Topic: Halt and Catch Fire

[PyroMenace]

New AMC show that's 6 episodes in now. I've recently caught up to where it's at now and I'm really digging it. It does start off a little bit slow but starts rolling further in, the last two episodes were great.

Synopsis: "Set in the early 1980s, series dramatizes the personal computing boom through the eyes of a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy whose innovations directly confront the corporate behemoths of the time. Their personal and professional partnership will be challenged by greed and ego while charting the changing culture in Texas' Silicon Prairie."

Here's a break down of the first episode to get a feel for it.

It is very much character driven, probably more than you would expect given the synopsis. The corporate world and engineering side is shown, but it goes into the personal lives of the main characters a good bit. It mainly follows 3 people. Lee Pace's character (who I've noticed now in a couple of bigger movies) Joe MacMillon is been the biggest interest in the show so far, but the other 2 are also well done and have good chemistry as well.

Also have to note how fuckin sweet the intro is.

[Cobra951]

Hmm, that past was my present.  I want to watch this.  Thanks.

[Xessive]

 will admit to sometimes being shallow enough to watch a show just because of its intro. I will watch this.

[PyroMenace]

Hmm, that past was my present.  I want to watch this.  Thanks.

I will say, just letting you know, it's not based on actual events, it's more or less historical fiction. I meant to put that in the first post since I was wondering about that going in.

[Cobra951]

Oh, I totally get that.  The concept of vintage Sillicon Valley transplanted to Texas, with fictional protagonists reminiscent of Gates and Jobs.  They can take that wherever they want to, since it's not tied to actual people or places.  Should be a fun watch.

Edit:  After watching a bit of your first video link, I'll cry bullshit over getting the concept of the internet (all computers connected on a network using a standard protocol) in the early 80s, particularly by some young chick just getting her feet wet in the real world.  No one dreamed of the internet back then.  There were notions of networking, and perhaps interconnecting the institutions of higher learning.  But nothing, and I mean nothing, of the scope and pure transcendence of what that became.

Edit 2:  Hmm, more like Jobs/Wozniak than Jobs/Gates at this point, plus random clairvoyant smart sexpot blonde to spice things up.  I still need to watch the second half of this first episode.  It does have my attention.

[PyroMenace]

Yea, I actually think the first episode is the worst one. The introduction to the characters felt a little cliche' and yea, I even rolled my eyes a little with her comment. But it gets better, Gordon's wife has some bigger parts to play and she ends up being pretty interesting.

[Cobra951]

Even the second half of that was much better.  I remember Compaq as the first real contender in the emerging IBM-PC-clone business.  This outfit I worked for did animated demos for them on their Intel 80286-80386 systems (started and headed by moi).  They were (are?) based in Houston.