Not until Transparent won the Golden Globe for Best Television Comedy did Amazon ever warrant any attention for the original series it distributed through its Prime service. After a couple iterations of that pilot experiment they do, Betas was one of the first shows put to series along with Alpha House, which — and this may sound so stupid — was weird because Alpha and Beta.
Betas follows a five-person social networking startup in San Francisco. The app, itself, sets out to bring people that are glued to their phones and screens face to face, which okay, sure. The cofounders make a splash at a party at a VC's house and get a chance to work in his incubator. It's not as groundbreaking as Transparent, but it does what shows are supposed to do (and what few actually accomplish) — establish a world and offer characters viewers can feel invested in.
I can't remember the last time a show was set in San Francisco (never got into HBO's Looking), let alone filmed there. As much as there are easy stereotypes about how liberal the Bay Area is and that there are probably organic dog cafés or whatever (see recent episodes of The Mindy Project), the city is much more than that. San Francisco is incredibly diverse with different cultures, arts scenes, levels of income and sights to see. I can't say Betas focuses on the city but these elements are definitely present. It could have been interesting to see how the show dealt with the tech encroachment on those aspects of the city.
As far as the characters go, it's an accurate portrayal of the tech world, at least based on my experience. The employees of BRB are actual people and not just weirdos typing away on laptops. Hobbes (Jon Daly) is a slightly paranoid, divorceé in his late thirties in need for this latest startup to not end unfavorably. Mikki regularly pokes at her coworker's masculinities and deals with her irresponsible mother's antics. Mitchell takes Adderall and listens to rap music. Though they probably could have established that better because I'd rather never hear "cop the new Freddie Gibbs tape" again. They experience romance and anxiety and total confusion regarding the world they're in. Tech is what they do and while they are invested in this business, there's more to them than just that. As a software engineer at a startup, I must say I enjoyed that being depicted.
Ultimately there's only so many ways the main BRB storyline could have gone, and it might have been hard to stay invested in that plotline. The show's main character is also pretty annoying. A couple other issues: It seemed strange to establish a strong character like Lisa's (Tawny from Even Stevens) to have her then sleep with the main character by the second episode. I didn't really get all the stuff with the tech blogger — between this and Top Five, Hollywood clearly doesn't understand the journalism industry at all. Overall though, the show is funny. They jokes are dry and sarcastic, but there are plenty of them.
Oh, and Tyson Ritter, the lead singer of The All-American Rejects, is in the show. The fact that I recognized him is literally the most shameful moment I've had all year. But he does a nice job.
You can't discuss this show without bringing up HBO's Silicon Valley. Betas came first by about a year. Both shows showcase the different engineer stereotypes pretty well. Both include companies with absolutely awful names — BRB and Pied Piper. Silicon Valley is very much a comedy. The ridiculousness comes first in the same way it does for a show like Veep. What I appreciated about Betas was its more diverse and ethnically accurate cast. You don't see nearly any Indian and Asian representation on television. Sometimes you get one or the other but definitely not both at the same time. To have an openly gay character in Karan Soni's Nash was a very progressive moment for South Asians in TV and film.
Amazon didn't pick it up for a second season which is sort of unfortunate. I liked seeing these actors on screen together even if the show was ultimately a few notches above one you'd watch on USA. It probably wouldn't have lasted alongside Silicon Valley anyway.
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