There is, perhaps, a more sinister reason for T.J. Miller leaving the beloved HBO series, “Silicon Valley.”
Right after the announcement came that Miller’s Erlich Bachman wouldn’t be returning for a fifth season, Miller went on “Larry King Now” and said all the right things about his departure. “It was the right time. HBO and I kind of decided that this was a time that the character would leave. We’d written it in a place where there was an organic departure.”
But now, it seems there is nothing “organic” about it, if you know what I mean. Co-showrunner Mike Judge told The Hollywood Reporter that Miller was over the whole thing. “It was kind of becoming clear that he didn’t want to do the show anymore, but we wanted to leave it so that there would be an opportunity to come back at some point,” he says.
“When the season was done, we talked to T.J. and said, ‘Do you want to come back for part of it?’ And he just wanted to move on… I think if somebody doesn’t want to do it, you don’t want to force them to.”
Miller’s take is that HBO offered him a scaled down role in the upcoming season, which he turned down in favor of leaving the show full stop. Apparently, HBO wanted to make sure T.J. had time for his stand-up. “They were like, ‘Let’s make this easier for both of us,’” Miller tells The Hollywood Reporter. “And I was like, ‘I think this is an amazing opportunity.’” To do other things, he means.
Like, for example, he wants to take that emoji movie to fancy film festivals. “I’d like to parasail into the Cannes Film Festival for ‘The Emoji Movie’ because that’s the next new funny thing that will make people laugh.” Agree to disagree, my dude.
Also he wants to keep making comedy, so don’t worry. “ I’m making comedy for people to laugh because their life is essentially tragic.” Oh, how nice of you.
Anyway, there you have it. T.J. Miller left “Silicon Valley” because HBO was too accommodating and he had too much ish going on. Not that relatable, but sure!
