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

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381–390 of 408 posts

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

#381

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I have Lee Pace on the radar since Singh's The Fall. Your assessment of movie magic is only partially correct. Obviously, a character has to be convincing by himself but the heavy lifting of the illusion is done by the peer characters acting as if they believe the role he plays. "The king is always played by the others" Not sure who is to credit for this quote but in my opinion it is one of the most important insight…

Even though Pushing Daisies ended too abruptly, I thought he was GREAT in that series as well.

Yeah, someone saw a love struck pie maker and thought: Ronan the Accuser.

He has range!

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

#382
post #40

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You have a very different perception of 'human' than I do!

The 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.

That'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.

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

#383
post #122

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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.

It's terrific. Just rewatched it for a third time.

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

#384

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 scree…

Lee 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.

Dig 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.

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

#385

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 scree…

If you like Lee Pace, check out The Fall (2006). It's my favorite film, incredibly ambitious and funny and yet virtually unknown to the public. Lee's performance is incredible, as is his young co-star's.

If you like Lee Pace, watch Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies.

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

#386

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 scree…

He also stars in The Fall, one of my favorite movies ever.

And Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, two of my favorite shows ever.

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

#387

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 scree…

Are we watching the same clip? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

This is from the pilot and I watched it based on high recommendations, and I couldn't keep going because the character you're describing as so convincing and charismatic is so dramatically unlikeable!?

In this scene, he is:

* disrespectful and entitled with a coworker

* privileged and self-important about his background with a client

* then makes an admittedly pretty rousing speech, but TBH the show doesn't really trust us to understand that "this is meant to be inspirational" because it keeps cutting to the other character reacting "inspired", which is significant because

* he doesn't make the sale

* then proceeds to verbally scream abuse at the other character.

and then i'm supposed to be excited about watching the two of these start a computer company together? ..........why?

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

#388
post #374

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I don't see how it qualifies as a legitimate download or ownership. You cannot save the file to a disk you control and you have no way to ensure you have continued access to it. Apple or the IP holder can cause this "download" to dissapear from your device/account without prior warning. Its actually written in the terms.

Is a monthly subscription better? Few are willing to buy and rip physical media.

That's a problem for the "many" then to sort out. Everyone else that wants to own their media just uses Automatic Ripping Machine.

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

#389
post #220

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> Avoid seeing episode counts if at all possible I don't understand. How would knowing how many episodes there are have an impact on the show? (And the number of episodes seems just... fine?)

Rot-13 explanation: Gur frevrf unf cbvagf vg zvtug raq, ohg qbrfa'g, naq gura qbrf noehcgyl raq abg irel sne vagb vgf ynfg frnfba. Gurer'f n yvggyr rkgen wbl gb or unq vs lbh qba'g xabj dhvgr jura vg jvyy or bire (frrvat gur rcvfbqr pbhag ba gung ynfg frnfba, va cnegvphyne, fcbvyf gung). Vg'f abg yvxr gung ehvaf gur fubj be nalguvat, ohg vg'f n yvggyr orggre vs lbh pna znantr gb erznva oyvaq gb vg.

Nun, V frr. V npghnyyl gbbx n ybbx ng gur cybg naq V checbfrshyyl fcbvyrq gur raqvat bs gur fubj sbe zr, naq V jvyy abg or jngpuvat vg. V gubhtug guvf jbhyq or fbzr shaal zbpxhzragnel, ohg gur qenzn natyr jurer vg pbzcyrgryl ehvaf fbzrbar'f yvsr naq unf n qrcerffvat svanyr? Ab gunaxf.

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

#390
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lee Pace is a first rate actor but I could not recognize him or indeed, most of the characters in this show, as representative of their roles. I struggled to suspend my disbelief. The show felt like it was written by people who imagined what it must have been like rather than people who had any experience of it. I still enjoyed it somewhat. Not Silicon Valley good but okay.

I really liked the show despite Lee Pace's performance. Pace really nails the intense Jobs vibe, but having seen his other work, it seems like it might not be 100% acting. There's consistency to the off feeling he gives across roles. Gordon's role was probably the most setting accurate, but I do feel the story would have suffered if the entire cast was realistic to 80s standards rather than translated into late-2010s…

Almost no such thing as acting. It's all casting.

It seems fewer than 1 in 20 actors act, the rest are cast.

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