The
socially challenged underdogs of the lucrative world of tech
start-ups are finally uncovered in the painfully funny SILICON
VALLEY: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON
released on Blu-ray and DVD from the 23rd
March 2015, courtesy of HBO. To celebrate the release, we take a
look at the best of Silicon Valley alumni Mike Judge, and the
projects he’s created with his own unique, brilliantly sharp and
wonderfully offbeat humour…
Silicon Valley
(2014-2015)
This
critically-acclaimed HBO comedy takes viewers inside the high-tech
gold rush of modern Silicon Valley. Inspired by
Judge’s own experiences as a Silicon Valley engineer in the 80’s,
the show follows the trials and tribulations of awkward computer
programmer Richard (Thomas Middleditch),
who lives in a “Hacker Hostel” along with his friends Big Head
(Josh Brener), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), and Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani).
Combining brilliant observational comedy with a fantastic cast and
razor-sharp dialogue, Silicon Valley taps into the zeitgeist in a
completely unique way and shows, in the funniest way possible,
how often the people most qualified to succeed are really the least
capable of handling success.
Beavis and
Butt-head (1993-1997)
Mike Judge first became
famous for creating this animated MTV series turned phenomenon about
two heavy-metal music loving high school burnouts living in a
fictional Texas town that hate attending school, and love watching TV
while “reviewing” music videos they watch. The show aired for
five years and was a massive cult hit, with Judge voicing both title
characters and other supporting characters. He brought back the
comical hit in 2011 for another successful season.
King of the
Hill (1997-2010)
Judge took another
whack at animated comedy and successfully co-created an American
adult sitcom with Greg Daniels. King of the Hill centres on the life
of propane salesman Hank Hill and his middle-class family, who also
live in a modern fictional Texas small town much like Beavis and
Butt-head. His substitute-teaching wife is opinionated, his son is a
disappointment, and his friends are losers. Despite his problems,
Hank is hard-working and keeps a level head, maintaining the status
of “King of the Hill.” Judge provides the voice for Hank Hill
and delivers his character brilliantly.
Office Space
(1999)
This amusing comedy
film written and directed by Mike Judge is a take on the satirizing
life and vapidity of American corporate culture. A computer
programmer at a software company named Peter suffers numerous
humiliations in his bleak workspace, along with his other colleagues.
Peter, played by Ron Livingston, changes his mind set on his job and
suddenly becomes lazy and carefree. This plays out with the utmost
hilarity as the results of his behaviour are not what he expected.
The supporting cast is strong, starring Jennifer Aniston and Gary
Cole, and the film received positive reviews, with a 79% “Certified
Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Idiocracy
(2006)
Luke Wilson stars in
this adventurous comedy film mainly set in the future year 2505 –
where the ordinary is considered extraordinary. In 2006, an average
American named Joe Bauers (Wilson) is selected for an experiment in
which he hibernates for a year, but he is forgotten and ends up
sleeping for five centuries. When he wakes up in 2505, the human
race has become idiotic and Bauers is the smartest person on Earth.
Hilarity ensues as he attempts to take on the position of ultimate
ruler of the human race. Judge wrote and directed the film, with the
cast including other well-known comedy actors such as Dax Shepard,
Maya Rudolph and Terry Crews.
Extract (2009)
Judge wrote and
directed this hysterical film about a flavour-extract factory owner
who is about to sell his company and retire when a freak workplace
incident occurs and his entire professional and personal life gets
turned upside down. The film was said to be Judge’s companion
piece to his classic Office Space. With a stellar cast,
including Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, and
J.K. Simmons, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called it “the
funniest American comedy of the summer.”
SILICON
VALLEY: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is released on Blu-ray and DVD from
the 23rd
March 2015, courtesy of HBO.
.jpg)
