“The Golden State Warriors of Comedy,” HBO’s ‘Silicon Valley’ Set to Return for Season Five

HBO’s hit comedy series Silicon Valley is coming back for its fifth season beginning Sunday, March 25. Richard Hendrick’s and the Pied Piper crew are set to return and continue their attempt to create a new internet.

The last team we saw the Pied Piper team, Gilfoyle (played by Martin Starr) saved Richard (Thomas Middleditch) and the company’s existence with the help of Jian-Yang’s (Jimmy O. Yang) smart refrigerator.

Based on the few trailers that have been released, it looks like the Richard and Gavin Belson (Matt Ross) rivalry will renew in season five as they lead their respective companies.

Silicon Valley will continue on without actor T.J. Miller’s outrageous Erlich Bachman character. Miller was one of the bigger-if not biggest- names that appeared on the show.

In 2015, Miller won the Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series for his portrayal of Erlich on Silicon Valley.

HBO announced that Miller will not be returning in May of last year, during the show’s fourth season run.

In a July 2017 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Miller said he departed from the critically-acclaimed show because he felt that his character wasn’t going anywhere.

“[Silicon Valley] has to change, it has to grow,” Miller said, “there’s something dynamic that has to happen.”

Miller went on to say “the show will do better” without the Erlich Bachman character.

In a Hollywood Reporter cover story from March 7 of this year, the Silicon Valley team confirmed that Miller’s exit was for other reasons, and was bound to happen.

“There are a lot of different ways you can find out somebody doesn’t want to do the show anymore… and it’s not fun to work with someone who doesn’t want to be there,” Silicon Valley show creator Mike Judge said of Miller, who would reportedly show up to table-reads late and appear under-the-influence.

“They’re one of the main people and you’ve got however many crewmembers and extras and people who are [not paid as much as Miller] and they’re all showing up before 7 a.m., and then are just like, ‘Oh, OK, we’re not shooting today.’”

Even without the presence of Miller’s Erlich Bachman, season five of Silicon Valley has been highly-anticipated by comedy-heads, tech-geeks and HBO viewers everywhere. Fans of the show can look forward to more Jian-Yang screen-time now that Miller is gone.

As Silicon Valley showrunner, Alec Berg told the Hollywood Reporter:

“These guys [the Pied Piper/Silicon Valley crew] are the Golden State Warriors of comedy. So, it’s like, yeah, we’ve lost Andre Iguodala but we still have Steph Curry and Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson…”

Silicon Valley’s fifth season will bring back Richard (Thomas Middleditch), Gilfoyle (Martin Starr), Dinesh (Kumail Nanjiani),  Jared (Zach Woods) and Monica (Amanda Crew), among others. It’ll air Sundays at 10 p.m. pacific time, beginning March 25.