Silicon Valley Clip Serves T.J. Miller A Bowl Of Binary Soup

While most of the country is rabidly counting down the seconds to Sunday’s Season 4 premiere of Game of Thrones, there are some of us who are swiveling around in our office chairs silently waiting for Silicon Valley, the first live-action TV show from Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill creator Mike Judge. Judging – huh, huh – by the clip seen above, this open plan workplace comedy looks like it’ll dial up the same intense skewering that makes Judge’s Office Space remain such a refreshing comedy. Only this time, the software being created is a lot more mobile.

The clip features tech-builder Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller) giving an unofficial interview to potential geniuses who might be holding the next great product idea in their heads. Unfortunately, the guy he’s talking to is thinking more practical than digital, and created a version of alphabet soup that uses the binary code of ones and zeroes instead of letters. Not the best way to present yourself when millions are at stake.

Erlich delivers a couple of zingers that are hopefully exemplary of this series’ satirical tone. As an example of his proficiency with binary code, Erlich says, “Ask me what 9 times f is. It’s fleventy five.” He then chastises the applicant for taking pictures of soup as if they were in Paris, Texas, home to Campbell’s Soup. It’s another fine bit of humor, as Erlich has to pause for a few seconds to look up his punchline on the Internet. Technology for the win.

At the center of Silicon Valley is Richard Hendricks (Thomas Middleditch), a programmer who works for the Google-like company Hooli until his seemingly simple music app is revealed to run on an algorithm that puts Richard in the middle of a huge corporate bidding war. Now the CEO of his own company, Richard and his fellow app-friendly friends – Jared (Zach Woods), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr) and Erlich – spend their days trying to build a bigger corporation, all while experiencing life in the exclusive bubble of Silicon Valley.

I’d watch Judge direct lotion commercials, so this show sounds absolutely amazing to me. The first two episodes premiered Wednesday night at the Fox Theater in Redwood City, California, with high-profile guests like Tesla Motors’ Elon Musk and Craigslist founder Craig Newmark in the crowd. Though the responses from industry vets were mixed – Musk had a few choice words about Judge's depiction of the Valley lifestyle – the rest of the audience seemed to like it and early reviews have been positive. As if Starr and Nanjiani are capable of making crap.

Silicon Valley will debut on Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, right after the third season premiere of Veep. Sundays just might be the best nights for TV again. Check out the full Silicon Valley trailer below.