by danielvaughn
20 subcomments
- Lee Pace's performance in that show is one of my all time favorites. It's incredibly hard to play a charismatic marketing guru because in some sense, you're not acting. In a given scene, the character might be trying to convince people around him of some crazy idea, but if he hasn't convinced you, the viewer, then the entire illusion falls apart. So he really has to do in real life what he's pretending to do on screen.
edit - a great example and one of my favorite scenes from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOR8mk0tLpc
- And as I understand it loosely based on the fantastic and seminal book Soul of a New Machine.
I had a great EM once who said I need to read it because nothing has changed in 40 years, and I keep a copy on my desk.
Touching as well, as it's on Joe MacMillan's desk in the final scene of third season.
What's so great about it is:
- mushroom theory of management works
- trust new graduates and juniors to win by not understanding the possible
- throw all the corporate bs away, just build
- competing teams (skunk-works, vs roadmap team) works
- real innovation is built by tinkerers, from the ground up, not top down
as a startup weirdo in the age of AI, who pines for the golden era (as they call it the golden prarie) i highly recommend this show!
by caycecan
17 subcomments
- HACF is a goodie but there's a lot of great shows no one's heard of.
In an effort to sing the song of underappreciated works of greatness...
Patriot - a CIA hitman who writes folk songs about his exploits
imdb.com/title/tt4687882/
Counterpart - not a multiverse, just a biverse
imdb.com/title/tt4643084/
Scavengers Reign - Robinson Crusoe by way of a nature documentary of a very bizarre alien planet.
imdb.com/title/tt21056886/
Common Side Effects - cops, robbers, magic mushrooms, corporate bad guys and the cure for everything.
imdb.com/title/tt28093628
Evil - x-files meets Catholic mysticism.
imdb.com/title/tt9055008/
The Heat Vision and Jack pilot episode - Jack Black, Owen Wilson and a script by Dan Harmon.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWgXDOAJ5s&pp=ygUUaGVhdCB2aXN...
by rerdavies
5 subcomments
- As someone who lived through that era, I couldn't watch it. A deep sense of uncanny valley. The 97% that they got completely right was ruined by the 3% that that they got wildly wrong. Often senslessly so. Stuff that a technical consultant would have caught in an instant.
I did rather enjoy the way that they captured the manic energy of the generation of dirtbag sales and marketing people that drove the PC industry in that era.
What it missed, I though, is that it failed to capture the breathless sense of wonder at finding yourself at the center of an event around which the entire universe was going to pivot -- something that was obviously going to change everything. That's what you lived if you worked on the technical side of the PC industry.
Tracy Kidder's book, The Soul of a New Machine, however....
- It's a tech story wrapped in a soap opera wrapped in one of the all time finest soundtracks ever played by an incredible group of actors and written by artists - it is singular!
PS - Christopher Cantwell - one of the writers and showrunners - has written a library of wonderful comic books worth investigating
PPS - ATX TV did a 10 year anniversary interview with a handful of the cast and crew that's worth watching if you're a fan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6L1suN-mGE
by DanielBMarkham
1 subcomments
- I just finished my third run through the series. There have been a lot of movies and shows about how tech "grew up" in the 80s and 90s, but this one feels closest to home for me. It was an incredible time to live through. Everybody was trying all kinds of stuff, fundamental stuff not stuff around the edges, and nobody knew what would hit and what wouldn't. Some kid in East Minnesota had the same shot as some guy in Stanford. There was very much a Wild West feel to it.
With apologies for going all old-guy, today it seems that whatever you do, you end up in some walled garden along a pre-programmed path. Can you write an independent iOS app without spending a lot of time screwing around with Apple? I don't know. It does not look like a worthwhile thing to spend my time on.
Everything you do today, it's like you automatically end up on some set of train tracks somebody else has made. Maybe they let your train run, maybe not. Maybe they like what you're doing and let your train run like the wind so that they can copy it all.
HCF reminded me that there was a time before all of this. Good memories.
Agentic coding may be an even bigger change, and it might kick off a new time like that. Too soon to tell. I sure hope so. I can't help but notice there are a lotta folks looking to get their hooks into the system.
by chrisstanchak
6 subcomments
- I have the actual 'Cardiff Giant' laptop from the show. Got it in LA at a prop auction. Should I do a YouTube?
- “Computers aren’t the thing. They’re the thing that gets us to the thing.”
-- Joe MacMillan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeY_5n75zPM
- It's quite good, but it gets very Six Feet Under by the end, and you have to suspend a lot of disbelief about technology; it's a little like Hackers in the sense that it's trying to communicate a feeling about operating in specific eras of computing, but not so much trying to realistically depict what it was like.
Christopher Cantwell, the showrunner, is also doing the new series of The Terror (aka North Pole Bear Show) that's premiering this year.
- > This piece contains spoilers for Halt and Catch Fire.
I'm glad they put this at the top. I instantly closed the tab. On the off chance that the title is remotely true, I wouldn't want to have the show ruined for me before I even saw an episode.
For others who have never heard of this show, here's a little I picked up from carefully scanning over the wikipedia page:
It's a AMC period drama about the early days of PCs and the internet. It ran from June 1, 2014 – October 14, 2017, had four seasons, reviews are good (so it's not just this guy who liked it) and they got better as the show went on. Also "it was marketed as the first TV series to premiere on Tumblr and the first time AMC had partnered with a social media service to debut a new show." which is weird, but it does seem like it's worth checking out.
- Syllabus:
https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
- I binge watched all four seasons in 2021; personally I felt Season 1 was the best with Season 2 doing a good job of building on it. But everything changed in Season 3, in terms of the characters, the feeling of the show, etc... And it wasn't that they had "grown" via their story arcs. They just felt - different.
It looks like some of the key writers changed halfway. This likely contributed to the change in characters, feeling, and everything that made the first two seasons so good. Jamie Pachino the executive story editor, was only there for the start. Also writers Jason Cahill, Dahvi Waller, and Jonathan Lisco only contributed to the first two seasons.
I can only imagine how the last two seasons would have felt if more of the early writers were still involved.
by walterbell
0 subcomment
- Carl Ledbetter interview (2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-k8p0dbB4
Carl was a Technical Consultant across all four seasons of Halt and Catch Fire, providing industry insight and script review. Hear what he had to say about his experience on the show, a breakdown of specific scenes, and some of his favorite memories.
- I genuinely enjoyed it and do recommend. As another commenter mentioned, Lee Pace's performance is stand out.
My only real critique is that it has the same problem as Mr. Robot.
The writers and script are clearly very tech-literate, but the spoken lines are stilted and awkwardly delivered with odd intonation because the actors clearly have no understanding of what the words they're saying mean.
- It starts as a kind of okay near-real alternate history of early computing in the Silicon Prairie, and ends with some really powerful storytelling about the fragility of humanity.
Totally worth a watch.
- I thought Halt and Catch Fire was fairly well known, especially in the tech world.
Season 1 was absolutely killer. I like that they tried to capture different eras per season, but subsequent seasons got progressively weaker.
I still think Gordon's final scene is one of the best pieces of writing in TV drama history. Took my breath away the first time I saw it.
by voidUpdate
0 subcomment
- I started watching this and was genuinely interested, but I kinda got tired of all the drama around the stuff I actually found interesting. I know that for a general audience, you need to pad technical stuff with scenes of the tech screwing the business guy, but I just wanted the computers!
by hola-tamale
3 subcomments
- Fantastic show! Just wrote an analysis of the conflicts between the characters and how every disagreement turns into a zero sum game:
https://gilpignol.substack.com/p/halt-and-catch-fire-the-tra...
- This is one of the vanishingly small instances of actually representing the tech industry well in media, even if there's a lot of exaggeration and they elide the boring stuff. There are so many scenes in that gave me deja vu. Everyone gets treated even handedly, no 2 dimensional heroes and villains, just a load of people trying to build something while their egos get in the way. I'd give it the highest recommendation possible, representation is important!
- This is one of those shows I've had in the rolling background rewatch queue for years, I love it and I try to recommend it to as many people as possible. Flawed, yes, but still special.
- This series is great at multiple levels:
- the archetype characters and their motivations to do what they do (100% valid today)
- struggles and exhilaration of startups
- as a pseudo-documentary of the early years of personal computing
Highly recommend it!
- A great watch if you are nostalgic for the early BBS days or early WWW days. The post 2000 generation may not get it.
by pixelmonkey
0 subcomment
- Someone named Ashley Blewer did such a deep dive on this show that she produced a full online course and syllabus centered around it.
https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
It allows people to form a "watch club" around the show, similar to a book club, and have plenty of extra reading materials to understand the different tech eras covered in the show.
I think this show -- combined with the documentary "General Magic" and the book "Fire in the Valley" -- is a great way to be immersed in the techno-optimism of the early tech industry around the time of the desktop PC revolution and early internet.
For me, that sort of techno-optimism has stuck with me even if modern tech has more dystopian elements with which one has to grapple. It is still an amazing industry, all things considered.
p.s. total aside that Apple TV sells a digital "box set" of this show for a pretty low price these days. I am usually not a fan of "buying" a show from a streaming service but might be worth it in this case since it's around $16 USD for every episode across its 4 seasons, Apple has a good track record honoring digital purchases, and watching the show is a commitment.
- I wrote a bit about how the kind of tech culture in HACF feels more relevant in light of the LLMs even 2 years back before I heard of mourning a craft. Here's an excerpt:
One thing I liked about HACF is despite using a decent amount of technobable, it plausibly captures the approach and spirit of hacking and coding, like reverse engineering a memoryless chip by rigging up a hex LED system to read out the values for each of the 65536 inputs to a ROM.
The expertise of the coders are demonstrated mainly by others admiring the structural complexity of their code as objects of beauty. This is something that feels extra nostalgic now.
https://michaelchinen.com/2023/12/31/halt-and-catch-fire-pos...
by liampulles
0 subcomment
- I enjoyed the actual entrepreneurial endeavoring in the show, but I would have preferred if it was a bit drier. Would be interesting to see a series based on Skunk Works.
- I've watched through the show and I enjoyed season 1 a lot, but I found it eventually ran into the issue lots of shows do where it's just meandering and you realize it won't go anywhere because if they write towards a conclusion they can't make more seasons.
I was pretty bored by the time it got into browser wars stuff. And the ending of the show was kinda baffling and cringe-inducing.
- One of the best shows I have ever watched. It evokes the early history (though fictional) of the personal computing revolution.
The character of Cameron Howe resonated with me greatly.
What a fantastic show.
- Does the show change after season 1? I've heard it gets much better, but I had a hard time paying that upfront cost and stopped halfway through.
- I've heard many great things but have not been able to make it past the classroom scene in the first episode. I love both of the actors in other media, but I find the dialogue in these opening scenes makes me feel..embarrassed? I have similar feelings about other shows and movies at times where I just have to turn them off because of the way the characters are behaving. I think it just ties directly into some anxiety I have.
by ducktastic
1 subcomments
- Good show but wouldn't want my hypothetical kid to look up to the main woman character thinking it's cool to be perpetually high-strung, antisocial, with a highly unregulated nervous system/unhealthy habits just because she is 'cool' and 'brilliant'
- I started my tech career in Dallas in the mid-80s. I had friends and relatives who worked for TI while I was at a startup. The story seems to be a mish-mash of early PC and networking companies, but the vibe is spot on.
Donna's experiences at TI mirror those friends related to me. The club the gang visited felt just like the Starck Club. Engineers at Cardiff "felt" just like the engineers I worked with.
Add to that the excellent performances by the whole cast... I love this show, especially the first season that started with a PC and ended with the Mac.
- I did look up the name when I watched the show. The characters and plot are the fictionalized early days of computing made entertaining. Definitely worth a watch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(computing...
- I tried to get my (techie) gf at the time to watch it a few years back but she couldn't get past the Cameron x Joe relationship from the beginning episode, it icked her out. I've been keen for a rewatch and my wife might actually like it though so thanks for the reminder, I'll add it to the queue.
by skeeter2020
0 subcomment
- This show started to get so strong into season 1 and season 2, then completely lost it for me and went full soap opera. Seems super-common for new series; they (rightfully) don't put a lot of effort into future episodes of a show that's unlikely to last beyond the first, and run out of the motivating material. In the 80's/90's sitcom this was the "have a baby" storyline; on the grittier cable series it's focus on the broken characters and lots of sex.
- For those who want to take a trip down memory lane about Cameron,
here you go: http://www.thehoweofitall.com/
- The opening of this show feels very relevant today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucSUs3adMQ8
- Yes, hands down the best show! They need to do more seasons, especially with modern day problems.
Other thoughtful and well made shows: Dark Matter, For All Mankind, Foundation (also Lee Pace and also stellar).
- I mistakenly posted that it's free on Samsung TV Plus. It isn't but you can watch it on Prime if you add AMC+. Sorry for the gaffe.
by talkingtab
0 subcomment
- Absolutely. If you weren't there for it, watch this. If you really want to understand AI, here it is. Hilarious. "Nobody ever got fired for AI".
- Season 1 was wonderful. The showrunner had initially written the pilot to get a job on Mad Men. It was eviscerated by critics for being too male, too masculine and seasons 2 onward pivoted into a girlboss series with Lee Pace's character taking a backseat and Scooter's character becoming a stay at home house husband. But if you like Breaking Bad and Sopranos, S1 is very well written.
by leonflexo
1 subcomments
- Great show and fantastic music. This show and Driver were two soundtracks that captured that early/mid 2010s vibe for me personally.
by assimpleaspossi
6 subcomments
- I despised this show. The acting, writing and (probably) direction was poor at best and, as someone else here mentioned, it's like what some writer thought things were and not how they actually were.
And please don't downvote my comment based on any political or social thoughts one might have. Based on the story line alone, I quit when, for no apparent reason, during a tense moment in the story, the lead sales guy has a kissing session with another guy. The lead guy isn't gay. I don't think the guy he kissed was gay. There is no reason given and none is forthcoming as to why all of a sudden he does this but it felt like another of many gimmicks to get people talking about the show rather than sticking to a story line.
by seanhunter
1 subcomments
- "Halt and catch fire" is an instruction in the ic10 programming language used by the player to build automations in the game "stationeers".
https://stationeers-wiki.com/IC10/instructions#hcf
by danielrmay
0 subcomment
- My all-time favorite. Compaq had a compelling story, and I liked where the writers went after the first season.
by pythonbase
1 subcomments
- Binge watched it. I think the first 2 seasons were great.
Lee Pace did an awesome performance recently in Asimov's Foundation. Mackenzie Davis, another lead in the show, demonstrated good potential but she seems not to get much afterward (Terminator, Station 11 etc)
by scyzoryk_xyz
1 subcomments
- Oh I've definitely heard of it. It's the Orange is the New Black for the HN adjacent crowd.
- I almost stopped at the first episode. I remember the IBM PC manuals, and the build in ROM Basic, they could have read the ROMs and dumped them to the printer in minutes, there wasn't any mystery to it.
I'm glad I stuck with it though, the rest of the series was much, much better.
- It’s great but it ain’t no Mr. Robot.
- I watched this show when it first came out in the 2010's. Very enjoyable, having lived through the BBS and early Internet age, worked for early ISPs that reminded me a bit of "Mutiny."
by CSMastermind
0 subcomment
- Look I love the show but it does feel like a missed opportunity in a lot of ways. In order to get more moments in the story itself took a backseat. Lots of cool moments if you love tech history but as a stand alone drama it was kind of a let down.
by Timothycquinn
0 subcomment
- I learned of that from On the Metal podcast. Was a big favourite. Definitely a great watch.
by SparkyMcUnicorn
1 subcomments
- Somewhat mysteriously, the Linux ISOs for this show have seen a sudden spike in activity.
by ChrisArchitect
1 subcomments
- The best. Not unheard of around here.
(https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45007414)
This article? Not so much. Is OP one of the one's discovering it?
by joshstrange
0 subcomment
- What are people's thoughts on Season 2+? I only watched season 1 and heard the show changed from 1->2 and never got around to watching it.
- Amazing, highly recommended. I have watched all seasons ~4 times. It has just some magical feeling, because tech is in the end about people and their interactions/dynamics.
by don_neufeld
0 subcomment
- One of my all time favorite series - add my upvote to the pile!
by AndrewKemendo
0 subcomment
- Probably the best example of what life is like as a technical person mostly working in startups and bleeding edge technology.
- I really enjoyed that show. The last line of dialogue in the last episode is the same as the first line in the first episode IIRC.
- That is one of those shows where disaster strikes just when it's getting interesting.
by spikepuppet
0 subcomment
- Such a fantastic show, I re-watch this one constantly. Even did a re-watch from when they move to the Bay Area when I first moved out here!
by joshuaheard
0 subcomment
- Loved it! It was an effective blend of different tech origin stories. Lee Pace was also excellent in "Foundation".
- Yeah this is a gem of a show worth a rewatch every few years. Especially once it finds its legs after S1. Criminally underrated.
- I found the last season a little rushed...
- Literally this is the best show I’ve ever seen. If I’m ever burnt out at work I rewatch it
by tsunamifury
0 subcomment
- The show captured the sublime transcendence of ambitious failure like no other form of art ever has.
It is an all timer.
- Hm it's on amazon but you gotta pay for the secondary sub. Did look interesting but oh well.
- The pilot episode was so lame I almost skipped this, but the rest is just stellar.
by brightball
1 subcomments
- My dad kept trying to get me to watch this show and I never got around to it. Maybe I need to.
- I have been trying to find that opcode ever since I discovered the show. :)
- Very underrated show and I hope your post gets more people to view it.
- season 2 only $2499.99 on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G6AS40K
by chrisstanchak
0 subcomment
- I have the Cardiff Giant. Like the actual computer from the show.
- "HCF":
"In computer engineering, Halt and Catch Fire, known by the assembly language mnemonic HCF, is an idiom referring to a computer machine code instruction that causes the computer's central processing unit (CPU) to cease meaningful operation, typically requiring a restart of the computer. It originally referred to a fictitious instruction in IBM System/360 computers (introduced in 1964), making a joke about its numerous non-obvious instruction mnemonics." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(computing)
The series is a memorable instance of what any self-respecting geek ought to have watched. It's better than "Silicon Valley", although the latter has pulled one scientific stunt regarding scientific advisory that is unique in film.What other films/series are "must watch" material for geeks?
- War Games
- Silicon Valley
- The Social Network
- The Intern
- Mr. Robot
- Black Mirror
- Hackers
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- ...?
by 29athrowaway
4 subcomments
- The first seasons were excellent, the latter seasons not so much.
- For me the show was a trip down memory lane in more than one way. The tech is one. Doing startups with friends is another. Being a workaholic and having relationships is yet another. The penultimate episode hit me hard - am I the only one?
by ppcdeveloper
0 subcomment
- This is on my bucket list to finish. Watched one or two episodes and it reminded me of a dead serious Silicon Valley.
by jesse_dot_id
0 subcomment
- This is one of my favorite shows. I love it.
by block_dagger
0 subcomment
- Loved this series, totally up HN’s alley.
- One of my all time fav shows.
by brcmthrowaway
2 subcomments
- How does it compare to The Americans?
- Netflix... thanks, I'll pass.
- halt and catch fire is so good. one of the best things i've watched as a tv series.
- watched it many times - one of the best series on this subject.
- LOVE H&CF, so good
- I just tried to watch this show because someone told me its the next best tech show after Silicon Valley, and the second season is by far some of the worst storytelling and acting I've ever seen on a screen, I don't think I'll be finishing the show. I really don't understand why people are so into it.
- Sensational show
by insane_dreamer
0 subcomment
- It's a very good show and I did enjoy it (at least Seasons 1,2; never saw 3). But "best TV drama" is a stretch. BSG is a better drama IMO (sci-fi, yes, but essentially a drama about humanity).
by AnishLaddha
0 subcomment
- one of my favorite shows of all time!
by CephalopodMD
0 subcomment
- I remember a scene in this show which felt like many real meetings I've had in my life. The big hot shot CEO guy pulls everyone into a meeting to share his big idea. The idea? Let's sell a computer that's "twice the speed, half the price!"
...The engineer then rolls his eyes like "yeah no duh". If we could just magically do stuff like that, we would have done it already. Classic management thinking they have an original idea with no understanding of the engineering beneath it all. I thought they would just tell him off and that would be it. I really felt seen in that moment.
The frustrating thing is, they then take pointy haired boss's idea seriously. The rest of the season is spent actually pursuing that dumb, dumb idea... This felt disrespectful, and I stopped watching.
- Season 1 was great. 2 is meh. 3 is probably the last one I'll watch, as I'm losing interest. The Joe MacMillan dude basically carries the show.
by colinmegill
0 subcomment
- So good
by unstatusthequo
0 subcomment
- Really enjoyed this show. Not sure why it is so unknown. Highly recommend.
by poojagill
1 subcomments
- [dead]
- [flagged]
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