Super Pumped review – flashy, high-octane Uber saga runs out of gas

The series on the rise and fall of Uber's hard-charging, grandiose CEO Travis Kalanick, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, gets too high on its own supply

One of the side effects of watching a recent history true-scam show like Super Pumped, the high-octane, wearisome Showtime anthology series whose first season tracks the rise and fall of Uber's disgraced CEO, Travis Kalanick, is to wonder in every scene: did this really happen? Or, in the case of Super Pumped specifically: is this dialogue heavily embellished or do tech CEOs flying too close to the sun on a jetstream of cash just sound this deranged?

Kalanick, played with gusto by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a ball of jumpy, narcissistic energy who speaks in comically grandiose terms. We fuck the status quo, alright?" he says to his staff. He spins a cease and desist order from the city of San Francisco as VALIDATION OF OUR STATUS OF DISRUPTORS", in a shouted speech to the whole office. He draws a huge smiley face on the order with red Sharpie, because WE ARE IN THE WORLD-CHANGING BUSINESS!"