• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 5 hours ago

A new CBS drama that pits a trio of Davids taking on the Goliaths of Silicon Valley taps into fears and resentments that ordinary people hold about Big Tech and the billionaires who run it.

The show, titled “Cupertino,” will resonate with millions as they watch the show’s three Davids -- two attorneys and one assistant -- bring down the wealthy and make them pay for offenses such as wrongful dismissals, identity theft, sexual harassment, racism and more.

In Episode One, which the TV Blog previewed on Friday, the show’s crusading threesome takes on the very company that fired all three of them -- a fictional Cupertino company on the forefront of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

The show takes its name from Cupertino in northern California, one of the cities in Silicon Valley that have been transformed by Big Tech.

Cupertino is headquarters to a number of tech companies, but it is best known as the home of Apple Inc.’s 175-acre headquarters complex known as Apple Park.

There is no evidence to suggest that the hero trio in “Cupertino” will face off against Apple or any other real-life companies.

But anyone who watches “Cupertino” will get the show’s point -- the moguls of Silicon Valley are heartless, greedy and arrogant. Now, watch us pull them down off their high horses.

“Cupertino” comes to CBS with a number of strengths. The show is from producers Robert King and Michelle King, creators of “The Good Wife,” “The Good Fight” and “Elsbeth,” for which “Cupertino” will serve as a lead-in starting this Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern.

As written by the Kings, the show’s principal characters and the actors who play them have charisma to spare.

The leader of the group is an attorney, Michael Price (Mike Colter), who was general counsel of the company the three are suing in Episode One for wrongfully terminating them.

The other two are a staff attorney, Olivia Siffre (Rachel Keller), and an office worker in the company, Christy Palladino, played by Ella Stiller, whose parents are Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor.

They are joined in recurring, supporting roles by Joe Morton, Max Casella, Steven Pasquale and Jackie Earle Haley, who is particularly effective in Episode One as a folksy, country judge.

The writing and development of the characters is one thing. But the writing of Episode One was marred by lapses in judgement -- namely, the insertion of two expressions referring to sexual activities that are out of place and totally unnecessary.

The TV Blog still brings this subject up from time to time for a particular reason. The show is a serious drama that can be enjoyed by some children, perhaps starting with young teens.

But watching a TV show should not be awkward. If the kids are watching Episode One of “Cupertino” with their parents, then I can only imagine how the parents will react when one of their kids asks what the sexy AI voice means when it refers to a sexual position as “69”?

In addition, the Ella Stiller “Christy Palladino” character is written as a timeworn Italian-American stereotype whose uncles and cousins all happen to have a useful “connection” with someone they can ask for a favor that will be instantly granted.

On the in-show marketing front, two brands come in for max exposure in Episode One of “Cupertino.”

One is Mars Inc.’s Lifesavers, which get offered by the Michael Colter character to his fired colleague Olivia as she is crying after being fired.

The Lifesavers roll even gets a closeup as Colter holds it purposely from the bottom so that the entire Lifesavers name can be seen clearly.

“Lifesavers,” he says. “My mom always chose them to stop from crying.”

After a moment or two of chewing the hard candy, Olivia says, “It works.”

Colter then offers her another one. The brand comes up for mention in the same way later in the episode too.

The other brand is TGI Fridays restaurants, whose server uniforms get screen time courtesy of the Christy Palladino character, who takes up a waitress job after she is fired.

Later in Episode One, she calls upon a gaggle of her uniformed TGI Fridays colleagues to provide a service to Michael and Olivia.

“Cupertino” premieres Thursday (October 8) at x p.m. Eastern on CBS.