The new CBS procedural Cupertino follows a Silicon Valley law firm that sues Big Tech, drawing directly from recent headlines: the Zizians, Polymarket, Jeff Bezos's looksmaxxing obsession, and OpenAI's alleged theft of Scarlett Johansson's voice. It's a fictionalized but recognizable portrait of an industry under siege, and the show's creators—Robert and Michelle King, known for The Good Wife—use the case-of-the-week format to explore how tech's power plays out in courtrooms and boardrooms.
What makes Cupertino relevant for business audiences is its refusal to offer clean conclusions. The show's mood is "peppy paranoia," reflecting a reality where suspicion of Big Tech is no longer conspiracy but reasonable caution. It treats AI with healthy fear but without judgment, acknowledging that the industry's problems don't have simple villains or solutions. That nuance is rare in a media landscape full of tech-backlash stories that often preach to the choir.
The longer network season—20 episodes—allows the show to build a dense world of data brokers, rationalists, and underpaid AI trainers, with characters and plotlines that resurface unpredictably. This depth mirrors the tangled, interconnected nature of the tech economy, making Cupertino less a morality play and more a grounded, unsettling reflection of the business's current reckoning.