The Audacity TV Review: A brutal and funny satire of Silicon Valley and the modern tech industry

Plot: In the bubble of Silicon Valley, the unorthodox relationship between a wannabe tech titan and his therapist illustrate the Valley’s madness and failings.

Review: If you loved Succession but wanted it to skewer the world of tech, The Audacity is for you. If you loved Silicon Valley but wanted it to take a darker look at the ultra-wealthy nerds building, The Audacity is for you as well. A blend of satire and darkest humor, The Audacity takes the pithy insults and one-liners of the aforementioned shows and combines multiple storylines into a series that looks at the cutthroat world of entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and the people caught in their orbit. This is a series about terrible people and people forced to do terrible things, all in the name of securing and growing their own wealth. It is a disturbing concept if you stop and think about it, but The Audacity does not dig that deeply into material we have not seen many times before, including in Silicon Valley and Succession. And, while it may not be quite as innovative or original as those series, The Audacity does have potential.

At the core of The Audacity is Duncan Park (Billy Magnussen), the CEO of Hypergnosis. A data mining company that he failed to sell to mega-corporation Cupertino, Duncan is desperate to find an investor to buoy Hypergnosis. Turning to his therapist, Joanne Felder (Barry‘s Sarah Goldberg), Duncan uses his own technology to blackmail her into connecting him with her other wealthy patients whom he could align with. Could it be the brilliant Martin Phister (Simon Helberg), whose wife, Anushka (Meagan Rath), used to be involved with Duncan? Or could it be reclusive billionaire Carl Bardolph (Zach Galifianakis)? Over the eight-episode first season, which has already been renewed for a sophomore run, we follow Duncan and Joanne as they lose control over their convoluted plans. The machinations and schemes they create spiral out of control, giving audiences a bunch of the elite squabbling and losing their minds like toddlers.

What works in The Audacity is the large cast of characters from within the California tech community and abroad. Tom Ruffage (Rob Corddry) is the Deputy Undersecretary of Veterans Affairs, who gets involved in Carl’s business endeavors while Joanne’s husband, Dr. Gary Felder (Paul Adelstein), has his own patients, and his patience is tested by his spouse’s plotting with Duncan. Spouses abound, including Duncan’s wife, Lili (Lucy Punch), who is having her own affair while they try to navigate getting their daughter, Jamison (Ava Marie Telek), into Stanford. There are multiple teen characters includiding Joanne’s son Orson (The Plague‘s Everett Plunck), who recently moved in with his mother, and Tess Phister (Thailey Roberge), the daughter of Simon, who has less of a relationship with her dad compared to his single-minded focus on an AI chatbot he is developing. The social ignorance of these people in their connections to one another and the world at large serves as a significant theme throughout the series, making the selfish and vainglorious decisions they make all the more enjoyable to watch come undone.

What The Audacity brings to this version of the story that we haven’t seen in previous iterations of similar tales is the fear that runs through all these characters. They’re not afraid of failing or of someone taking their place, but rather of technology replacing them. It’s an interesting conceit: nobody knows exactly what’s going on, but everybody is deathly afraid it will impact them. Yes, every single one of these characters is filthy rich, and those that are not are striving to make more money, but this is a world full of people who have egos and ambitions larger than what they’re capable of. When situations like this happen in the real world, we call it a bubble bursting. Within the context of a show like this, it’s something much more fun to watch. It also helps that the series is led by Billy Magnussen, who has had quite the career, branching out into lead roles in HBO’s short-lived satire of comic book movies, The Franchise, as well as the great indie thriller Violent Ends. Magnussen brings a charm and unhinged curiosity that balances well with Sarah Goldberg’s performance. Sarah, who was phenomenal in HBO’s Barry opposite Bill Hader, brings a quiet intensity similar to the one she brought to that series.

The first series created by showrunner Jonathan Glatzer, who has previously written for both Better Call Saul and Succession, The Audacity treads a lot of familiar territory we have seen before, including on shows written by Glatzer. The first episodes are a bit uneven as they introduce the entire ensemble across a single hour, but the series begins to hit its stride midway through the season. By the eighth and final episode, Glatzer and his writing team of Charlotte Ahlin, Semi Chellas, Arthur Phillips, Irving Ruan, and Marie Hanhnhon Nguyen have settled things amid the chaos of the preceding seven episodes and set the stage for what will surely be an improved second season. Directors Lucy Forbes, Daniel Sackheim, Daniel Longino, and Alex Buono each helm two episodes that build tension and bickering among coworkers, adversaries, and family members, culminating in a finale that leaves multiple cliffhangers.

The Audacity takes a bit of time to find its footing, but when it does, it begins to turn into a story much more interesting than where it begins. The potential this cast has, led by Billy Magnussen and Sarah Goldberg, could make the second season the series that Jonathan Glatzer set out to make. These first eight episodes are entertaining and have funny moments, but they mine territory we have seen before on the series I mentioned throughout this review and, to a lesser extent, on shows like AMC’s own Halt and Catch Fire. I will never tire of seeing terrible people get what they deserve, but it’s more enjoyable when you don’t see what’s coming before it happens. The Audacity has a great title and is on the cusp of living up to it, but it may not deliver until season two.

The Audacity premieres on AMC on April 12th.