Mike Judge and Alec Berg knew when to pull the plug on one of the famous tech mix with comedy shows named Silicon Valley, and looking back, their timing couldn’t have been better.
The HBO wrapped Silicon Valley wrapped up after six seasons in 2019, and according to its creators, that was exactly when it needed to end.
The show starred Thomas Middleditch as Richard, the nervous and overthinking CEO of Pied Piper, alongside a talented ensemble cast. Martin Starr, Kumail Nanjiani, Zach Woods, Jimmy O. Yang, and Josh Brener rounded out the main crew. T.J. Miller was part of the original lineup, too, but he left after Season 4.
Together, they brought to life a group of tech geniuses who couldn’t catch a break no matter how hard they tried.
Why was the show ended after Season 6
In 2019, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Judge and Berg talked about why they had decided to end things when they did.
One of the main reasons? The story had reached its natural conclusion.
“When we started, it was just guys trying to make their little thing work and make some money. And by the end, it had evolved into this thing where it was a group of people who are literally trying to save the world,” Berg explained.
The season finale puts the fate of the free world in Richard’s hands, which was long stretched from the small-scale startup struggles the show began with.
While raising the stakes helped keep the show exciting, it also created some challenges.
Berg noted that the heavier themes “made it a lot harder to just be fun and loose and goofy and just make jokes because there was a real weight and import to what was going on.”
When your characters are dealing with world-changing technology instead of just trying to get funding, the comedy has to shift too.
The irony-heavy series had always featured an endless stream of ups and downs for its unlucky protagonists. That was part of the charm. But Judge knew there was a limit to how long they could keep that going.
“It just felt like we can only have them keep failing for so long without it getting old,” he reasoned. “I didn’t want to run it into the ground. And hopefully, we didn’t.”
Show started to resemble Real Tech Drama
If you have followed the show, then you’ll understand that the real-world tech industry started looking more and more like the show itself. And not in a good way.
By 2019, tech billionaires were regularly appearing in court hearings and Congressional testimonies. Facebook, Twitter, and other major platforms were facing serious scrutiny about their impact on society. The playful, disruptive spirit that once defined Silicon Valley had turned into something darker and more concerning.
“You get to this place where people are making very sustainable arguments that Facebook and Twitter and these other companies have torn the fabric of society irreparably,” Berg said. “Facebook is destroying the world, you could argue. And it ceases to just become a goofy, fun little show.”
The judge brought up Facebook’s old motto to drive the point home. “Facebook’s motto back then was ‘move fast and break things,’ and it’s a little less cute now that they actually have moved fast and broken things.” What once seemed like an ambitious tech mantra now looked more like a warning.
This shift from comedy to uncomfortable reality isn’t unique to Silicon Valley.
Berg compared it to Veep, another HBO series that started as an absurd political comedy. As real-life politicians became increasingly vapid and narcissistic, mirroring the show’s characters, Veep suddenly felt less like satire and more like a documentary.
They did not want to move this way with the show.
The Right time to End Things
The writers started working on Season 6 with an open mind about continuing for a seventh season. But once they got into the storyline, everyone agreed that Season 6 was the right time to bring it all to an end.
Not just this, by 2019, the cast and creators had gotten busy with other projects.
Berg mentioned that “everybody just felt like it would be a shame if it started to decay as we were doing it.”
Nobody wanted to stick around long enough to watch the show lose its magic.
And they were right to trust their instincts. In the years since “Silicon Valley” wrapped, the cast and crew have gone on to do some impressive work.
Kumail Nanjiani joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe, bringing his comedic timing to superhero movies. Mike Judge brought back King of the Hill on Hulu, giving fans more of the beloved animated series.
Alec Berg earned critical acclaim and multiple Emmy nominations for his work on Barry, the dark comedy series starring Bill Hader.
Berg drew inspiration from his early days working on Seinfeld when thinking about when to end Silicon Valley.
That show was absolutely massive, but Jerry Seinfeld made the bold choice to turn down a lucrative Season 10 offer and end things on his own terms.
Berg remembered that Seinfeld always felt like, ‘Look, it’s better to get out on a high note than feel like you stayed one day too long.’
