Review of Crackle’s new drama “Startup”

I just finished Crackle’s new drama “Startup” and the show was not what I was expecting. The show’s title made me think, “How to Make it in America,” or “Silicon Valley,” set in Miami with more drama. The show is in fact not really about starting a company, but it is about what people do to try and leave a legacy of good behind them.

Startup’s comes off as reductive and myopic in the first episode. The first episode is the weakest of the show. There are some eye rolling sex scenes, flashes of fancy cars, nice looking real estate, but there are also characters in there too. Martin Freeman plays our crooked FBI agent, Adam Brody plays the white guy who can kind of move with criminals, Otmara Morrero plays the brilliant coder who is socially awkward, and Edi Gathegi plays the Haitian gangster looking for a better life. All of these roles are familiar, but somewhere around episode 3 Startup’s cliche characters kick the plot out of the car and take control of show.

Thank god.

The show starts to become less about starting a company and it shows us the motivations in the characters. The Gathegi’s acting and his character story get the most screen time and in my opinion saves the show. In the end the viewer is left with the feeling of desperation that people feel when they owe the wrong people money. I got the feeling of loss when everything someone worked on for 7 years can be gone with some taps of a keyboard or swirls of ink. I also got the feeling that money, nice houses, cars, and extravagance comes with a price. That the people we aspire to be might in the end wish they were back where we were spending a few nights binge watching shows on the internet and not having to deal with actual problems.

I think Startup is worth it’s time. Give it a watch.

Thank you for reading.

If you liked this please give Anthony Maiorana a follow and leave a comment or like on this post.