Silicon Valley is one of the funniest shows on HBO, as it satirizes the lives and careers of a handful of geniuses trying to find success in the competitive tech world of Silicon Valley. In fact, the show is so consistently hilarious that it's painful to think that it's bound to come to an end someday. Showrunner Alec Berg has put some thought into the ending, and just how long the series could last before the big finale. As it turns out, it was an anecdote from Matt Weiner about AMC's episode orders of his smash hit Mad Men that got Berg really thinking about the future of Silicon Valley. Here's what Berg had to say about Weiner and the end of Silicon Valley:
I think he had the idea for that ending pretty early on, but he said that [deal] just changed the nature of the writing. I don't think we're there yet. I still feel like we're in the middle of the show somewhere.
Alec Berg shared his thoughts about building to the eventual end of Silicon Valley in a chat with Uproxx, and it's an interesting perspective on how to handle an ongoing series when things can change without much warning. The ending of Mad Men was remarkably thorough in wrapping up the stories of major characters and giving a grand-ish sendoff to ad man Don Draper. It was an ending that surely couldn't have worked so well if Matthew Weiner hadn't planned out a basic framework for the final episodes ahead of time. It worked for Weiner and theoretically could work for Berg with Silicon Valley if Berg is given an approximate final episode order.
On the other hand, Lost was given a final episode order to allow showrunners Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof to tie up all the loose ends, and...well, that wasn't quite as successful at providing closure as Mad Men. Then there's the finale of How I Met Your Mother, which undid a lot of what had happened because because folks behind the scenes didn't want to give up their original vision. So Alec Berg's decision to go with the flow of Silicon Valley rather than focus on a set ending could be the best thing for the show.
Silicon Valley has certainly been working just fine without some kind of master plan in the works so far. Alec Berg has admitted that he and the writers have been known to wing it during the first three seasons, but the show has never suffered for it. If he keeps doing what he's doing for however long the series lasts, fans probably don't have to worry about an unsatisfying conclusion. After all, if Berg and Co. hadn't been willing to make things up as they went along, we might never have gotten that bizarre horse sex scene that combined a lot of funny with a bit of discomfort as only Silicon Valley can. Given that Berg has opined that his show is still around the middle of its run, we shouldn't fret too much about whether or not he has a vision for the final act.
HBO has renewed Silicon Valley for a Season 4, and the team is currently busy crafting what we can expect to see from the characters in the next batch of episodes. Check out our fall TV premiere schedule to see what you can watch on the small screen during the wait for more Silicon Valley.
