Bravo's Startup: Silicon Valley show airs tonight.
To say that BusinessWeek's Sam Grobart didn't like it would be an understatement. He watched a pre-screen of Randi Zuckerberg's controversial Bravo show and proclaimed:
"When I’m on my deathbed, I won’t be accepting of my demise. I’ll be angry because I’ll know there are 44 minutes owed to me from 2012, minutes lost to this sham of a show."
The cast, he says, is comprised of a "half-dozen-not-very-bright young things" who are "shallower than a dinner plate from the Kate Hudson Kitchen Kollection."
Other descriptions used: "vapid," "petty sociopathy" and "narcissistic idiocy."
Grobart really tries to describe the episode, but he can't get more than two lines without flinging mud at the show's producer, Randi Zuckerberg, and the show's cast. He describes a scene in which a brother-sister team of entrepreneurs, Ben and Hermoine Way, have a horrible meeting with 500Startups' Dave McClure. Apparently Hermoine cat naps under McClure's desk because she's hung over.
The first episode also includes a lot of pool time, booze, cat fights and a toga party. Grobart likens it to any Real World episode that's ever aired.
Grobart's biggest issue with the show isn't its brain-dead cast members though. It's the fact that it doesn't resemble the true Silicon Valley startup culture at all. Silicon Valley could have its own show, he says, full of real problems that don't need to be fabricated. It could depict a desperate hunt for engineering talent or entrepreneurs who don't sleep because they're working 24/7.
Instead, Grobart says Bravo missed the boat entirely. He concludes that the show is as "real" and "authentic" as a Taco Bell Meximelt.
If you're still planning to watch the episode tonight, you might as well meet its cast members:
Meet The 7 Stars Of The New Silicon Valley Reality Show >
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