Though Silicon Valley has been sufficiently popular to get renewed for a second season, and it’s received a warm welcome from most critics, still it seems to me we don’t appreciate this latest Mike Judge creation half enough.

You don’t hear people shouting from the rooftops about Silicon Valley the way they do about Mad Men or True Detective. I’d argue a basic cultural prejudice against comedy is at the root of this: If we laugh too hard, we tend to assume there can’t be anything too astute going on.

Silicon Valley is so consistently funny that its rigorous structure is almost disguised: the first season comprises a relentless march through the process of creating a startup company, from the initial idea to gaining the interest of financiers to creating the business plan to receiving the first check to choosing the board members to meeting with lawyers to signing the articles of incorporation to designing the logo.