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Halt and Catch Fire (Spoilers)

tyno

tyno

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AMC has had great success lately with original shows.
Hoping that this one mimics that success.

I watched the first episode last night and it's "Mad Men-esque".
It almost reeks of some boring drama that you won't continue to watch...but then it pulls you in, becomes captivating and exciting, and leaves you hanging for another week. Hopefully, I continue to watch though, as I have a pretty poor track record when it comes to following most TV shows.

Anyway....you can catch the full first episode here:

http://www.amctv.com/full-episodes/halt-and-catch-fire/3595861397001/i-o
 
DVR set!!!
 
I like that it has Starbuck in it. But it looks kinda boring. TURN, however, has been very good.
 
I need to check this out. I think I can get it on-demand, so it's on my weekend watch list.
 
Watched the first 2 episodes and its fantastic. I love technology and seeing a show set in the start of the modern PC era was enough, but the acting so far has been superb. A great addition to AMC.
 
fupresti said:
Watched the first 2 episodes and its fantastic. I love technology and seeing a show set in the start of the modern PC era was enough, but the acting so far has been superb. A great addition to AMC.
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Agreed, it's awesome.
 
huhhh said:
I like that it has Starbuck in it. But it looks kinda boring. TURN, however, has been very good.
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which Starbuck are you referring to? Katee Sackhoff is not in this show and she played the most commonly referred to Starbuck (BSG). She is currently in Longmire, an A&E show. Pretty good, IMO.

The one thing I hate about Halt and Catch Fire is the blatant disregard for technical accuracy. On a show that is all about computers, they get a lot of things very very wrong... including the whole premise the show is based on. That's a common issue though and it's not hard to look past. but it still makes me cringe when they get very simple things so wrong. Hollywood really needs some new technical consultants...
 
just caught up on the last 2 episodes last night.

i can get past the minor technical inaccuracies. i mean, the Walking Dead is a show and this:


lol. but seriously...
like most shows, i think it'll go beyond and almost leave behind it's overall premise. (take the League on FXX for example. i love that show. but it used to be about fantasy football. now, tid-bits of that are thrown into each episode, and it's basically a comedy improv that reaches an end goal of a very short script.)

the soundtrack to this show is amazing and spot on.
and the mystery that surrounds Lee Pace's character Joe, is just plain wild.
and a redhead Kerry Bishe is a very, very good thing!
 
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Im hooked, GG is not quite.
I like character development, but still unsure where they go with Joe. I mean first the chick and then the dude. Now it appears dad is coming into the picture.
 
I've been watching and enjoying it. While i'm quite as "techy" as some, I can dig it.
 
mebumy3e.jpg


They have done so much to try and make things look like 1983.....yet in the golf course scene last night the guy is clearly wearing a TM R11 glove!


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TripleBogieTim said:
mebumy3e.jpg


They have done so much to try and make things look like 1983.....yet in the golf course scene last night the guy is clearly wearing a TM R11 glove!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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I noticed that as well. Kinda funny.


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i admit i only watched the first couple of episodes... but they were all about "hey we have to find some way to reverse engineer this BIOS and write our own!" Why? it's not like that code was ever kept secret by IBM... Other stuff was, but not the BIOS. That plus going through the motions of demonstrating binary but then getting the letter wrong. lol. edit OH and one other thing... the detail they showed on the old school desoldering tool was cool. but... they desoldered a socket for some reason. they were trying to get the chip off, but all they had to do was pull. that type is just a plug-in. no desoldering required :D

I hope the rest of the season is better. I do intend to catch up at some point. The acting is pretty impressive, even if the premise is ridiculous.
 
As a generation of the 70s and 80s, if I based entertainment on accuracy, I cant imagine how I would have ever enjoyed Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Die Hard and so many others. The entertainment industry is not really trying to be perfectly accurate. ANd thank goodness for that, because frankly the real side of the stories are boring as heck.
 
JB said:
As a generation of the 70s and 80s, if I based entertainment on accuracy, I cant imagine how I would have ever enjoyed Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Die Hard and so many others. The entertainment industry is not really trying to be perfectly accurate. ANd thank goodness for that, because frankly the real side of the stories are boring as heck.
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that's not even close to the same thing. you can't compare fantasy and adventure movies to one that gets its basis from an actual time in history. Those things never happened and nobody is trying to pretend that they did. Compare it to historical pieces for a more accurate comparison. This bills itself not as fantasy but as a fictionalized retelling of actual goings on. Of course 99.9% of technology-based movies and shows will have glaring inaccuracies. I'm very much used to hollywood taking liberties with technology. But this is like writing a world war II movie about the US going to war with the Canadian mounties instead of the German Nazis. It just didn't go down like that.
 
Ummm. Okay.
 
Wth.

Suits is exactly like working in a law firm. Greys Anatomy is just like a real hospital. Inglorious Basterds is a documentary about how WWII was won.
 
baldguy said:
But this is like writing a world war II movie about the US going to war with the Canadian mounties instead of the German Nazis. It just didn't go down like that.
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I'd watch that movie, FWIW.
 
There is a huge difference between fictionalizing a story and fictionalizing methods and details about how things work. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to tell the difference... Creating a new storyline in a time in history is perfectly fine. Doing that but failing to accurately depict your chosen era is what I'm complaining about. All the responses of "lol, star wars isn't real either, duh!" have nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Of course Brad Pitt didn't win WWII. Those are absolutely ridiculous responses to my complaint. Getting a binary letter incorrect or removing the wrong kind of chip with a desolder gun is not a fictionalization for the purpose of creating a story. it's just a failure to do the required homework. When you make a show about the history of computers, at least make an attempt to know something about the history of computers.

My point was that as someone who is actually intimately familiar with all of the technical details they are trying to work into the show... when they screw something up that bad, it ruins the realism for me. If this show were about golf and they got some technical details wrong, you folks would all be saying "hang on, that just isn't right."
 
baldguy said:
There is a huge difference between fictionalizing a story and fictionalizing methods and details about how things work. I'm not sure why it's so difficult to tell the difference... Creating a new storyline in a time in history is perfectly fine. Doing that but failing to accurately depict your chosen era is what I'm complaining about. All the responses of "lol, star wars isn't real either, duh!" have nothing to do with what I'm talking about. Of course Brad Pitt didn't win WWII. Those are absolutely ridiculous responses to my complaint. Getting a binary letter incorrect or removing the wrong kind of chip with a desolder gun is not a fictionalization for the purpose of creating a story. it's just a failure to do the required homework. When you make a show about the history of computers, at least make an attempt to know something about the history of computers.

If this show were about golf and they got some technical details wrong, you folks would all be saying "hang on, that just isn't right."
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Actually I wouldnt. But some people view this stuff for entertainment and others view it as something else. When I look at entertainment, I want to be entertained. Unless its a documentary for education, I dont really care how factually correct it is.

Ken Burns Baseball - Needs to be factually correct.
Eight Men Out - Can take some liberties with the facts to make it entertaining.

I didnt care that the guy had on a TaylorMade R11 glove in the golfing scene of this show. I didnt care that Happy Gilmore was absurd. I didnt care that the CSI Episode with the pro golfers (Duffy Waldorf, etc) had the wrong equipment in place.

Clearly others believe that if they are discussing a topic, regardless of if its drama, comedy, etc, the entertainment needs to be 100% accurate to be entertained. It doesnt make someone right or wrong or better or worse, just different ways to take in entertainment.
 
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Halt and Catch Fire (Spoilers)

baldguy said:
My point was that as someone who is actually intimately familiar with all of the technical details they are trying to work into the show... when they screw something up that bad, it ruins the realism for me. If this show were about golf and they got some technical details wrong, you folks would all be saying "hang on, that just isn't right."
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I see your point.

But, TV-shows or movies are not made for a select group of experts of any subject. There's no point using too much money on extensive research, educating & training actors, directors, create or buy props and locations because 99% of the target audience do not see, understand or care about factual errors or continuity errors as long as the errors aren't too big and obvious. The creators know it and they make shows that are in the end about the actors, their role characters and the relationships between them.

I see your point, but it's entertainment so you just need to turn a blind eye or write a letter to the creators of the show. :)
 
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