Super Pumped is a bumpy Uber ride that gets lost on its way to being interesting

In recent years, there have been many dramatizations of major Silicon Valley downfalls. The creators of services that have fallen out of favor with the public are the focus of Super Pumped.

Adapted from the book of the same name, Super Pumped tells the story of the rise and fall of the former CEO of the company. Super Pumped presents these and other pieces of the history of the company as fresh puzzle pieces that fit together to form a picture of Kalanick as an embodiment of everything that can make a successful startup.

Showtime

The idea that being an abrasive asshole is key to making it in Silicon Valley is something that Super Pumped's Kalanick readily shares with most anyone who will talk to him. Kalanick can't pull himself out of that kind of mindset even as those closest to him, like his girlfriend and his mother, can. From Kalanick's perspective, hustling is a founder's default state of being, and anyone foolish enough to disagree with him is destined for dismissal.

The Dropout shows how Kalanick and other figures like him are products of an industry and Super Pumped doesn't show the secrets of Kalanick's success. Everything Kalanick does and all the airs he puts on are part of his plan to impress power players, like venture capitalist Bill Gurley, who he knows hold the keys to unlocking doors to even greater levels of success. Wild as Kalanick's plans often are, he has co-founder Garrett Camp, his former chief business officer, and his former head of strategy, Austin Geidt.

Super Pumped frames Kalanick's relationship with Gurley as the most important to understanding the story of the company. The series shows how Kalanick's larger approach to presenting himself and his application to hail ersatz cabs became a fixture within the company. Because Super Pumped doesn't presume that you know all of the ins and outs of the story, it attempts to lay them all out in detail like the book it is based on.

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Super Pumped knows that its scenes zooming in on the team hammering out system bugs and chasing stodgy venture capitalists aren't particularly interesting in and of themselves. The show tries to impress with a torrent of on-screen text, cutaway gags, and moments of grandiose narration from the man himself. Super Pumped feels like it is trying to be something like The Wolf of Wall Street, because of the few moments in which people break the fourth wall.

Super Pumped's focus on style over substance wouldn't be an issue if the show focused on a serious subject. When Super Pumped draws lines between points, like Kalanick's desire to throw drug-field parties because they supposedly motivate workers, and Gurley's concerns about the spending of the company. The show says that Kalanick and his right-hand people all enabled that sort of behavior under the auspices of trying to foster a very specific.

It isn't until Super Pumped introduces all of its characters, including Arianna Huffington and Tim Cook, that the show kicks into gear. By the time Super Pumped makes that shift, it has already spent so much time on Kalanick's paranoia and erratic behavior that one could easily assume the show doesn't know how to wrap itself up succinctly.

It is fair to say that Super Pumped is a bit heavy on the back end in a way that makes this first season feel more even than not, but the show may fare better the next time around.

February 27th is when Super Pumped: The Fight for Uber will premiere.