is a private party buddy i'm gonna have
to ask you to leave oh i didn't mean you
know in the state of california you can
kill a man for entering your house uh
permission
this is silicon valley and it's one of
the funniest shows on hbo ever produced
not only is the show able to deliver big
laughs it also delivers a pretty
exciting story by taking its ensemble
cast of characters on a journey through
the seemingly ridiculous world of tech
through a surprisingly accurate lens
silicon valley stay strong until around
the fifth season it just so happens that
this is the season in which tj miller's
character ehrlich bachmann was abruptly
written off the show this sudden change
disrupted almost every single character
dynamic on the show and altered the tone
drastically when you throw a rock in a
pond it makes ripples we're going to be
taking a look at how removing ehrlich
bachmann was like throwing less of a
rock and more of a boulder but before we
get started be sure to like and
subscribe to nerdstalk if you haven't
done so already silicon valley is an
american comedy series created by mike
judge who you may know from some of the
other creations like idiocracy king of
the hill and beavis and butthead silicon
valley pokes fun at the world of tech
startups while following a young group
of aspiring computer programmers who
strike it big with one of their
algorithms and are subsequently thrust
into a world of people who have more
money than they do since this is the
team
whoa
i'm just going to say it this guy
am i right creating a successful comedic
narrative is like building an incredibly
fragile ecosystem that can be disrupted
if anything changes too much and as well
deserved as tj miller's exit was it had
an enormous effect on how the rest of
the series panned out first and foremost
this show is a character-driven ensemble
comedy series every single one of these
shows characters feel like they were
crafted with the utmost care by the
writers and performers there are some
standout performances by matt ross as
gavin belson chris d mentopoulos as russ
hanneman and susan crier as laurie bream
among others these characters all work
because they are propped up against the
show's core ensemble with thomas
middleditch as richard hendricks zack
woods as jared dunn kumail najini as
dinesh
martin starr as bertram guilfoyle and tj
miller as ehrlich bachmann we can
imagine this as a five-pointed star of
comedic balance at the bottom of the
star we have bertram guilfoyle and
dinesh chugtai they mostly interact with
one another and often play out the how
of the show's story these two bicker
like a married couple which is
undoubtedly fun to watch but they also
come up with a lot of the solutions for
most of the show's problems just look at
them there they are
stallions
each one more magnificent than the last
at the top we have richard hendricks as
the introverted everyman of the series
richard is honest neurotic
semi-impulsive and he's also a genius
and genuinely tries to do the right
thing most of the time you are with him
and you are actively rooting for him to
succeed at every turn underneath richard
to his left and right we have jared dunn
on one side as a soft-spoken and
somewhat weird advisor who helps guide
richard to success selflessly and
usually at great cost to his own
personal comfort and safety how would
you like to die today mother no it's not
a real death threat sir and on the other
side is ehrlich bachmann who is loud
brash and extroverted he's also trying
to guide richard to success however
erlich bachmann's motivations are
selfish vain and somewhat delusional
these five characters are the ecosystem
in which the rest of silicon valley
functions they provide some really nice
variables for the show's otherwise
ridiculous characters to play off of
silicon valley spends four entire
seasons building on top of the
foundation this cast of characters lays
for the show's primary story time and
time again we watch these characters try
fail and grow every one of them is a
piston in the show's engine and nobody
ever feels like they aren't doing their
job or that they're out of place it's an
incredibly difficult thing to accomplish
but it's also an incredibly fragile
thing and it can be pretty easy to break
this is especially true when you are
actually forced to break it erlich
bagman was written off the show rather
abruptly at the end of the show's fourth
season and he was never heard from again
this happened for good reasons as funny
as tj miller is his onset behavior was
unprofessional he was frequently showing
up late to table reads and occasionally
neglecting to show up at all to
scheduled shooting dates this ended up
delaying production and wasting a ton of
money as the crew was getting paid
whether they were filming or not after a
manic episode in which miller called in
a fake bomb threat for an amtrak train
that his ex-girlfriend was traveling on
hbo decided to terminate the
relationship with him this in turn
forced silicon valley's writing staff to
make abrupt changes to their plans for
how the show was going to play out and
come up with a way to get rid of ehrlich
bachmann when peter gregory's actor
christopher evan welch tragically passed
away in 2013 his function in the show's
overall story was filled in with the
character of lori brem in the show's
second season she was able to bring a
different approach to the idea and it
ultimately ended up working this is an
example of a replacement working out
quite well the only problem with that is
erlich bachmann was never replaced with
anyone else this character was a
linchpin in most of the show's primary
plot lines he was load-bearing support
and by removing him from the picture
without anything in place to fill that
gap the structure of silicon valley
began to collapse at this point that
five-pointed star begins to implode
writing a character off a show is an
extremely delicate process and it
becomes even more fragile when that
character is essentially one of the
leading roles it's really difficult for
shows to recover after beloved
characters leave because audiences do
experience grief and anxiety when the
things they love change the whole vibe
of a show can change abruptly and
writers need to adapt to these changes
instead of trying to force new
characters into similar scenarios when
michael scott left the office the entire
tone of the show changed but the writers
did a semi decent job at allowing new
characters to be interesting and unique
rather than just trying to recreate the
inevitable performance of steve carrell
inversely when topher grace left that
70s show and randy was shoved down
audience's throat without any nuance
subtlety or respect for the viewers
you're not funny it was the death knell
for that particular show in handling
erlich bachmann's exile from silicon
valley's story the writers mulled a few
ideas around in their heads one of which
was alluding to the fact that jin yang
may or may not have murdered ehrlich
bachmann this idea as funny as it may
have been was a little darker than the
show's creators intended but at least
this imagined send-off would have
resulted in a satisfying amount of
closure for the viewer instead the
writers decided to leave the door open
for a potential return that audiences
knew was never going to happen the
scenario they ended up deciding on was
kind of far-fetched instead of killing
off bachmann's character they have him
fly to tibet to find gavin belson only
to be left behind passed out in an opium
den this feels a little more like a
personal jab at t.j miller's onset
behaviors than a cohesive send-off but
hey miller had to be dealt with and the
immediate problem had been solved albeit
poorly silicon valley never really
recovered from this moment imagine
spending four years building something
with legos and all of a sudden someone
walks up and takes a baseball bat to it
you can try to rebuild it but it's never
going to be the same as it was before
that's what happened when erlich
bachmann was written off the show
everything felt a little off after that
ehrlich bachmann was a foil to every
character inside of that core cast
without him there wasn't any of that
brash stupidity from other characters to
play off of or occasionally surprise us
with unintended success the tone of the
show changed and everything started to
feel like silicon valley was just sort
of sprinting to a conclusion rather than
completing the story of richard
hendricks and pied piper i'm richard
i'm richard donald richard richard
richard
richard i'm jerry richard guilfoyle my
name is
jared jared silicon valley doesn't fail
by any means it was still able to wrap
up the story though the ending was a
little strange for the final episode
they shipped the narrative structure to
that of a short documentary filled with
a cheap glimpse into a past that we
never really got to see play out it
feels a little unrewarding to wrap up
the story this way it kind of felt like
getting on a roller coaster blacking out
halfway through and having someone tell
you how great the ride was while showing
you pictures of some of the loops
jinyang's dead
uh
okay so he's dead what do we do we never
got to see the actual conclusion instead
they just jumped straight to the
epilogue and it feels like we missed out
on pretty much everything silicon valley
is to this day one of the funniest and
most poignant shows that hbo has ever
produced it wove a gripping and fun
story through a lens of pitch perfect
satire and it utilized an ensemble cast
of comedic performers to deliver time
and time again however once this
incredibly fragile ecosystem was
disrupted it was never able to fully
recover from the damage that was done
it's a reminder that comedy is
incredibly fragile and nuanced it
requires balance and if you take
something away without giving something
in return the scales begin to tip that
solid foundation can begin to feel shaky
and uncertain and if you aren't careful
you can destroy everything you set out
to accomplish silicon valley doesn't
necessarily destroy itself but after
erlich bachmann left the show it did
struggle to cross the finish line and
when it did nobody really seemed to know
this
that's it for this episode there are
likely a couple of links in the window
to some of our other videos so feel free
to click on those if you want to stick
around and thanks for watching nerdstalk
[Music]