Lately, Hollywood seems to be obsessed with Silicon Valley.
It’s a little jarring to see the television industry becoming obsessed with the AI bubble and technology giants taking over Northern California.
AMC’s upcoming show, The Audacity, marks the first of three new Silicon Valley-based drama series coming our way.
The other two include Cupertino, set to premiere in the 2026-2027 broadcast season, and Netflix’s Rosamund-Pike-led Thumblite.
While each network might be taking a shot at satirizing Silicon Valley, this niche focus may not bode well for television in the long term.
Enough About Rich People’s Problems Already!
About a decade ago, there was already an HBO comedy show titled Silicon Valley.
While it may not have been the perfect show, one thing the series did successfully was help depict the rise and fall of a Silicon Valley startup.
As a viewer, it was easy to get invested in Pied Piper during its scrappy days and to begin questioning its ethics as it expanded as a company.
However, most of these upcoming Silicon Valley shows primarily follow rich CEOs, who are meant to be caricatures of people like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg.
This framing creates some distance between the viewer and the characters, as it can definitely be harder to relate to a rich guy who treats five million dollars like it’s five dollars.
While tech CEOs might be easy targets for satire, it’s more interesting to look at the people who actually keep the lights on at these companies.
Of course, Rich People Problems is its own extensive television genre (see Billions and Succession).
But during a time when headlines about the havoc that these tech companies and billionaires are wreaking, it’s sort of redundant to watch the same happen on television shows.
That leaves the biggest question for these series: What is there to be said about Silicon Valley that hasn’t been said already?
We’re all already more than familiar with the ills of corporate greed, so the biggest challenge for all these upcoming shows is finding a new angle to keep familiar material fresh.
At The Risk of Repetition
To be honest, Silicon Valley isn’t the most exciting place in the world.
As someone who spent a good portion of my life there, I see all the recent changes as reiterations of problems that have long existed there.
So, even while AI and the global reach of technology may be unprecedented, really, the core problems of selfish CEOs haven’t changed enough to warrant several new TV shows about it.
Another concern I have about the oncoming slate of Silicon Valley-based shows is that they will all create an echo chamber perception of what Silicon Valley is.
In an era where reboots and book-based shows are more popular than original shows, it’s a little worrying to think about how a large portion of these shows might be covering the exact same topic.
The same could be argued for police and medical procedurals, but the issue with these Silicon Valley shows is that they’re not creating a new format.
Instead, they seem to risk reinventing the wheel.
Admittedly, while I’m curious about what The Audacity holds in store, I’m more than apprehensive about the other Silicon Valley shows.
After all, it’s only a matter of time before we all get tired of hearing about why a few billionaires in Northern California are making life more expensive for everyone else.
Are you excited to see these upcoming Silicon Valley series? Which one are you looking most forward to?
The Audacity premieres on AMC on Sunday, April 12 at 9/8c. We’ll have weekly coverage, so be sure to drop by after each episode as we dig into the fun they have in store for us!
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