Super Pumped

This review will be in the minority here - and I get it. The characters in the show are over-the-top, one-dimensional and almost cartoon-like in the way they're portrayed.

So why the "10"? Because ... that's what it's really like with some founders and their corporate entourage / enablers. If you've lived through that experience, like many of us who've been involved in high-growth Silicon Valley startups, it's scary real.

There are brilliant founders out there with god-complexes and a reality-bubble surrounding them. It's like a distortion field. You get close enough and you start buying into the warped reality they have. The more successful company becomes - the stronger the bubble gets.

Anyway - while this won't be great viewing for everyone, to those who've lived through stuff like this, it can be captivating. To be on the outside and look into the crazy, fevered frenzy that sucks people in like a cult is quite an opportunity for reflection and learning.

So - that's why for me, it has to be a "10".

I don't understand all the people moaning that this is like The Wolf of Wall Street. It isn't and even if it was, they're both about reckless entrepreneurs so what would the issue be? "Waaaah it's like the Social Network". Well they're both about tech startups, genius.

It's solidly acted. It's about things that happened, so again it's unclear why people are whining that it's "unrealistic"?

From the same guys that make the excellent Billions and you can see the stye and the tropes here as well as some of the same actors, which is no bad thing.

It's pacy and dynamic and moves along at quite a rate, doesn't outstay its welcome. Give it a shot.

"Super Pumped" (S01, 7 eps, 1-hr, Showtime) is an engaging docudrama of the rise and fall of Travis Kalanick and his Uber empire. You get to see him at his best and worst where the distance between those two is ever so slight. Whatever you think of him, his story as told here is pretty riveting. BTW, this story wraps with the season finale. I don't see how there's a second season unless it tells another's rise/fall.

If you're interested in Uber and it's CEO, then you are. If you're not, you're not.

That's basically what this comes down to. Joseph Gordon Levitt is JGL, he's fantastic. The acting is great, etc.

The script is good, the story is .. well, again, "good" if you're into it and "not good" if you're not. I didn't know much about Uber and the crap that the Uber CEO pulled, went through, etc. So, I found this show quite entertaining! It's a hollywood version of the events that went down with him leaving the company he, for the most part, built.

But, in the end, it's a very entertaining watch IF you are interested in this story. Everything (the script, acting, story, etc) is great if you are. If you want to watch a 7 episode story about Uber as a startup until 2017 when Travis Kalanick left, then you're the prime audience. If you don't give a rats a$$ then....

I enjoyed it even though I didn't give a rats a$$ about the CEO.

Billions reformatted. Same writers. Same quote laden dialogue in a way that no one actually talks. It gets old. I'm sick of billions and hesitant on this one. I'll watch because I drove for Uber for 5 years, but not sure how long I can take it.