Earlier quoted context omitted.
40-episode box set is $30 ($16 today) on Apple TV.
Also free to watch on The Roku Channel: https://therokuchannel.roku.com/details/523a290683575d449483...
Also free to pirate for LLM training purposes
Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
371–380 of 408 posts
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#372Earlier 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.
I like the fact that it's the wrong years for the idea to succeed: Kind of like with the Newton, they are going into visionary ideas when the tech or the market isn't there. There's a lot of companies out there that fail because they go in too early to have good execution.
1000%. One of the big reasons I love Halt & Catch Fire is because their reach exceeds their grasp and they were too early for the ideas they dreamed of. I wrote a piece, partly inspired by the show, on category-defining products and how many factors have to line up for a product to become category-defining:
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#373I 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.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#374Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait, so it's actually a standalone, DRM-free download? If that's the case, then while the term is still somewhat misleading, it's considerably less so than I assumed.
Not DRM free, but unlike most streaming services Apple TV will download purchased media via different countries or VPNs and has no time limit to watch the download. In practice, it "just works". Buying all 4 seasons individually would be 4x$13=$52.
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.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#375Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny that this came up today. Last night I started re-watching the series after several years. Just this afternoon I was reflecting on how genuinely charismatic Lee Pace's Joe McMillen is. You really feel it. Even when we know he's a manipulative sonuvabitch. It's mesmerizing. You have to admire his ability to spin shit into gold. The man has vision. There's a sequence around S01E07 that I'm looking forward to reach…
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Indeed. And not only do they focus on this but the execution is just so beautifully spot on.
As others have mentioned it might even get too spot on on occasion.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#376Earlier quoted context omitted.
Scroll past the subscription options to find the full series listing. "Box Set" licensing terminology is as anachronistic as "Seasons", but both are used in Apple TV product listings for non-subscription streaming media purchases.
I'm not seeing anything anachronistic about either term. "Seasons" is absolutely aligned to the way television series are still produced and distributed. "Box Set" implies physical media. Using the latter term to refer to something else sounds like a case of false advertising.
With the advent of digital music, "record album" morphed from referring to the physical medium, to referring to the recording that would be put on it. I think something similar is happening for "box set".
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#377Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're making me really want to start a rewatch. It's shocking how few people have seen this show, let along watched it. Part of that probably has to do with how inaccessible it is on streaming. It's only readily available on AMC+. And no one has AMC+. This is one of those shows that would likely shoot to the top if Netflix got the rights to it and even did a mild push. It's genuinely peak prestige TV.
> It's shocking how few people have seen this show, let along watched it Huh?
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Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#378Lee 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…
Funny that this came up today. Last night I started re-watching the series after several years. Just this afternoon I was reflecting on how genuinely charismatic Lee Pace's Joe McMillen is. You really feel it. Even when we know he's a manipulative sonuvabitch. It's mesmerizing. You have to admire his ability to spin shit into gold. The man has vision. There's a sequence around S01E07 that I'm looking forward to reach…
Well said, I rewatch it every few years and few shows come close to making me feel the way this one does.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#379Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not DRM free, but unlike most streaming services Apple TV will download purchased media via different countries or VPNs and has no time limit to watch the download. In practice, it "just works". Buying all 4 seasons individually would be 4x$13=$52.
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.
Re: Halt and Catch Fire: TV’s best drama you’ve probably never heard of (2021)
#380I 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…
I 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