Up & Coming Weekly

April 01, 2014

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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24 UCW APRIL 2-8, 2014 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM King of the Nerds A techie strikes it rich in the brilliant satire Silicon Valley by DEAN ROBBINS With Beavis and Butt-head, Mike Judge established himself as the bard of mumbling, antisocial, all-American nerds. But Judge tops himself with Silicon Valley (Sunday, 10 p.m., HBO), which locates the nerve center of modern-day nerd culture in the San Francisco area's tech industry. Our hero is, at first glance, anything but heroic. Richard (Thomas Middleditch) is a shoe-gazing introvert toiling for an oppressive tech company while living in a pathetic startup "incubator" with four fellow misfits. Like everyone else, these guys are working on apps that could make them rich — or, as it's fashionable to say in Silicon Valley, that could "make the world a better place." At the bottom of the totem pole, Richard rolls his eyes at the pretentious personalities above him, including his self-aggrandizing boss (Matt Ross) and a renowned venture capitalist (Christopher Evan Welch). But by chance, Richard's compression algorithm comes to their attention, and they get the idea that it could earn them billions — I mean, that it could "make the world a better place." In the blink of an eye, Richard is elevated to kingly status. That's the subject of Silicon Valley: nerds on the throne for the first time in human history. In Judge's view, they'll be no less noxious than the grunting tyrants previously on the throne. Silicon Valley is a brilliant comedy of manners that will shed light on our techie future and — dare I say it — make the world a better place. Surviving Jack Thursday, 9:30 pm (Fox) Last week I raved about this new sitcom, which follows hilariously strict Jack Dunlevy (Christopher Meloni) as he takes over primary childrearing duties for his teenage son and daughter. After watching another episode, I stand behind that rave. The series is set in an absurd time period – 1991, land of Baywatch, the Thighmaster and Milli Vanilli. The Dunlevy family is correspondingly absurd, as when Jack uses extreme drill-sergeant measures to train his son and two others for varsity baseball. His methods include air horns, blindfolds and rubber snakes. "I promise you, there is a point to all this," Jack insists. Indeed, there is. Jack's methods are simply a form of (extremely) tough love. As silly as it is, Surviving Jack features people who really care about each other. Along with rubber snakes, it has a heart. Continuum Friday, 10 pm (Syfy) In the season-two premiere, the time-travel series gets even more convoluted. Kiera (Rachel Nichols), the police officer from 2077, is imprisoned in the past for trying to change history. Alec (Erik Knudsen), her computer-genius friend from the present day, uses a time-travel device to go back two weeks to prevent his girlfriend from being killed. By the end of the episode, the space-time continuum gets so mixed up that there are two versions of Kiera and two versions of Alec running around. "It's confusing," one of the Kieras admits, as if by way of apology. I find Continuum tedious when the script takes too much time explaining itself. But the series does have nice effects and appealing characters. The other Dean Robbins likes it well enough. DUCK DERBY MAY 3, 2014 CAMPBELLTON LANDING 1122 PERSON STREET, FAYETTEVILLE, NC 28301 www.fayettevilleduckderby.com • (910) 483-5944 Get your DUCKS in a row and support Fayetteville Urban Ministry, Cumberland County Schools, and other local non-profits. Come see us at the river! ADOPT A DUCK HOW DOES IT WORK? Patrons just like YOU adopt a Derby Duck for $5.00. Each adoption has a registration number tagged to a duck. The duck that finishes first wins the grand prize. The following four ducks will also receive prizes. Adopt Your Duck Today www.fayettevilleduckderby.com

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