MovieChat Forums > Betas (2013) Discussion > HBO's Silicon Valley...

HBO's Silicon Valley...


Is a direct ripoff of this show....and based on the first episode at least, not NEARLY as well done or entertaining. Really hope Betas gets season 2.0

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I too am hoping for a season two of Betas but did enjoy Silicon Valley. Not sure I can judge it just on one episode but I'm looking forward to seeing the next episode. Office Space was brilliant so I'm going to give Mike Judge the benefit of the doubt on this one.

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Watch Silicon Valley not this you can see why they didn't get pick up for season 2

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Sorry, bud, Silicon Valley was in development way before this show.

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Watched both.

Silicon Valley is better produced, has a greater connection to the tech startup world (TechCrunch, as opposed to the random VC/incubator in Betas), but I personally preferred Betas because it felt less produce and more natural.

Shame it wasn't renewed.

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I can't get into the main character of Betas... really a poser... someone who should be playing the antagonist at best, not the protagonist.

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"Me fifth element - supreme being. Me protect you."

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ya, i got the antagonist vibe off him too. He looks more like a star soccer player from a teenie-bopper flick than an actual geeky genius...and I realize looks can be deceiving but he just isnt believable in this role.

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Poser bitch got creamed.

┌∩┐(◕_◕)┌∩┐
Everything good dies here, even the stars.

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Even if one might have prompted the other, I think they are different enough to warrant existing together. Silicon Valley is largely cartoonish / slapstick and Betas seems to present itself as more realistic. I enjoyed Silicon Valley although the plot has become repetitive by the end of season 3. Haven't seen much of Betas yet but it looks like it might be good too.

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As a developer, Silicon Valley feels a lot more authentic to me than Betas. The producers of Silicon Valley obviously went to much greater effort to make the show and characters "real", as did the consultants/researchers for the show. The jokes are quite deep in that regard.

Betas isn't aimed at actual developers and is a lot more cringe-inducing to programmers (e.g. the launch, the IDE that Nash uses and a lot of general misuse of technology concepts). Their tech references seem like the product of an IT-themed game of telephone or madlibs. As in, they do reference some more generally known concepts from the software world (e.g. "if statements" and "backup logs") but just inject them into dialog haphazardly. Sometimes they use the terms completely incorrectly. Other times it seems like they sorta have a vague idea of what the term means but misunderstand it just enough to make the dialogue ridiculous.

So whereas Silicon Valley feels like it was written by actual Silicon Valley developers and founders who got some help from professional script writers, Betas feels like it was created by Hollywood writers trying to imagine a world they've never actually set foot in. It also seems like their technical consultant might just be a web designer who's dabbled in web development—enough to seem really knowledgeable to non-programmers, but who wouldn't be able to carry a conversation with any real programmers.

Adding to the written-by-an-outsider feel of the show are the character portrayals. Don't get me wrong, I find the show enjoyable to watch and like the characters, but they seem to be portraying gamer geeks rather than programmers. I get that it adds more mainstream appeal, but Silicon Valley does a much better job of portraying programming culture and making the characters entertaining and endearing based on the unique quirks of the that community. Betas just has characters constantly making online culture references like they're the edgiest 16-year-olds on reddit.

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