Super Pumped season 1 episode 2 review: Questionable corporate culture practices take centre stage in a way that is mostly flash, little substance

2.5/5

Story:

With Uber starting to establish itself as a growing, thriving business, more troubles start popping up for Travis Kalanick(Joseph Gordon-Levitt). When the company’s Portland division starts to see its drivers get slapped with a host of violations, courtesy of the city’s Transportation Bureau, the CEO resorts to a questionable way to solve the problem. Meanwhile, Bill Gurley(Kyle Chandler) finds himself at odds with Kalanick.

Review:

With its second episode, Super Pumped continues with laying it on thick when it comes to its flamboyant way of storytelling. Couple that with the larger-than-life way it chose to portray its protagonist,Travis Kalanick, and the episode gets too exhausting even before the mid-way mark.

X to the X starts off with the new threat Uber has to deal with- the Portland Bureau Of Transportation(PBOT). We see Fred Armisen take on the role of one of the bureau’s officials, who has Uber’s drivers’ cars impounded by levying a series of violations against them. But Kalanick has a powerful, yet dubious, ace up his sleeve in the form of the now-infamous software,Greyball. The tool allowed Uber to identify when a regulator, such as from the PBOT, wants to hail a cab from the company, effectively ‘neutralizing’ the threat by making sure the cab they requested never arrives.

Meanwhile, Bill Gurley starts to find himself stonewalled by Kalanick, who starts to become more and more tightlipped about Uber’s operations to the investor. As Gurley’s attempts to inspire Kalanick go in vain, the former starts to play along, setting his doubts aside for the moment.

The new episode chose to take a tedious turn with regard to its story’s focus, and what it leaves the viewers with an insufferable, close-range look into Kalanick yet again. By now, his ostentatiousness becomes much more exhausting and tiring to watch, the initial intrigue it had when it was more ‘new’ fast fading. He starts to double down on the principles preached by his favourite corporate stalwarts, Jeff Bezos, the latter well known for his ruthless business tactics. We get to see Kalanick start to become much more unfeeling, something that gets reflected in his personal life, and yet give off an image of someone who actually cares for his employees. The aftermath of a grand party that the CEO decides to throw throws more light into his questionable corporate practices, as well.

There are very few moments in this episode of Super Pumped to hold the viewer's attention, which is disappointing as the start of it showed a lot of promise. Although there were moments that teased some interesting stories, such as a closer look into Austin Geidt’s (Kerry Bishé) life and the emergence of a new competitor, they remained only teases.

Kalanick starts to become more and more unlikable, not in a way that makes viewers anxiously wait for his impending doom, but in a way that makes you want to stop watching. In trying to write a character with antagonistic hues that people love to hate, based on a real person no less, the writers seemed to have had a misstep in making him more annoying than antipathetic.

Verdict:

With too much flash and not enough substance to hold the viewer’s interest, the second episode of Super Pumped quickly becomes tiresome as it progresses.