‘Silicon Valley’ remains state-of-the-art comedy

Reality keeps crashing into the dreams of the Pied Piper crew. When the second season of the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley” ended, the tiny startup had just won a legal victory to keep its software out of the hands of tech giant Hooli, but its new backers then decide to oust Richard (Thomas Middleditch), the founder — and brains — of the company.

The third season finds the board offering Richard the job of chief technology officer, which the prickly programmer quickly rejects. They want to bring in an older, more experienced hand, Jack Barker (Stephen Tobolowsky), who has guided other small companies to huge success.

The rest of the team seems unified — they have survived together before — but as this involves real money they soon start to divide. Jared (Zach Woods) the CFO of Pied Piper has a puppy-dog devotion to Richard, so he will follow him anywhere. But programmers Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani) and Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), who in the past have always had a skeptical, anti-establishment attitude, have other ideas.

Meanwhile Erlich Bachman (T.J. Miller), the entrepreneur who gave Pied Piper a chance to develop by setting the company up in his home, would just like some respect and the chance to cash in, and over at Hooli the silver lining in losing the lawsuit is that they found a legal way to let go of 20 percent of their staff.

“Silicon Valley” — created by Mike Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky — works as both a sharp satire on the tech industry and a commentary on art versus commercialism. Richard is very protective of his creation, which reliably speeds up live streaming on the Internet, and frets about

keeping untainted. But the joke, as we saw in the second season, was that the porn industry — always in the forefront of change — was among the first to get to use it.

Hooli, which has inexplicable slogans like “It takes change to make change,” represents the overblown self-importance of the industry’s establishment, while Pied Piper is part of the scrappy mentality of the strivers.

After Richard rejects the CTO offer, he ponders taking the same position at a firm that is pinning their hopes on an app that shows you how you look with different mustaches. As silly as that sounds, it’s not the silliest app out there, but “Silicon Valley” remains one of the best comedies on television.

PHOTOS BY JOHN P. FLEENOR Thomas Middleditch stars in “Silicon Valley” on HBO.

T.J. Miller, Zach Woods, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr and Thomas Middleditch appear in a scene from “Silicon Valley.”

At left, T.J. Miller and Thomas Middleditch talk in “Silicon Valley.” SILICON VALLEY What: Premiere of third season of satire of the tech industry, starring Thomas Middleditch and T.J. Miller. When: 10 p.m. today. Where: HBO.