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Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
- joshstrange 8mo agoWhat 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.
- IBCNU 8mo agoAnd 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!
- LambdaComplex 8mo agoYou just reminded me that I got about halfway through Soul of a New Machine. Maybe I'll pick it back up this week.
- unmole 8mo ago> And as I understand it loosely based on the fantastic and seminal book Soul of a New Machine. I've only watched the first season and really don't see the link to Soul of a New Machine.
- tptacek 8mo agoSeason 1 is Soul of a New Machine-ish, but about personal computing, not minicomputers, and is set in Texas. Season 2 is roughly about BBSs and Compuserve, and still in Texas. Season 3 is about the early commercial Internet, same characters, SFBA. Season 4 is about the Yahoo era of the Internet and about venture capital, also SFBA.
- ai_critic 8mo agoThe problem with it is that it is ahistorical enough in the tech that some things just don't work. The show tackles stuff about like a decade before it was actually relevant in market, and that has subtle problems that give the business stuff an uncanny-valley feel. Still a fun drama though.
- deaddodo 8mo agoYeah, agreed. Watching it as a drama, it’s fun. Watching it with any perspective on tech history it gets a little cringy. The first season is semi-accurate if you just replace Compaq with their company. But it quickly goes off the rails.
- kQq9oHeAz6wLLS 8mo agoI lost interest in the second season. S1 was great, though.
- tptacek 8mo agoS2 is the weakest season, and S1 isn't the strongest.
- _boffin_ 8mo ago[flagged]
- SquareWheel 8mo agoMany people will likely be watching this show for the first time based on this thread. Please don't spoil major plot events for them.
- _boffin_ 8mo agoThis thread is already filled with spoilers, so it feels odd that you're singling mine out and especially given how long the show's been out.
- arscan 8mo agoMy father was an unnamed DG marketing executive in the book, who joked that his greatest career regret was asking Kidder to be unnamed in case the book wasn’t any good (it won Kidder the Pulitzer). I’ve been meaning to go through his old notebooks, as he took detailed notes on everything, to see if there is anything left from that era.
- IBCNU 8mo agoamazing lore!
- acomjean 8mo agoDG = data general a “large” computer company in Westboro mass. My mom worked there doing internationaliztion. Soul of a new machine is a fantastic book. About DG going up against DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) and their Vax machines.
- randrus 8mo agoI joined DG in their last days, largely due to kidders book. Also, I really liked DG/UX, for reasons I no longer recall.
- myself248 8mo ago> I’ve been meaning to go through his old notebooks, as he took detailed notes on everything, to see if there is anything left from that era. Please do! Ephemera like that can tell more sides of the story that didn't make it into the book, for whatever reason.
- arscan 8mo agoI got the sense that Kidders side was approximately equal to my father’s side, as my father said he provided a lot of information to the author through interviews and was happy with the account that ended up in the book. I’ll see what I can find though. I ended up working for the lead of the competing team within DG (whose product lost to the book’s protagonist) for many years right after college at a different company he founded. I suspect he has a slightly different perspective on the whole thing, but I never asked. Sadly my father and many of his contemporaries are no longer with us. But I’m really happy that this book exists as a durable & accurate snapshot of the period. The computer history museum also has a wonderful collection of interviews worth checking out, which includes several of the staff from DG [1] 1. https://computerhistory.org/oral-histories/ https://computerhistory.org/oral-histories/
- danielvaughn 8mo agoLee 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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOR8mk0tLpc
- IBCNU 8mo agohe reminds me of truly the best bosses also something about him with a good engineer reminds me of me and my boss, i hope lol
- imglorp 8mo agoMore recently, I loved how he killed it in Foundation. Another great casting for a great actor.
- itsnowandnever 8mo agofoundation has an incredible cast but even among such talent he's a clear outlier
- OneDeuxTriSeiGo 8mo agoLee Pace is such a phenomenal actor. He really just transforms the roles he's in and makes something special out of each show he's in. He's also fantastic in Apple TV's Foundation and it's been really impressive seeing his range put on display there.
- billbrown 8mo agoDig up Wonderfalls, his first series, and Pushing Daisies. They form the Lee Pace Triumvirate (with Halt and Catch Fire) as far as I'm concerned.
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- leonflexo 8mo agoGreat show and fantastic music. This show and Driver were two soundtracks that captured that early/mid 2010s vibe for me personally.
- seneca 8mo agoAbsolutely. One of those shows where I went to check what the songs were playing in specific scene often, and ended up with lots of new tracks added to play lists. Whoever did their music selection was top notch.
- t1234s 8mo agoA great watch if you are nostalgic for the early BBS days or early WWW days. The post 2000 generation may not get it.
- 29athrowaway 8mo agoThe first seasons were excellent, the latter seasons not so much.
- 1970-01-01 8mo agoObjectively it was consistently good but not great. https://www.ratingraph.com/tv-shows/halt-and-catch-fire-ratings-46386/ https://www.ratingraph.com/tv-shows/halt-and-catch-fire-rati...
- 29athrowaway 8mo agoThe first season was the best season, and it's probably a good stopping point.
- chucksmash 8mo agoInteresting. Different strokes I suppose. I loved this show but in the beginning they put too much emphasis on Lee Pace's character for my taste. Just kind of "ooooh, what will the brooding. mysterious maverick in a suit with a dark past do next? So unpredictable" and it didn't really resonate with me like the later seasons did. In the same way that the beginning of Parks and Rec feels like they were setting out to make a version of The Office before it really became its own thing, the first season of HaCF felt like "what if we had a Don Draper type but instead it was Texas in the 80s?"
- 29athrowaway 8mo agoThe latter seasons have memorable thought-provoking moments but they are sparse. They could have compressed those into fewer episodes and it would have been more watchable.
- tsunamifury 8mo agoYou must be young.
- tptacek 8mo ago
- colinmegill 8mo agoSo good
- JSR_FDED 8mo agoThis 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!
- dvrp 8mo agoIt’s great but it ain’t no Mr. Robot.
- Sebguer 8mo agoOne is a deeply human drama, the other is a spy thriller. Not sure why you'd even make the comparison.
- TurdF3rguson 8mo agoI'm assuming Mr Robot is the spy thriller? It feels like more of a deeply human drama to me.
- Sebguer 8mo agoYou have a very different perception of 'human' than I do!
- TurdF3rguson 8mo agoThe main character suffers from DID. From trauma that happened when he was little. Maybe you didn't watch the whole thing, that seems pretty "human drama"-ey to me.
- fugalfervor 8mo agoThat's not human drama. That's a sensationalized depiction of a really rare disorder that 99% of the audience has no experience with and cannot relate directly to.
- TurdF3rguson 8mo agoOf course that's human drama, the entire show is drama. Even the "spy thriller" subplot is motivated by death of Whiterose's partner and the need to put the world back the way it was.
- hola-tamale 8mo agoFantastic 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-tragedy-of https://gilpignol.substack.com/p/halt-and-catch-fire-the-tra...
- IBCNU 8mo agolove how deep you go
- airstrike 8mo agoit's slop
- hola-tamale 8mo agoSorry you didn't like it. I can assure you it describes real battle scars from startups. Good luck with inboard!
- airstrike 8mo agoIt's got nothing to do with liking it or not. This is ChatGPT: > The masterpiece quality of Halt and Catch Fire lies in how precisely it shows the zero-sum reflex at work. > Disagreement becomes disrespect. > Respect becomes status. > Status becomes survival. > When Cameron’s game doesn’t align with business strategy, it isn’t a tactical debate; it’s an assault on her identity. When Joe pivots the company without consensus, he isn’t merely decisive; he is declaring sovereignty. When Donna asserts operational control, it reads as treason to those who conflate ownership with authorship.
- hola-tamale 8mo agoWhether something sounds like a human, a book, or a language model doesn’t really affect whether the behavior it describes exists. The claim is simple: in creative orgs, disagreements often escalate into identity conflicts because people map ideas to self-worth. Halt and Catch Fire portrays that escalation pretty clearly. If that doesn’t resonate, what has your experience looked like instead?
- brightball 8mo agoMy dad kept trying to get me to watch this show and I never got around to it. Maybe I need to.
- dddw 8mo agoYou wont regret it
- tptacek 8mo agoIt'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.
- tsunamifury 8mo agoHard disagree. The number of micro details it got right was insane. You’d have to be pedantic to think otherwise. Right down to obscure LucasArts first online game.
- carlmr 8mo agoIt’s funny, I’d say the details are right, but the overall picture is still wrong. It tries to cram too many things into this one show. Like a medley of computing history.
- sirmarksalot 8mo agoYeah, the the characters kind of feel like Doonesbury characters, where they just slot in wherever they're needed at a particular moment in history. Each season's story by itself feels authentic, but when you watch their character arcs from start to finish, each person involved would have to be a generational talent. And it's not like that kind of thing never happens, like look at General Magic and its through-lines through the tech industry up until 2015 or so, but it just happens too conveniently in the show. Particularly Bosworth's role seems far-fetched to me. He's already at the end of his career in season 1, and somehow he remains relevant through the internet age? The "Phoenix" monologue in the last episode evokes nostalgia for everything Donna and Cameron have been through, but it also breaks suspension of disbelief by pointing out just how much of history these two people have been involved with firsthand.
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- DrFunke 8mo agoSeason 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.
- wmf 8mo agoI always thought Joe MacMillan was Don Draper with a little Steve Jobs so that explains it.
- seneca 8mo agoStrongly agree that Season 1 was by far the best, and the rest suffered for the changes.
- Apocryphon 8mo agoS2 had a far more memorable depiction of hacker startups as we know it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJN2JN3_N_4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJN2JN3_N_4
- etchalon 8mo agoSeason 1 was just Mad Men but computers. Seasons 2 through 4 were vastly more interesting. We've seen Joel a hundred times. Donna and Cameron and Gordon felt less worn, and Donna and Cameron's relationship vastly more interesting than Gordon (the skeptic) and Joel (the believer!) in Season 1. If you prefer "great men" stuff, I can see preferring Season 1. But it's not exactly a story you can't watch elsewhere.
- Apocryphon 8mo agoI've heard of Season 1 described as "Don Draper teaming up with Walter White", which makes it sound far more juicy than it is. The entire show gets way into the melodrama of the characters' personal lives, but S1 is no better than the rest in terms of that; it's strongest when the personal melodrama is rooted in the tech, like Joe's self-sabotage of their COMDEX demo followed by the fateful realization in the hotel room of their doom. There's a really great article in Grantland about HCF, Silicon Valley, and Microserfs by Douglas Coupland which points out that these characters are not great men, because they are but footnotes of history: > The story twists again: Joe loses his nerve. The Giant goes to market as a regular old fast/cheap PC. Then, in a Comdex hotel room darkened as if for a séance, Joe comes face-to-face with his first Macintosh, and realizes he’s made the wrong call: “It speaks,” he says, his voice full of wonder and dread. We realize we’ve spent the better part of a season watching these characters fail — that Gordon and Joe aren’t going to become the Jobs and Wozniak of this world because Jobs and Wozniak are the Jobs and Wozniak of this world. https://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/silicon-valley-halt-catch-fire-microserfs-douglas-coupland/ https://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/silicon-valley-ha... Cameron is just sort of an unstable tortured genius with a lot of baggage, and while Donna ends up being the responsible "den mother", it is really far from girlbossing, and rather trivializes those seasons and the characters to put it in such a way. And Joe does not take a backseat at all! He ends up being the main foil for most of the show, which is a really interesting turn for the character! I do think Gordon gets sidelined (with a debilitating disease, no less!) far too easily. But then he's also sort of doomed to be a footnote, his fate is just all the more tragic for it.
- vesrah 8mo agoThis 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.
- IBCNU 8mo agoI like how in the fourth season, the computer props are literally just cardboard boxes. I like literally love it, not ironically, it makes it more like a stage play. Feel like the flaws are what makes it special. I don't want Kubrick for a tv show about BBS'
- dzink 8mo agoYes, 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).
- hsbauauvhabzb 8mo ago> They need to do more seasons, especially with modern day problems. Silicon Valley, the insanity that it’s both a comedy and true to life
- airstrike 8mo agoI think you might enjoy Travelers
- bane 8mo agoIt 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.
- 3abiton 8mo agoIt captured a bit the feeling of being at the start of the computer boom in 60s-70s. The partnernship between the 2 male protagonists was central till the end of show (evolving through different phases). The show was great, it went in very unexpected directions later on.
- ppcdeveloper 8mo agoThis is on my bucket list to finish. Watched one or two episodes and it reminded me of a dead serious Silicon Valley.
- don_neufeld 8mo agoOne of my all time favorite series - add my upvote to the pile!
- donatj 8mo agoI 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.
- ghaff 8mo agoI really liked it. Though I was sort of expecting an alternative Mac history at the time. Good Comdex show vibe for the time though.
- h33t-l4x0r 8mo agoThat's honestly an ridiculous criticism. The idea that a simple thing like intonation was not well considered in a show with that level of detail... You need to do yourself a favor and drop whatever you think you know and re-binge.
- afspear 8mo agoThe opening of this show feels very relevant today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucSUs3adMQ8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucSUs3adMQ8
- seneca 8mo agoI 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.
- segmondy 8mo agoIt's fairly well known to some of us. It's one of the few shows I own DVDs of.
- whoisthemachine 8mo agoWhere can one even find the seasons? I only found season 1 on Blu-ray.
- walterbell 8mo agoApple TV, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056314#47057601 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056314#47057601
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- brcmthrowaway 8mo agoHow does it compare to The Americans?
- seneca 8mo agoThey have essentially nothing in common, other than the fact that both rapidly degrade over the seasons and both are nostalgic looks back at recent eras of America.
- et-al 8mo agoThe Americans is an easier watch in general because of its themes, but H+CF is worth viewing for anyone in tech. There's only four seasons and they're all solid.
- TheAtomic 8mo agoLOVE H&CF, so good
- kqr2 8mo agoSyllabus: https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/ https://bits.ashleyblewer.com/halt-and-catch-fire-syllabus/
- yogurtboy 8mo agoThis is cool, are there similar things for other tv shows?
- aresant 8mo agoIt'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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6L1suN-mGE
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- AnishLaddha 8mo agoone of my favorite shows of all time!
- ChrisArchitect 8mo agoThe best. Not unheard of around here. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45007414 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45007414) This article? Not so much. Is OP one of the one's discovering it?
- nephihaha 8mo agoI've never heard of it, so maybe they're talking about me. (Joke.)
- durakot 8mo agoYeah this is a gem of a show worth a rewatch every few years. Especially once it finds its legs after S1. Criminally underrated.
- tsunamifury 8mo agoThe show captured the sublime transcendence of ambitious failure like no other form of art ever has. It is an all timer.
- SparkyMcUnicorn 8mo agoSomewhat mysteriously, the Linux ISOs for this show have seen a sudden spike in activity.
- kgwxd 8mo agoHuge fan of the show, but I have no clue what you're referring to. Torrents of the DVDs or something like that?
- caycecan 8mo agoHACF 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=ygUUaGVhdCB2aXNpb24gYW5kIGphY2s%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lWgXDOAJ5s&pp=ygUUaGVhdCB2aXN...
- J_Shelby_J 8mo agoScavengers reign is from the same people as common side effects. Both shows are amazing.
- caycecan 8mo agoJoe Bennet, right? https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4497617/?ref_=ext_shr https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4497617/?ref_=ext_shr I will binge anything he makes with the double bullseye of these shows
- consumer451 8mo agoScavengers Reign was easily my favorite sci-fi, in any media format, of the last decade+. So incredibly inventive with the alien biosphere.
- aa-jv 8mo agoGotta add "Primal" to your list of must-watches ..
- latexr 8mo ago> Scavengers reign is from the same people as common side effects. In case it matters to someone, the order is reverse. As in, Scavengers Reign came before. Also, be aware it wasn’t renewed for a second season. But it absolutely deserved it, just not enough people knew about it.
- talkingtab 8mo agoAbsolutely. 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".
- CSMastermind 8mo agoLook 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.
- chrisstanchak 8mo agoI have the Cardiff Giant. Like the actual computer from the show.
- chrisstanchak 8mo agoI have the actual 'Cardiff Giant' laptop from the show. Got it in LA at a prop auction. Should I do a YouTube?
- etchalon 8mo agoYES! NOW!
- mikestorrent 8mo agoThat's absolutely bitchun. You should definitely do so. What's actually in there? Ideally you'd have it done up as a set piece and mock up a connection to Mutiny on there ;)
- caycecan 8mo agoThis is cool.
- kgwxd 8mo agowhen... how... who... how do i follow you so i don't miss it?!
- Nevermark 8mo agoUh, no. You should do another auction. :)
- aa-jv 8mo agoThat ranks up there with the Oric Atmos from The IT Crowd as one of the most intriguing nerd props around ..
- beart 8mo agoI'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.
- mikestorrent 8mo agoConsider just fast-forwarding past a scene you can't handle. Like many shows, it takes a few episodes before the actors truly understand their characters. The feeling you're experiencing has a name: it's called "cringe". I can't watch Frasier for more than about half an episode because of it. Or I Love Lucy... same problem. But Seinfeld, which has plenty of the same humour mechanic, always seems to manage to stay just below the threshold for me. Halt and Catch Fire is really, really good. Please trust us. Give it another shot. Skip forward a bit when you feel the need to. Skip the first episode entirely and just read a synopsis if you need to.
- dakolli 8mo agoIdk man, the entire second season gives me that feeling of embarrassment, I couldn't finish the show. The first season was alright, but honestly the second season is some of the cheesiest/worst storytelling/acting I've ever seen.
- mikestorrent 8mo agoInteresting how this thread has people saying they love the acting and people saying they hate it. I can't say as I found the acting itself to be amazing outside of a few scenes, but I never found it cringe enough to not want to see more. It'd be cool to understand more about what triggers this differently for different folks. A related thing I find difficult to watch is when characters are in impending danger too often. Breaking Bad, for instance, was a bit hard for me to get into because of the continual tension and risk of everything going sideways. I managed to watch it anyway and am glad of it, but definitely found Better Call Saul to be a more pleasurable watch.
- dakolli 8mo agoI 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.
- johnnyfived 8mo agoThe first season is pretty taut, then the follow-up seasons suffer from every character being at the center of every big thing in tech for narrative purposes, which is to its detriment imo.
- alt227 8mo agoThis is my opinion too. I loved the first season, but after that it felt silly making the same people invent basically everything in the computer world. However it seems most people liked it the other way around.
- shizzor 8mo agoYeah, I don't get it either. I made it through the first season which was okay, but I couldn't get myself to finish the second one, it was just bad. It is supposed to improve towards the end, but that is just too much to endure.
- mrguyorama 8mo agoIt's "Ready Player One" for people who think SV is the most important thing in the world. It's very shallow and mostly just shoutouts to early computing history trivia. It was engrossing as all hell, but it's one of the only shows I ever finished while really not liking it. It feels so fake, and tries to keep your attention with gimmicks and artificial drama. When things are working out, characters sabotage things purposely to add drama back, as if it can't possibly be dramatic to succeed. The show basically ends up being a group of 4 or 5 assholes being assholes to each other for no reason. No actually, 4 individuals are not solely responsible for 20 years of early computing history and making that so is absurd and kills my suspension of disbelief. But it's short and self contained and there's enough character stuff to see that it's still worth experiencing. I don't know how people say it's like "Soul of a New Machine" by Tracey Kidder. I read that book and there's just nothing comparable in the show. Soul of a new machine was a wonderful journey that was full of real people and real experiences, and maybe the first season of HaCF was like the McDonalds version of that.
- Timothycquinn 8mo agoI learned of that from On the Metal podcast. Was a big favourite. Definitely a great watch.
- danielrmay 8mo agoMy all-time favorite. Compaq had a compelling story, and I liked where the writers went after the first season.
- mikewarot 8mo agoI 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.
- rafacm 8mo ago“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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeY_5n75zPM
- kaizenb 8mo agoYess! Fav quote from the series.
- futune 8mo agoI think about this at least on a monthly basis. Especially when I start to spend too much time obsessing about storage optimization, or similar. To me, sometimes, the computer is the thing. But it's really helpful to take a step back and think about the big picture.
- autoexec 8mo ago> 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.
- rurban 8mo agoThen you are the only one who haven't watched it. Go watch it now! It's fantastic (at least the first Compaq seasons)
- abustamam 8mo agoI haven't watched it nor have I heard of it prior to this post, but based on the comments here, it seems like required watching for a techie! Adding it to the never ending list of things to watch :) (I also haven't seen Silicon Valley which, as I understand it, is simultaneously required watching and required avoidance for HN people...)
- futune 8mo agoYou are wise to heed them! If you're willing to consider some random username's opinion, I consider it to be possibly the best of all time TV drama, with the only alternative pick being The Wire. I hope you enjoy it!
- block_dagger 8mo agoLoved this series, totally up HN’s alley.
- ece 8mo agoI 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) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(computing...
- zer0zzz 8mo agoI found the last season a little rushed...
- rerdavies 8mo agoAs 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....
- walterbell 8mo agoCarl Ledbetter (one of three technical advisors) interview, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056314#47057719 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47056314#47057719
- rerdavies 8mo agoLedbetter actually implicitly reveals why the pilot episode was so off, interestingly. First off, he wasn't working in the industry at the time the pilot episode takes place. He first got involved in the industry a couple of years later, working for Sun Microsystems. (So not quite the ideal candidate for a technical consultant). And second off, he came to the table after the pilot episode had been written, but before the first regular season script was written. There's only so much a technical consultant can do when he's presented with a script whose central plot point is "it's hard to reverse engineer IBM PCs". He does claim responsibility for the procedure they used to reverse engineer the BIOS, oddly. But I am inclined to be generous, and give him credit for providing the most absurdly difficult technically-plausible procedure for reverse-engineering the BIOS, and grant that the right thing to do (throw the entire script away and start again because it WASN'T difficult to reverse-engineer the BIOS) was not a pragmatic realistic recommendation for a rookie technical consultant to deliver. To put things in perspective. There was no need to reverse engineer the BIOS at all, because the IBM Technical Manual provided exquisitely commented assembler source code for the BIOS (copyright protected), including API documentation (the essence of which is not copyright protected). And a complete set of schematics. And IBM was -- for complicated reasons -- actively encouraging third parties to build clones. So correcting the technical inaccuracies in a pilot script whose entire plot revolves around "how audaciously difficult it is to reverse an IBM PC" is a bit interesting. Once corrected, the plot of the pilot episode would have revolved around clean-room procedures for translating API documentation into copyright-safe BIOSes. Probably not that interesting to the unwashed masses. And abstract speculation as to whether IBM would sue their pants off for IP violations, even though IBM was very publicly and loudly saying that they would not. And whether you could convince CFOs and investors that they could take IBM at their word. The actual strategy IBM was using was pretty clever, and quite horrifyingly machiavellian (although fair and reasonable enough that nobody ever really complained about it). I'm not actually sure if I'm allowed to tell the story of what happened when IBM patent attorneys showed up at our door wanting to have a discussion about a 10" thick stack of patents. Suffice it to say that I think they were playing a long game.
- fud101 8mo agoHm it's on amazon but you gotta pay for the secondary sub. Did look interesting but oh well.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- nephihaha 8mo agoEverything is like that on Prime. Makes me wonder what the point of a subscription is if you've got to pay for practically everything?
- kgwxd 8mo agoIt's gotten so ridiculous, my wife was in tears trying to get at a show a few days ago and we have like all the subscriptions. Now that it's cross-services subs to services within subs, some hosted by the top level, some a separate app/site/login even though you signed up somewhere else, it's a friggin' nightmare!
- nephihaha 8mo agoIt's a total mess. I pay a sub to gain access and not have adverts. Awful.
- CephalopodMD 8mo agoI 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.
- walterbell 8mo agoCarl Ledbetter interview (2024), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-k8p0dbB4 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.
- gjkood 8mo agoOne 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.
- dzink 8mo agoSame here. Silicon Valley did a great disservice by not having a character like her. We are often invisible.
- joshuaheard 8mo agoLoved it! It was an effective blend of different tech origin stories. Lee Pace was also excellent in "Foundation".
- NL807 8mo agoSeason 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.
- ceramati 8mo agoI 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.
- yehat 8mo agoNetflix... thanks, I'll pass.
- kgwxd 8mo agoIt's an AMC show. It's not currently even on Netflix as far as I can tell, at least in the US. mullvad cough cough yarrr.
- scyzoryk_xyz 8mo agoOh I've definitely heard of it. It's the Orange is the New Black for the HN adjacent crowd.
- kgwxd 8mo agoNever saw Orange is the New Black. Is it HCF for the prison adjacent crowd?
- scyzoryk_xyz 8mo agoUuuuh kinda? It's late '10's premium TV that's really more of a telenovela aimed for specific audience with a diminished level of self-awareness (not the one that's serving a sentence). HCF is kinda like that - very good if you're into the whole fantasy of tech entrepreneurship of the 80's/90's, but kinda corny when you think about it.
- arathis 8mo agoSensational show
- poojagill 8mo ago[dead]
- kgwxd 8mo agoBecause of the mustache?
- spikepuppet 8mo agoSuch 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!
- jesse_dot_id 8mo agoThis is one of my favorite shows. I love it.
- weaksauce 8mo agohalt and catch fire is so good. one of the best things i've watched as a tv series.
- Nevermark 8mo agoI have been trying to find that opcode ever since I discovered the show. :)
- voidUpdate 8mo agoI 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!
- tietjens 8mo agoDoes 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.
- timbit42 8mo agoYes, and yes.
- assimpleaspossi 8mo agoI 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.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- Kinrany 8mo agoThe guy he kissed was gay, and immediately after Joe used it to sabotage the deal.
- CSSer 8mo agoYou're making an odd request, but I'll bite because it seems sincere. I'm younger! I didn't live through the period, and I'm not a statistician, but I have to ask if this kind of representation is really a gimmick? For some, it's very meaningful. That character is bisexual, not gay, and it's pretty authentic representation. The reason why it's not so focused on is because people like this, especially at that time, often don't care much for labels. That scene you mention is with a closeted man. This is not unheard of. You may not have had this experience personally, but does that mean it didn't happen? The campy part? Okay. The show wasn't perfect. It did get canceled, after all. But it worries me that you singled this particular thing out because this is obviously a political topic, and you missed the fact that the scene did demonstrate some things about the character, like his recklessness, impulsiveness and opportunism. He complicated something that could've been simpler, and he did this because he had a hard time separating his personal thoughts and feelings from his work. This is a theme that plays out a lot in his interactions, and I wonder if your understandable discomfort and lack of familiarity with the other aspects of the scene colored your perception here.
- seanhunter 8mo ago"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 https://stationeers-wiki.com/IC10/instructions#hcf
- eurleif 8mo agoIt has much earlier origins: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(computing) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(computing...
- seanhunter 8mo agoOh I know. Just thought people might enjoy this in particular.
- mchinen 8mo agoI 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-post-llms/ https://michaelchinen.com/2023/12/31/halt-and-catch-fire-pos...
- 0xCE0 8mo agoAmazing, 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.
- kaizenb 8mo agoFor those who want to take a trip down memory lane about Cameron, here you go: http://www.thehoweofitall.com/ http://www.thehoweofitall.com/
- jacobgorm 8mo agoThe pilot episode was so lame I almost skipped this, but the rest is just stellar.
- Beestie 8mo agoI 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.
- rschachte 8mo agoLiterally this is the best show I’ve ever seen. If I’m ever burnt out at work I rewatch it
- sohrob 8mo agoVery underrated show and I hope your post gets more people to view it.
- spants 8mo agowatched it many times - one of the best series on this subject.
- pythonbase 8mo agoBinge 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)
- kgwxd 8mo agoStation Eleven is, all around, the best thing ever created. Every aspect of it is perfect.
- betageek 8mo agoThis 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!
- jll29 8mo ago"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 - ...?
- elcapitan 8mo agoSneakers
- Carstairs 8mo agoThe net? I've not seen that since the 90s so it might not be a classic but if you've ever seen an unexpected pi symbol (look on the bottom right of old.reddit.com) in software then they're probably referencing that movie.
- cestith 8mo ago- Sneakers - Pirates of Silicon Valley - Snowden - The IT Crowd - Real Genius - The Great Hack - Virtuosity - The Conversation - Who Am I - Anon - Ghost in the Shell (Anime) - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - The Accountant & The Accountant 2 - Office Space - The Imitation Game - I Am Mother - Eye in the Sky - The Circle - 1984 - Elysium - Minority Report
- Neil44 8mo agoI 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.
- DanielBMarkham 8mo agoI 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.
- joenot443 8mo ago> Can you write an independent iOS app without spending a lot of time screwing around with Apple? Yes! I've spent much more time screwing around with linkers and search paths than I ever have App Store Connect. It's really not very difficult, it's always surprising to hear engineers expect it'd be something they'd sink time into. Honestly, I think it's pretty remarkable you can distribute software to billions of devices with about as much clicking and form-filling as buying a plane ticket. Was there a time it was even easier?
- allenu 8mo agoI really don't know why this idea still persists that going through App Store review is this awful thing that takes forever and eats up all of your time. It really doesn't nowadays. I've shipped several apps in the last few years and the longest one of my apps has been in review has been maybe 3 days, and the average is between 1-2 days. That's usually for new apps. For updates, it's usually half a day to 1.5 days to get it reviewed. It takes barely any time to manage the review process. I have had apps and updates rejected but it was easy enough to make some changes and re-submit.
- akxkkwix 8mo ago[flagged]
- hbn 8mo agoI'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.
- pixelmonkey 8mo agoSomeone 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/ 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.
- TuringNYC 8mo agoOne of my all time fav shows.
- icedchai 8mo agoI 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."
- liampulles 8mo agoI 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.
- AndrewKemendo 8mo agoProbably the best example of what life is like as a technical person mostly working in startups and bleeding edge technology.
- skeeter2020 8mo agoThis 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.
- m463 8mo agoseason 2 only $2499.99 on amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G6AS40K https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G6AS40K
- unstatusthequo 8mo agoReally enjoyed this show. Not sure why it is so unknown. Highly recommend.
- tronster 8mo agoI 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.
- mobiledev2014 8mo agoI don't disagree but I also don't think it's a bad thing. This is a show that stuck the landing. You never know, it could have felt stale with a singular writing team
- ducktastic 8mo agoGood 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'
- futune 8mo agoI guess the meta level point to teach your hypothetial kid is that media is not an instruction manual? It's true that the characters are very flawed, but perfect characters would not make a compelling story... I guess you are talking about Cameron and not Donna, but if so I'd also say that I think the story does not really reward her, in the end.
- insane_dreamer 8mo agoIt'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).
- Hatrix 8mo agoThat is one of those shows where disaster strikes just when it's getting interesting.
- OhMeadhbh 8mo agoI 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.
- dejongh 8mo agoFor 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?
- thisisidiotic 8mo agoThis show is in my top ten of all time. Some of the most engaging television I'd ever stumbled upon.