‘The Audacity’ tears Silicon Valley a ...

If I wish to hear about how billionaire tech bros are making the world worse, I can activate the information. If I wish to hear about how billionaire tech bros are making the world worse and a minimum of chuckle about it, I can watch The Audacity.

Created by Jonathan Glatzer, a author and producer on Succession and Higher Name Saul, The Audacity takes a satirical sledgehammer to Silicon Valley. It tears into the tech world with reducing one-liners and a parade of ultra-wealthy, ultra-insecure “billionaire man youngsters” who typically really feel frighteningly acquainted.

What’s The Audacity about?

Zach Galifianakis and Billy Magnussen in “The Audacity.”
Credit score: Ed Araquel / AMC

Amongst these man youngsters is Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen), the info mining CEO of tech firm Hypergnosis. He is a sleeveless vest filled with delusion and insecurity, a person who’s satisfied of his personal genius, but nonetheless wants these round him to validate stated genius.

His closest confidante is his strung-out therapist Dr. JoAnne Felder (Sarah Goldberg), who’s definitely not getting paid sufficient to listen to about Duncan’s fraudulent exercise. Nevertheless, JoAnne’s file is not spotless both. Due to info from her periods with Duncan and the opposite tech titans she treats, she’s picked up sufficient confidential info to get into some critical insider buying and selling.

When Duncan discovers this, and when his personal inventory threatens to plummet, he blackmails JoAnne to assist him out, leading to a pointy, self-destructive spiral for each.

Billy Magnussen and Sarah Goldberg kill it in The Audacity.

Sarah Goldberg and Billy Magnussen in “The Audacity.”
Credit score: Ed Araquel / AMC

There are few joys in tv better than watching two nice actors have it out, and you will get loads of that in The Audacity because of Magnussen and Goldberg.

So typically a spotlight in supporting roles, from Into the Woods to HBO’s short-lived The Franchise, Magnussen takes heart stage along with his ordinary full-throttle dedication to ridiculousness. His Duncan is somebody you like to hate: smarmy, stuffed with himself, and at all times able to maintain digging deeper right into a gap if it means he’ll get what he needs. Magnussen channels every of Duncan’s flaws with glee, and the result’s cringe comedy gold.

Whereas Duncan believes he is on high of the world, Goldberg’s JoAnne is all too conscious of the truth that she’s on the backside of the Silicon Valley pyramid. That fuels Goldberg’s impeccable tackle JoAnne’s constructing breakdown, as does Duncan’s blackmail and her strained relationship with teen son Orson (Everett Blunck). We have seen Goldberg play a lady dropping management earlier than, as Barry‘s Sally Reed. (Who may neglect her Season 3 elevator tirade?) Right here, she as soon as once more nails that very same degree of desperation, coupled with JoAnne’s extra composed therapist persona. Watching her go from therapist mode to panicked mode is one among The Audacity‘s darkly comedian highlights. Watching the 2 start to merge is even higher.

Magnussen and Goldberg’s chemistry is excellent, with Duncan and JoAnne wrestling for energy in more and more ridiculous methods. An early season spotlight? JoAnne preferring to drive her automotive off a street with the intention to keep away from interacting with an oncoming Duncan. He pulls into body with the goofiest smile on his face, appearing like her bestie despite the fact that he is straight-up utilizing her automotive information to trace her. He believes he is dwelling in a tech thriller, whereas JoAnne’s absolutely in a horror film. That imbalance is a core a part of why JoAnne-Duncan dynamic works so nicely, however it’s additionally proof of The Audacity‘s tech bros’ whole delusion: They reside to this point above everybody else that they really feel they will do something.

The Audacity‘s Silicon Valley is downright sinister.

Simon Helberg in “The Audacity.”
Credit score: Ed Araquel / AMC

The Audacity builds out a full, scary world round Duncan and JoAnne. Disillusioned tech pioneers like Carl Bardolph (Zach Galifianakis) look down their noses at what Silicon Valley has change into, all whereas looking for a approach again in. Mother and father like Duncan and his spouse Lili (Lucy Punch) attempt to make sure their daughter Jamison (Ava Telek) will get into Stanford by any means essential, hiring an elite crew of coaches despite the fact that it makes her depressing. Elsewhere, inventor Martin Pfister (Simon Helberg) works tirelessly on perfecting an AI baby, all whereas neglecting his personal daughter Tess (Thailey Roberge).

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For the present’s teen ensemble of Orson, Jamison, and Tess, alienation from their dad and mom is the norm. By their eyes, Silicon Valley turns into a nightmare place to develop up.

By the adults’ eyes, the Valley does not appear so fairly both, regardless of the lavish mansions or luxurious mud baths only a helicopter experience away in Napa. As a substitute of a tech heaven, it is a surreal tech dystopia, one the place a single algorithm can play God and bundle each little bit of an individual’s information for exploitation. It might virtually really feel like science fiction if this sort of information mining know-how did not exist already, and that is a part of The Audacity‘s bleak attraction: making us chuckle at ridiculousness that is only one step faraway from actuality.

“The world there’s not the world,” Orson says of Silicon Valley. He is proper. It is a bubble bursting with huge web worths and larger egos. However, The Audacity reminds us, that bubble has a significant affect on the true world, and is not {that a} foolish, scary factor?

The Audacity was reviewed out of its premiere at SXSW. It premieres April 12 at 9 p.m. ET on AMC and AMC+.