Andrew Bushell, from left, Rob Corddry, Meaghan Rath and Curtis Lum in “The Audacity,” a comedy-drama series based in Silicon Valley that skewers tech elites.
Ed Araquel/AMC
“The Audacity” is admirable and exasperating at the same time — much like the tech moguls the show tries to skewer.
AMC’s Palo Alto-set, Vancouver-shot tragicomedy series is too smart and densely written to be dismissed as “Silicon Valley” 2.0. That is, until its eccentric, venal and greedy characters do something goofy, which is often. But creator/showrunner Jonathan Glatzer has more on his mind than geek caricatures.
As a result, there can be tonal whiplash when “Audacity” swings from satiric stereotypes to layered psychology and business acumen that must owe something to Glatzer’s writer-producer stint on “Succession.” It’s all craftily plotted with zinger-packed dialogue that rewards plowing through arcane data application and financial jargon.
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Billy Magnussen, left, as Duncan Park, a neurotic and amoral tech CEO, and Meaghan Rath as Anushka Bhattachera-Phister, a chief ethicist, in “The Audacity.”
Ed Araquel/AMC
The biggest test for “Audacity” viewers, though, will be how much they can tolerate the show’s near-uniformly terrible people. They’re all marvelously acted, but that may be a liability as well as an asset.
The most irritating is star Billy Magnussen’s Duncan Park. Amplifying the wicked/whiny jerk persona he’s brought to such shows as “Made for Love” and “The Franchise,” the actor creates a CEO who’s as needy and neurotic as he is a manipulative sociopath (and proud of it). A motormouthed mass of both amoral and illegal scheming, Duncan can be his own worst enemy. He is also, somehow, effective. He wears his targets down like he’ll exhaust most anyone watching.
Zach Galifianakis, left, and Sarah Goldberg in the Silicon Valley-based series “The Audacity.”
Ed Araquel/AMC
His therapist JoAnne, played by Sarah Goldberg (“Barry”), has to listen to Duncan the most. She makes investments based on what her ultra-wealthy clients tell her in presumed confidence, and Duncan exploits that by blackmailing her for insider trading tips.
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“The Audacity”: Comic drama. Starring Billy Magnussen, Sarah Goldberg, Meaghan Rath and Zach Galifianakis. (TV-MA. Eight 60-minute episodes.) First two episodes available to stream on AMC+ starting Sunday, April 12, at 9 p.m.; one new episode on AMC and AMC+ each following Sunday through May 24.
Pragmatic but poor by Bay Area standards, JoAnne is a marvel of faceted frustration. She’s also a terrible mother to teenage son Orson (Everett Blunck, as conflicted here as in the recent movie “The Plague”), who copes with an embarrassing gastrointestinal condition by watching manosphere videos.
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Anushka (Meaghan Rath), who is on Duncan’s board and is chief ethicist at the industry’s biggest corporation — called, simply and amusingly, Cupertino — genuinely wants to exploit data humanely. She’ll also throw anyone under the bus who blocks her career path, including her distracted engineer husband Martin (Simon Helberg in a sad, soulful twist on his “Big Bang Theory” nerd). Martin has spent years nurturing his cyber invention, Xander, which he views as an autonomous companion for alienated teens. Others see the intuitive AI, with a few tweaks, as a potential gold mine.
Everett Blunck plays a teenager who deals with insecurities by watching manosphere videos in “The Audacity.”
Ed Araquel/AMC
Among a dozen or so additional characters — most well-delineated if at core cliche — standouts include Carl Bardolph (Zach Galifianakis), an older, nastier, even more manic and much more successful version of Duncan; and poignant Tom Ruffage (Rob Corddry), a Veterans Affairs functionary who tries to get uninterested tech bros to help the agency modernize its files.
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Even without firsthand knowledge of big tech business, a number of the show’s details seemed credible. The Silicon Valley millionaires live in brutalist yet uncannily comfortable architectural masterpieces. Regardless of how poorly they love them, every parent is desperate to get their kids into Stanford University. A wildfire in Napa rattles nerves throughout the region, while turning the sky a convincing shade of ochre.
Lucy Punch as Lili Park-Hoffsteader, right, and Rukiya Bernard as Beatrice Webb in “The Audacity.”
Ed Araquel/AMC
Other aspects, however, come straight out of a things-to-mock-about-California’s-nouveau-riche program. Household help and office underlings are derided for sport if they’re acknowledged at all. Beside traditional psychotherapy, ayahuasca shamans are consulted and Zen circles traversed in search of serenity. Marriage and divorce is primarily a business, not love, transaction.
But at least nobody in “The Audacity” is a complete phony. Underhanded as they can be, these poor little rich bitches wear their desires and unhappiness on their sleeves. It’s refreshingly upfront, providing you can stand them.
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Bob Strauss is a freelance writer.