So, I don’t know how many of you have been watching the new series on AMC named “Halt and Catch Fire”. To briefly get you caught up, it’s a fictional story that takes place in the early 80’s when Apple and Microsoft were newbies to the scene and IBM was the dominant company owning the mainframes of business. It tells the story of taking the computer and getting it into the homes of all of us.
So last night episode 8 (of 10 this season) aired and it FINALLY had some payoff. I had extremely high hopes for this show and the ONLY reason why I even hung on for this many episodes is because I am such a computer geek.
This has always been a reason why I favor movies over television. In film, the story needs to quickly get established, and your main characters need to get defined immediately. On TV, you can slowly introduce character traits as needed to help push the story along.
If you can watch this series on demand, and can watch seven hours of setting up characters, then I would say go for it. There are some interesting mentions of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, and some great insights into the process of taking a computer and making it into the personal devices that we all enjoy today.
Since this show comes from the same network that has brings you The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad, I fully expect them to expand into some very creative story lines that will tie in nicely to our current understanding of technology. That’s one of the best things about telling a story that took place in the past, you have many ways to logically insert ideas (by the characters) that are taking place commonly today.
So, I’m hoping the final two episodes continue to reward all the previous time invested in watching this program, and that we get a few more seasons out of this quirky and compelling show.
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