“Cupertino” is a CBS legal drama set in a small city where the Apple spaceship is parked. The hook is that the cases deal with tech, so they set it in a Silicon Valley city.
Why did they name this show Cupertino when nobody knows what that is. While, everyone has heard of San Jose or San Francisco, I always have to explain to Americans—-and everyone else—that “Cupertino is where the Apple spaceship is parked.”
CBS obviously can’t call this show “Silicon Valley” because that’s a successful series from 2014-19. So they had to choose from among the lame names of other cities in Silicon Valley:
Salesforce is in San Francisco, but SF is overdone and it sounds like a tourism channel.
Adobe, PayPal, Cisco and Ebay are in San Jose, but that has too many non-tech connotations.
Oracle is in Redwood City, which sounds like a fake town in The Simpsons.
Google is in Mountain View but that sounds like a rehab spa.
Meta or Facebook is in Menlo Park, which sounds like a park for men who go low or low men (in stature or morals?).
AMD, Intel and Nvidia are in Santa Clara, two words that do NOT sound sexy at all.
HP, SAP and Stanford are in Palo Alto, which sounds like a singer who likes to spank kids.
Netflix is in Los Gatos, but you don’t want a show called “Cats”.
And whatever is in Sunnyvale, it sounds like a suburban housewife series.
So, we’re left with Cupertino—which sounds distinct yet inscrutable enough to be anything. The show “Cupertino” looks like it was written and filmed before CBS decided on the name then later said, “Let’s call it some Silicon Valley city that no one knows so they can’t complain about it.”
Well…I live right beside Cupertino. I used to work for the City, my kids studied there, and my family frequents it every day, so here’s my feedback.
Where in the world is Cupertino?
Cupertino is located in Santa Clara County, 30 miles (48 km) southeast of San Francisco. It is 11.33 sq miles (29 sq km), just a bit bigger than Makati City, Philippines.
With the new iPhone 17 last year, Cupertino would appear on the weather—to the befuddlement of many Americans, which prompted Google searches for “Where is Cupertino and why is it on my iPhone?”
Cupertino is so small that my kids went to the Cupertino school district although we live just outside in a neighboring district, but we drive through San Jose to reach the Middle School. If we drive further along the same road, we reach our high school, which is in another school district.
Cupertino’s 55,000 population can fit comfortably inside the Levi’s Stadium, where Bruno Mars just sold out his tour this October 2026. Over half of the population are foreign-born, with 89% from Asia.
The first thing you will notice about Cupertino is that every other block has an Asian store or restaurant. We have plenty of boba shops, probably the most of any US city, especially if you include the whole Santa Clara County.
Cupertino is 71% Asian, a close second to the nearby Filipino-centric city of Milpitas. This Asian predominance means two things: the best public schools AND the worst drivers.
The second sign you’re in Cupertino—every other car is a Tesla. And since almost everyone is an Asian immigrant, expect school drop offs to showcase the dumbest Tesla drivers in the country. Just last October 21, a Tesla crashed into 99 Ranch, the largest Asian supermarket chain in the US.
Sure they have self-driving, but these Asian Mad Maxs will speed through stop signs and four-way stops; try to run down kids crossing; take up two lanes; merge into your lane WHILE you’re there; cut you as they race merge from an intersection; and my favorite—-park over the line. NICE.
Note, these are highly-paid tech workers who moved to Cupertino thinking they’re So Smart, yet the moment they get behind a giant Tesla movie screen, they abandon reason and intelligence as they madly rush through multiple traffic violations on their way to their Very Important Jobs.
To be inclusive, it’s not just Testla drivers that are BAD, there are DingDong drivers of every car make—usually a BMW (HAH!).
The show “Cupertino” doesn’t even TRY to be realistic
The show “Cupertino” has two leads who both play lawyers—a Black man and a white woman—who team up to defend the “underrepresented”. Not only do they represent the victims of tech Goliaths, they also literally represent the minority, since Cupertino has 0.5% Blacks and 20% Whites.
The Lead Man is the Oh-SO-SMooooth Mike Colter of ““Luke Cage” fame. He plays a co-founder of an AI company who was terminated for divulging proprietary information as a ploy to deprive him of his equity share. What a laugh. How can a lawyer ever be a co-founder when he’s not a computer geek, STEM grad, foreign-born, nor from Stanford? But, sure, let’s play along, because—it’s Luke Cage!
The Lead Lady is the likable Rachel Keller who seems familiar but I can’t tell from where. She’s a Christian midwestern first year out of law school who just cold-called Cupertino to get hired. She ends up being at the forefront of the AI development and works CLOSELY with the other co-founder, creepy Beekman. And yet—-co-founder Lead Male doesn’t know her. HUH. (?!?!?) They just met on the day they were both fired.
In Silicon Valley, a starting position at Apple usually requires five years of direct work experience—okay? If you have an IVY degree or a Masters, you can be considered with just three years of experience. So how did newbie lawyer Lead Lady get hired to work directly with the co-founder?
As for the court scenes and lawyer roles, NONE of them are Asians. All of them are whitewell, except for our Lead Man Luke Cage. And everyone is male—except for Lead Lady of course. This is unrealistic in ANY show because, as any Asian child of a Tiger Mom will tell you, “The only acceptable career is doctor, engineer, and lawyer.”
Okay let’s gloss over how inadequate both Leads’ credentials are and look at their courtroom competence. Oh, but NO. On his own lawsuit to contest his groundless termination, Lead Man barely presents any argument nor evidence. He breezes in with the air of a Man Who’s Got It Under Control but flubs his first appearance for his own case. Later, he badgers a child witness and loses his cool when he sees his famous father or ex. C’mon Luke!
Lead Man is not even mad at the MEGA MONEY he’s losing as co-founder. Right now, a two-year-old AI company is valued at a BILLION dollars. Eleven-year-old Open AI is worth $500 billion! And that Hunk of Cash is just going to keep on groWiNG!! How is Lead Man not fuming at all the Koenigsegg megacars he could be flexing? WHY is he not suing for his rightful In Your Face Riches?!
I’m not a co-founder of anything, but I can’t stand to lose any money. Last year, I threw a fit in TJ Maxx trying to get a $10 refund on a defective glassware that broke by itself!
Then there’s Lead Lady who plays it Oh So Chill even though she lost her first job and was victimized by her boss. She doesn’t even play any of her Gender or Harassment cards when she sues. Instead, she goes after the use of her voice and personality in the AI app, where her sole evidence is her love of musicals. IKR. You’ll get it—-if you ever watch it.
The only Asian in the cast is the talented Nik Dodani of Indian descent, who looks exactly like a Cupertino coder— with his greasy hair, mismatched shirt and hoodie. That’s how everyone in Cupertino looks, except my hair is greasier. Nobody wears suits outside of court like Lead Man does. It felt fun and familiar to watch Nik as he brought relaxed realism to his scenes and elevated the tech IQ of the show.
The scene stealer is Lead Man’s assistant Christy who seems to have a vast network of underground connections which continuously saves Lead Man. After she was also fired, she started working at TGI Friday’s and she’s seen comically dressed in the red and white striped uniform. By the way, TGI Friday’s in Cupertino closed permanently in 2008. The nearest one is eight hours away in Los Angeles.
To lighten the mood, the writers try to not be obviously funny. They name the CEO Mr Zeckabrond (try saying that three times fast). Just for kicks; the building electrician intermittently cuts off electricity in the AI office; and like in Hollywood, every service guy, valet or waiter try to pitch a start-up idea to the founders like they’re trying to pitch a script.
For me, the silliest scene is when Lead Man and Lead Lady prepare for their case in an IHOP, where they spread out highly confidential documents as they are served two Breakfast Samplers. First of all, the only IHOP nearby is in San Jose, and nobody goes there who has a job. Second, there’s NO WAY tight Luke Cage and thin Lead Lady would eat carbs and bacon.
Finally, the show doesn’t even show anything that’s actually in Cupertino. At least in Fred Armisen’s comedy sketch show “Portlandia” they showed snippets of the city and the people, which was fun to watch and gave the show some credibility. Even “Silicon Valley” showed establishing shots of real neighborhoods in Mountain View and Palo Alto.
The law office is an artsy elevated building surrounded by CGI grass with no view of any building or street. Not even the Apple Campus is that secluded. Cupertino offices are mostly single-story boring brown buildings, while the tall ones are still boring and brown.
To recap, the show “Cupertino” is not about Cupertino, nor is there any effort to try to depict it. There aren’t even any b-roll shots of the streets, people, or buildings. It is a legal drama but the court scenes are just for drama. There is only one Asian character who is the only one who acts realistically, while everyone else is flippant or nonchalant. And complicated tech and legal issues are quickly resolved in just a few court hearings or meetings. It’s just Episode 3 but I already know the writers will take wild liberties with our logic.
But then, all legal dramas are unrealistic, and it doesn’t matter. What makes a show watchable is the relatability of the characters. If Cupertino is really about going against Tech Titans and fighting for the forgotten cogs in the machine, then make it about their suffering. Let us FEEL their PAIN.
Let Lead Man suffer the loss of his equity and standing. Humiliate him because he was fired. Make him seek revenge or plot the downfall of his evil co-founder. But he’s too cool to care. He’s not even worried about making rent, when an average one-bedroom in Cupertino rents for $3,400. Instead, he keeps building his office space as the money comes in. Who does that?!
Let the Lead Lady have some trauma wrought by her boss. Let her be a legal or religious vigilante for the weak women. Let her vow to destroy every Malicious Male in Power. Or let her pray for the souls of the Damned but go quietly crazy at least.
Let the Assistant struggle to afford to buy boba in Cupertino. After she lost her cushy Executive Assistant position to a founder, she went to work for TGI Friday’s? Why is she not applying for other similar roles when she’s obviously Someone Who Delivers?
In contrast, let the villainous billionaires flout their wealth and power to trample on the Expendable Hardworkers. Every drama needs a strong Baddie to make us root for the Good Guys. It makes the WIN feel bigger.
I love the tech aspect of the show and how they create lawsuits out of real moral issues. But even without the Silicon Valley hype, I would enjoy watching Cupertino if they depicted real emotions and relatable situations.
Viewers love to live vicariously through the characters they watch. I want to imagine that I’m the Hero who wins and defeats the Detestables. But I can’t care for a character who does not care enough to fight for anything.
Ivy is a lawyer turned columnist. See the latest Silicon Valley books @IvyDigest on FB, IG, YT, and Linkedin.
