8 ms·
It was a fun show. I really enjoyed it, a fictional run through the 80s and 90s computing industries.
by burnte 5mo ago
It was a fun show. I really enjoyed it, a fictional run through the 80s and 90s computing industries.
- Forgeties79 5mo agoIt really starts strong too. The first couple of episodes are fantastic.
- jrmg 5mo agoHuh. I haven’t rewatched the show, but when I saw it originally - admittedly shortly after watching Mad Men - I thought “this is trying to be Mad Men, but it’s the '80s and in the computer industry” and interpreted Lee Pace as a laundered Don Draper. The show is much more, and much better, than that though. I’m glad I kept watching.
- Forgeties79 5mo agoThat’s how I pitch it to people because it gets them to watch it, but it is definitely distinct from it. Same energy though
- tptacek 5mo agoSame showrunner is doing the current season of The Terror (a/k/a "North Pole Bear Show" in my review notes; that first season was excellent).
- vpribish 5mo agothe terror was excellent! glad it's continuing
- TacticalCoder 5mo agoSame. It shows the link between big oil and companies in Texas and then computing moving to California. It both shows mainframe, personal computers (the C64) and then beige PC taking over. Great intro too: https://youtu.be/yD_kCKiSkoI https://youtu.be/yD_kCKiSkoI
- 0xCMP 5mo agoOh I'd never connected this. It makes so much sense. I'd always wondered what Texas had to do with computing that made so many things start there.
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- throw0101a 5mo ago> Same. It shows the link between big oil and companies in Texas […] E.g., > Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November 1945, Patrick Haggerty was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment.[14] By 1951, the L&M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because a firm named General Instrument already existed, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year. * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments And how it got in contact with military contracts: > TI entered the defense electronics market in 1942 with submarine detection equipment,[41] based on the seismic exploration technology previously developed for the oil industry. The division responsible for these products was known at different times as the Laboratory & Manufacturing Division, the Apparatus Division, the Equipment Group, and the Defense Systems & Electronics Group (DSEG). * Ibid
- 0xCMP 5mo agoIt's a shame that it is such a niche show in practice. The acting of Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis in particular are so good across all 4 seasons. I recommend it at every chance I get, but few people ever watch it. They're more likely to give Silicon Valley a try.
- riddley 5mo agoAll four leads are flawless and I can't really think of a single bad performance.
- whateveracct 5mo agoSilicon Valley is also pretty good. I went in expecting not to like it (in a Big Bang Theory "about nerds but not for them" way) but came out loving it. It may read as parody to some but it barely is. It's a comedic but accurate take on west coast tech industry of the 2010s
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- intothemild 5mo agoThe best part of Silicon Valley was that it had a very south park quality to it.. in that things that were actually happening at the time were parodied on the show.
- intothemild 5mo agoSame. Having experienced the growth of computing in those eras, the show itself had a very well researched yet very nostalgic sense of "oh yes. I'd forgotten about that".
- Unai 5mo agoLee Pace is just bigger than life, and Mackenzie Davis is electric in every scene, but my favourite on the show was Scoot McNairy's character. A very specific type of nerd that's rarely written with such depth and nuance. Although I guess that could be said of all the main (and not so main) characters in the show. If anyone else loved these actors watching HACF, I would recommend watching The Fall (Pace), Fargo S3 (McNairy) and Station Eleven (Davis).
- timenotwasted 5mo agoYeah a truly fantastic show all the way through the end. One of my favorites by far.
- mchinen 5mo agoIt's special for sure. For those on the fence, it has some writing and direction flaws, especially with minor characters, like the disgruntled neighbor and IP theft bit in the first season. But it grows as a show over time, and the 5 leads (including Toby Huss) smooth the problems out with their talent and chemistry. They really captured the urge to build things in tech, and the problems that come with it. HACF, Silicon Valley, and The Soul of a New Machine are a trifecta.
- pico303 5mo agoDon’t forget Fire in the Valley.
- mandw 5mo agoI have to admit, when a specific person died I was feeling so bad about it I never watched the last episode. I still have it on the drive how many years later.
- GranPC 5mo agoYou should probs edit out the spoiler, or encode it somehow for others who haven't watched it yet!
- mistic92 5mo agoI still have it downloaded somewhere as wanted to watch it again. It was great
- _heimdall 5mo agoAgreed. This was one of the few shows that advanced the storyline quite a bit threw the seasons without jumping the shark.
- sph 5mo agoI don't get why it's so praised. Everybody says it's about the rise of computing, and all I got was a shoehorned romance story with computers in the background. Just like all those sci-fi shows where the sci-fi is only a background to family drama.
- rigonkulous 5mo agoI lived that era and personally had many of the experiences of the characters over the decades, so as I watched, I compared the show to my own experiences. So for me the love/romance aspect was just the network television layer I had to peer through, in order to find the marrow of the meal, so to speak. That said, it did have a fast attack, a moderate decay, but then a fast release, in terms of 'interest envelope', for me personally. I enjoyed the good bits while they lasted, and tolerated the soap opera in case there were dregs, all the way to the end...
- brookst 5mo agoAll good stories are about the characters. Genre-first gets old quick.
- cman1444 5mo agoThis is why a lot of my favorite shows/movie series are ones only a few episodes long, but which really give a good feel for the world they take place in. Bladerunner and HBO's Chernobyl are two of my favorites that fit this.
- burnte 5mo agoEven companies that create computers are still run by people, and the relationships of those people are just as impactful as the business decisions.
- protocolture 5mo agoI mean, for something you consider to be the background, it takes up a hell of a lot of the foreground. And the romance was more character drama about people making extremely irresponsible choices.