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Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

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Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#121

Post by tptacek »

klausa wrote: post #115
caycecan wrote: post #84

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/tt2…

The showrunner/creator of Patriot has a new show launching in a couple of weeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTF_St._Louis

Steven Conrad also did Perpetual Grace Ltd (he also wrote the screenplay for Pursuit of Happyness, which is the scariest movie I've ever seen).

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#122

Post by klausa »

tptacek wrote: post #121
klausa wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The showrunner/creator of Patriot has a new show launching in a couple of weeks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTF_St._Louis

Steven Conrad also did Perpetual Grace Ltd (he also wrote the screenplay for Pursuit of Happyness, which is the scariest movie I've ever seen).

I need to get around to Perpetual Grace; I've watched the first 15 minutes of it like four times and always ended up bouncing off of it for one reason or another; but I know if I got into it, I'd probably really dig it.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#123

Post by hola-tamale »

npunt wrote: post #111
hola-tamale wrote: post #12

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...

Great read! Agree with the themes & tensions you identify.

Thank you! It's difficult to convey an environment where everyone wants to be right instead of finding the right answer, while the company accelerates towards a wall

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#124

Post by caycecan »

J_Shelby_J wrote: post #95
caycecan wrote: post #84

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/tt2…

Scavengers reign is from the same people as common side effects. Both shows are amazing.

Joe Bennet, right?

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4497617/?ref_=ext_shr

I will binge anything he makes with the double bullseye of these shows

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#125

Post by tptacek »

klausa wrote: post #122
tptacek wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steven Conrad also did Perpetual Grace Ltd (he also wrote the screenplay for Pursuit of Happyness, which is the scariest movie I've ever seen).

I need to get around to Perpetual Grace; I've watched the first 15 minutes of it like four times and always ended up bouncing off of it for one reason or another; but I know if I got into it, I'd probably really dig it.

Same!

Funny thing about watching Patriot for the first time: my sister in law showed up on it. We had no idea. Just all the sudden there she is on my TV. She's the mute cop, Sophie.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#126

Post by caycecan »

tptacek wrote: post #119
caycecan wrote: post #84

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/tt2…

Patriot is amazing, more people should watch it, everyone I know who has was enthralled by it. Counterpart was great but structure made it hard for to watch knowing it'd been cancelled. Scavengers Reign was great; I couldn't get into Common Side Effects. Evil is exactly the Catholic X-Files, which is an amazing concept, but by the end of the 2nd season it is all the way off the rails and hurtling into a canyon. Given…

Adding it as well

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#127

Post by mikestorrent »

dakolli wrote: post #104
mikestorrent wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider 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 jus…

Idk 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.

Interesting 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.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#128

Post by kQq9oHeAz6wLLS »

deaddodo wrote: post #100
ai_critic wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The 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.

Yeah, 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.

I lost interest in the second season. S1 was great, though.

Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)

#129

Post by mikewarot »

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.

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