.  It’s seeing an increase in users and is vastly superior to everything else in the market.  However, the team is desperately trying to fund it and failing because of the bad rep generated by the demise of Pied Piper’s compression platform and associated click-farm upticks (as we discussed up above already).  Richard realizes that he can’t go on being the CEO of a project he doesn’t believe in.  He just is not into at all anymore after he realizes what his real dream is, a peer decentralized Internet (free based on users and smartphones and not companies and mainframes).

Just as the team prepares to replace him with Big Head, he quits his position and equity.  He agrees to allow the team to continue to use his algorithm in their video chat platform as long as he can keep it and the Pied Piper brand.   Richard suggests Dinesh become the CEO of PiperChat.  This is where the real fun for Dinesh and his new hairstyle begins.  He even gets a girl this season too!  As a result of no more job Big Head ends up entering the world of academia.  Jared, however, is completely heartbroken by Richard leaving the company.  Remember he left a huge paycheck at Hooli to work for Richard.  Meanwhile, Gavin Belson and Jack Barker are returning from China after closing a deal to manufacture Hooli Endframe’s box there and like in my life nothing good ever lasts forever.  There’s a big turn of events for Gavin in this season and even a blood boy too (yes think the white pasty guys in Mad Max: Fury Road).

If all of this above did not whet your appetite to give Season Four a watch, then I’m not doing my job as one of the world’s most prolific Blu-ray reviewers.  Ha ha.  Trust me the hilariousness of it all doesn’t end where I left off.   There are still many more ways the guys continue to fumble hilariously along the road to success.  So with that being said what I would love to do now is fill you in on is how things look and sound in this Blu-ray release.  Read on to find out…

Video 

Once again, things look really good here in Silicon Valley‘s fourth outing now on the Blu-ray format. I completely disagree with those who clamor that this is a show only worth owning on DVD.  I for one can’t wait for the eventual death of that hideous SD format.  After all, we’re in the age of HD and 4K now!  Thinking about it, this show should see a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray release. Ha  ha.  I betcha it would look stunning!

• Encoding: AVC MPEG-4
• Resolution: 1080p
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Clarity/Detail: Like in the previous seasons of HBO’s Silicon Valley on Blu-ray, detail is dominant and prominent throughout here in this Blu-presentation.  The textures, hair, stubble, computer graphics and even fabrics in clothing like the fuzz on Richard’s hoodie all jump right off the screen at you in the utmost of sharpness and clarity.  There’s no escaping how razor sharp this one looks up close down to the individual acupuncture needles sticking out of Galvin’s face.  Backgrounds and set environments like outside of Bachman’s house are also crystal clear and chiseled throughout.  One other thing to note is the glossiness here.  I am not trying to make it sound bad, but use Gavin’s personal airplane as an example  The wood grain panels are highly polished and they glisten in this presentation with radiance, shine and gloss.  Other examples include the exquisite Silicon Valley cars that decorate the sets here too.
• Depth: Due to the extreme levels of detail and clarity in this one, foreground characters literally pop off the screen with the utmost of three-dimensional qualities leaving the backgrounds to visibly appear deep in the distance like in Hooli’s data center for example.  All one needs to do is look at the vastness of the sequences, either outside or in, and the level of detail in the sets to appreciate how deep and intricate things are here.
• Black Levels: The black levels are all deep and gorgeously inky throughout.  Although here is one of those scenarios where I’m STILL getting spoiled by HDR in 4K presentations as nighttime scenes in the darker moments do not reveal the utmost level of clarity I’m now used to from UHD.
• Color Reproduction: The colors are vivid, bold and sitcom bright throughout.  Colors such as the reds in clothing, oranges (there’s a nice orange exotic sports car here too and couch in Bachman’s house) and the blues within the Hooli data center pop with priority.  Shots either outside in sunny California or properly lit look like a million bucks.  However, there are times of inconsistency too like in the very episode inside the car where Richard was posing as an Uber driver and the different camera angles flipped back and forth.
• Flesh Tones: The skin tones are all lifelike and natural with an occasional hot spike or two.  Like in the previous two seasons, the pasty white skin of all the nerdy tech characters is completely real and authentic looking.  Haha.
• Noise/Artifacts: I did not notice any noise or unwanted artifacts that would keep you from ever enjoying this bright, vivacious and mostly pristine presentation.  I was, however, seriously worried about compression artifacts since these 10 episodes are all on one Blu-ray disc, but thankfully there are no issues.  We dodged a bullet there.  There is a little noise here or there though.

Audio 

For a comedy, things are pretty much what you would expect (being very top heavy) and as a result are status quo in this Blu-ray’s audio presentation.

• Audio Format(s): English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, Latin Spanish 2.0 DTS Digital
• Subtitles: English SDH, French, Latin, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
• Dynamics: For what it is the dynamics are well developed and placed here in Silicon Valley on Blu-ray.  From the hustle and bustle of endlessly pecking away on computer keyboards to crinkling and throwing away paper, everything is brought to life in this Blu-ray presentation with the utmost of authenticity and clarity just like you were really going through all the trials and tribulations of this very risky tech startup company.  The only catch is things are really top heavy here.
• Low Frequency Extension: You really only notice the subwoofer pumping in moments where it’s deserving or necessary, and in moments such as where the score or soundtrack warrant the LFE channel as permissible (like the opening title sequence for instance and the end credits of each episode).  It’s a comedy, folks.  Relax!  You’re really not losing out on anything here.  Some of the hip hop transitions or quick insertions definitely keep your eyes open when the bass goes pumping.
• Surround Sound Presentation: Besides the LFE presentation, this is probably the only area I would have loved to have hear more of.  You hear things in the rear speakers such as score, light ambience, etc., but it would be so awesome if it was more prominent.  Since I’m judging this based on it being a situational comedy, I’m being very generous here.  Just don’t expect anything over the top.  Sometimes you need to check your receiver to make sure there’s surround sound being decoded.  It helps that I have huge rear speakers as I definitely hear all the little things easier like crickets chirping outside of Bachman’s house.
• Dialogue Reproduction: The dialog is loud, clear and intelligible throughout here.  Thankfully too because the dialogue is what makes this show tick and you thankfully hear every second of it with the utmost of clarity and priority.

Extras 

Silicon Valley: The Complete Fourth Season arrives on Blu-ray featuring all ten Season 4 episodes and three never-before-seen deleted scenes.  In addition to the Blu-ray extras you can always count on HBO to deliver you not only the iTunes HD Digital Copies of the entire series, but also the UltraViolet HD versions too.   How’s that for maximum bang for your buck?  I know!  It’s stupendous you’re probably saying to yourself, and you’re absolutely right!  Just for your knowledge, episodes 1-10 are are all housed this year on the same Blu-ray disc.

• Deleted Scenes (HD, 2:45) – Although not every episode has them, deleted scenes are available and are selectable either by the episode or via a play all selection.  The episodes where there are deleted scenes to be found are 2, 6 and 9.  Sadly that’s it folks!  Nonetheless it’s still a great package.  The extras are not where the meat and potatoes are here, but it’s the episodes themselves that make this a spectacular season to own.

Summary 

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen.  In summary, I think I’ve gave you more than enough reasons to arm yourself with in the knowledge that HBO’s Silicon Valley The Complete Fourth Season is once again exactly what you’re looking for to spend your hard earned money on.   From a good time to be had with it all to a Blu-ray that knocks it out of the ballpark with all the technical mumbo jumbo, this is the Blu-ray you have been looking for this September.   Only one thing remains now between you and you’re dream of achieving utter happiness and eternal bliss.   You just need to click the order link below to bring yourself one step closer to making these dreams of happiness an honest to God reality.  Come on.  It’s easy to do.  It’s at a great price.  Everyone’s doing it.   Just click on the Amazon graphic below.  Move that mouse cursor and/or touch it.  Done deal!   Isn’t technology sweet?  Thanks for reading and ultimately your support too.

*

Have Fun In IT Without The Headaches…

Silicon Valley The Complete Fourth Season

Debuts on Blu-ray and DVD September 12th

ORDER NOW!

*

**