The third season of the American comedy television series ''

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Coun ...

'' premiered in the United States on HBO on April 24, 2016. The season contained 10 episodes, and concluded on June 26, 2016. In the season, Richard once again becomes CEO of Pied Piper, after the excessive spending and questionable practices of Jack Barker, who briefly held the job. After leaving Pied Piper, Barker goes to work for Gavin Belson at Hooli. Erlich teams up with Big Head to create a new

incubator An incubator is anything that performs or facilitates various forms of incubation, and may refer to: Biology and medicine * Incubator (culture), a device used to grow and maintain microbiological cultures or cell cultures * Incubator (egg), a de ...

, but the pairing quickly fails. Dinesh creates a video chat application within the Pied Piper platforms, which unexpectedly becomes popular.

Cast

Main

Thomas Middleditch Thomas Steven Middleditch (born March 10, 1982) is a Canadian actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Richard Hendricks in the HBO series '' Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019), earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award ...

as Richard Hendricks *

T.J. Miller Todd Joseph Miller (born June 4, 1981) is an American actor and comedian. In 2008, he made his acting debut in ''Cloverfield'', and from 2010 to 2014, he voiced Tuffnut Thorston in the first two '' How to Train Your Dragon'' films. From 2014 to ...

as Erlich Bachman *

Josh Brener Joshua Max Brener is an American actor. He played the roles of Kyle on the IFC series ''Maron'' and Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti on the HBO series ''Silicon Valley''. In animation, he provides the voices of Donatello on ''Rise of the Teenage Muta ...

as Nelson "Big Head" Bighetti *

Martin Starr Martin James Pflieger Schienle (born July 30, 1982), professionally known as Martin Starr, is an American actor and comedian. He is known for the television roles of Bill Haverchuck on the short-lived comedy drama '' Freaks and Geeks'' (1999–2 ...

as Bertram Gilfoyle *

Kumail Nanjiani Kumail Ali Nanjiani (; ur, کمیل علی ننجیانی, ; born May 2, 1978) is a Pakistani-American actor, comedian and screenwriter. He is known for his role as Dinesh in the HBO comedy series ''Silicon Valley'' (2014–2019) and for co-wr ...

as Dinesh Chugtai *

Amanda Crew Amanda Catherine Crew (born June 5, 1986) is a Canadian actress. Following her film debut in ''Final Destination 3'' (2006), she had lead roles as Felicia Alpine in ''Sex Drive (film), Sex Drive'' (2008) and Tess Carroll in ''Charlie St. Cloud (f ...

as Monica Hall *

Zach Woods Zachary Woods (born September 25, 1984) is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known for his roles as a series regular for three seasons as Gabe Lewis on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', as Jared Dunn on the HBO ...

as Donald "Jared" Dunn * Matt Ross as Gavin Belson *

Suzanne Cryer Suzanne Rossell Cryer (born January 13, 1967) is an American actress known for her roles as Ashley on the ABC sitcom ''Two Guys and a Girl'' and as Laurie Bream on the HBO original series ''Silicon Valley''. She featured in " The Yada Yada", a ...

as Laurie Bream * Jimmy O. Yang as Jian-Yang

Recurring

Episodes

Production

In April 2015, the series was renewed for a third season. In October 2015, it was reported that

Stephen Tobolowsky Stephen Harold Tobolowsky (born May 30, 1951) is an American character actor. He is known for film roles such as insurance agent Ned Ryerson in '' Groundhog Day'' and amnesiac Sammy Jankis in '' Memento'', as well as such television characters ...

had been cast in the recurring role of Jack Barker.

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the season holds a 100% approval rating, earning a "Certified Fresh" rating. It holds an average score of 8.88/10 based on 23 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads "''Silicon Valley''s satirical take on the follies of the tech industry is sharper than ever in this very funny third season." Similarly, on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which uses a weighted average, holds a score of 90 out of 100, based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Rob Lowman of the '' Los Angeles Daily News'', after the release of season 3, described the show as "one of the best comedies on television", saying that the show "works as both a sharp satire on the tech industry and a commentary on art versus commercialism". Likewise, in '' Vanity Fair'', Laura Bradley praised the show's ability to mix comedy and drama, writing "''Silicon Valley'' has all the urgency of a high-stakes prestige drama, but at its core, it's a comedy about hapless goobers."

Accolades

In 2016, the series earned nine nominations at the

68th Primetime Emmy Awards The 68th Primetime Emmy Awards honored the best in U.S. prime time television programming from June 1, 2015 until May 31, 2016, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The ceremony was held on Sunday, September 18, 2016 at the Mi ...

, including for Outstanding Comedy Series,

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series This is a list of winners and nominees of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The award is presented to the best performance by a lead actor in a television comedy series. Beginning with the 18th Primetime Emm ...

(Middleditch), two for

Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series is presented to the best directing of a television comedy series. Winners and nominations 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Total awards by netw ...

(Alec Berg for "Daily Active Users"; Mike Judge for "Founder Friendly"), two for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Dan O'Keefe for "Founder Friendly"; Alec Berg for "The Uptick"), Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series, Outstanding Production Design, and Outstanding Sound Mixing.

Home media

The third season was released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 11, 2017; bonus features include deleted scenes.

References

External links

* * {{Silicon Valley (TV series) 2016 American television seasons Silicon Valley (TV series)