Although people often think of National Geographic as offering up dry documentaries about cheetahs, the network has recently branched out in a big way. One of its most recent productions may surprise people. “Valley of the Boom“, which hones in on the early days of the internet, has been surprising critics and audiences alike with its witty portrayal of some of the interesting characters who brought the internet to life.
There’s whiz kid Marc Andreessen, a whiz kid engineer who developed Netscape, as well as his older business partners. It’s a strange match at first, but he quickly forges a fantastic bond with them. Then there’s Patty Beron, a bon vivant who lives for writing what became one of the very first blogs on the internet—and attending huge dot com parties for free food and liquor. Michael Fenne, a conman who is later revealed to actually be named David Kim Stanley, founds a streaming start-up called Pixelon. But what his employees don’t know is that he doesn’t own any of the proprietary information he’s collected. Furthermore, it doesn’t even really work! The struggles of women working in the male-dominated industry are portrayed very well, and every character in this story serves a distinct purpose.
The series focuses heavily on the Browser Wars of the nineties, depicting the battle between Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Explorer with skill and whimsy. This series is part documentary, part scripted. Characters break the fourth wall all the time to speak to the audience, and early website pioneers like Arianna Huffington chime in with their perspectives. Special guests include a rap ensemble, as well as a 10-year-old math genius. Although it may sound disjointed at first, something about it just works. Cutting between Mark Cuban and a dramatic scene, this show is able to capture the slapdash, thrilling nature of Silicon Valley’s earliest days. Reminiscent of the gold rush, these were heady times. However, trouble did loom on the horizon. The combination of investors who weren’t savvy, as well as the constant fervor that hit whenever a new IPO launched, was a recipe for disaster.
At the very beginning of the series, we see television news anchor Bryant Gumbel posing what now seems to be a crazy question. “I mean…what is internet, anyway?” he asks, after hesitantly reciting an email address. “Valley of the Boom” tells the story of the people who made it.
Dil Bole Oberoi
