[PREVIEW] The Rise of the Fall-of-the-Tech-Founders Genre

We’re in the midst of a streaming content bubble. Everything is being optioned; every week, three or four shows drop into the flooded TV landscape that boast giant budgets and star Matt Damon or Jessica Biel. Streaming series are being made out of books that haven’t even come out yet and TV shows that came out less than 20 years ago. Any news story that garnered a moderate amount of national attention — even decades ago — is at risk of being turned into a prestige drama.And it just so happens that many of the big stories of the last five years involve startups that rocketed to multibillion-dollar valuations only to collapse under the weight of unsustainable growth, executive misconduct and mismanagement, and/or fraud. This spring saw the release of three major TV shows that depict the rises and falls of three such companies and their troubled founder/CEO leaders: “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber” (Showtime), “WeCrashed” (Apple TV+), and “The Dropout” (Hulu). Call it a micro-genre! Summer of scams plus billions of dollars in venture capital!The shows vary significantly in quality — if you’re only going to watch one, we recommend choosing “The Dropout,” Liz Meriwether’s deft take on Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos — but they necessarily share many similarities. They feature a central antihero, whose motives and psyche must be grappled with; a host of VCs and board members who serve first as allies and then as antagonists to the antihero; a mass of lower-level employees whose exploitation is mostly rendered in broad strokes; and a final reckoning in which the founder finally loses control over the company they view as part of their own identity.Along with tapping into streaming and TV companies’ unquenchable appetite for bankable IP, these stories tap into something specific in the audience: a potent blend of schadenfreude, the human thirst for crime and punishment, and politically thwarted but powerful rage against the excesses of capitalism. We want to see the tech titans pay for their misdeeds; we enjoy seeing them brought low. (Even if “low” just means going elsewhere, with billions of dollars to soften the blow.) CEOs aren’t our heroes anymore; no one wants to watch a show unironically called “Girlboss.” We want to watch them humiliated. On this episode, we talk about the cultural moment that created this mini-genre, the tropes and archetypes that construct it, and the three shows that exemplify it. We dissect the bland oddity that is “Super Pumped,” a show that seems to have been creatively driven by which specific cultural products the creators thought would be fun to have in it (Pearl Jam, Quentin Tarantino, video games); revel in the perhaps-too-fun “WeCrashed” and Anne Hathaway’s gripping performance as WeWork first lady Rebekah Neumann; and finally we fangirl a bit over “The Dropout” and that Lil Wayne office dance scene that haunts our nightmares. ShareWe’ve been reading…Jessica Goodman’s new Y.A. thriller, “The Counselors,” which is finally out next week! Set at an idyllic summer camp serving the children of New York’s elite, it’s the perfect blend of summery escapism — you can practically taste the melting ice cream sandwiches and hear the yells of campers splashing in the lake — and suspenseful. I’ve also been reading “Elsewhere,” by Alex Schaitkin, a dreamily unsettling novel set in a secluded town with its own peaceful way of life, and an inexplicable secret: Every now and then, one of the mothers in the town simply disappears. It’s an absorbing meditation on how women enter the state of motherhood and become both more intensely surveilled than ever and also, somehow, more invisible than before. (It will be out in June.) -ClaireSpeaking of tech-fueled dystopias, I am still reading Jennifer Egan’s “The Candy House.” My ability to read quickly has been somewhat deadened by the pandemic, but the creative structure of this novel has gripped me. -EmmaWe’ve been watching…“Workin’ Moms” is back with season 6, and you know I’m back to watching ambitious Kate and mean-tempered Anne, along with their old mommy-group cohort, try to juggle parenthood, marriage, and work. As ever, the parenting part seems weirdly simple, or at least quiet — how do they get their toddlers to spend so little time shrieking “The Wheels on the Bus” over and over? And demanding that their mommy sit in a specific spot on the floor and sing along with them while playing with a truck in a specific way? — and they play pretty fast and loose with the publication timeline of books in this season. But it’s still reliably funny, and it ended on a TOTAL CLIFFHANGER so now I need season 7 immediately. Very rude to end sitcom seasons on cliffhangers! Uncool, guys! -ClaireI… have been binging “Bling Empire,” Netflix’s reality series about Asian billionaires and billionaire spawn (some millionaires, too) living in Los Angeles? It’s like candy for your brain. Not nutritious at all, but a fun rush. -EmmaWe’ve been listening to…Season 2 of “Normal Gossip” has begun (hell yeah), and I’ve got two songs on repeat: Dagny’s “Love You Like That” and Hayley Kiyoko’s “For the Girls.” If you’re not sure why, please get yourself a box of tissues, watch this, and then watch this. -ClaireFor reasons that should be obvious, I too have been listening to Hayley Kiyoko’s “For The Girls,” as well as making my way through her back catalogue. I’ve also been on a kick of listening to songs that evoke the emotional drama of my teen years — which mostly means a whole lot of whiny alt-rock, like “Paper Heart” by the All-American Rejects and late ‘90s Green Day. lol. -EmmaWe’ve been buying…I got #influenced into buying the East Fork mug, from the cult-followed Asheville, NC pottery company. We have a whole shelf of mugs, and only a couple I actually like using — our Love to See It mug, obviously, and a random Urban Outfitters mug with an “A” on it because they were out of “C” mugs. I like to be able to put all four fingers into the handle; I like a little heft. If you’re like me… yeah, the East Fork mug lived up to the Instagram hype. The handle is pleasingly thick and capacious, and the whole vessel has a pleasing weight. The glaze (I chose the Eggshell shade) is beautiful and silky to the touch. -ClaireI’ve been putting the finishing touches on my new in-home work area since I moved. I have a lot of books, and also like to hold onto certain magazines that I’ve collected over the years. I was looking for a beautiful, space-saving way to display them, and I finally found it in these (super affordable!) FRIADE wall racks. I used these wooden racks with faux leather straps for magazines by my desk, and this one (I’m a sucker for rattan!) as a small-space-efficient bedside “table” of sorts, where I can put whatever book I’m reading and my eye masks. -EmmaShare Rich Text