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- AMC
- Jun 1, 2014
- AMC
- Jun 1, 2014
Summary Set 1983, former IBM sales executive Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) recruits reluctant Cardiff Electric engineer Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) and programmer Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) to reverse engineer IBM's BIOS system.
Created By: Christopher Cantwell, Christopher C. Rogers
- AMC
- Jun 1, 2014
- AMC
- Jun 1, 2014
Summary Set 1983, former IBM sales executive Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) recruits reluctant Cardiff Electric engineer Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) and programmer Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) to reverse engineer IBM's BIOS system.
Created By: Christopher Cantwell, Christopher C. Rogers
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Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
69
77% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
23% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 31 Critic Reviews
69
77% Positive
24 Reviews
24 Reviews
23% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
The thrill comes not from the actual computer building, but the people doing the building. These characters are complex and well-developed, especially Pace’s fiery exec, who is a mesmerizing manipulator.
It all adds up to a promising, surprisingly lively and fast-paced drama that humanizes those early computer geeks.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 218 User Ratings
8.4
88% Positive
192 Ratings
192 Ratings
8% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
4% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 218 User Ratings
8.4
88% Positive
192 Ratings
192 Ratings
8% Mixed
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
4% Negative
8 Ratings
8 Ratings
Its been years since I've been invested in the characters of a TV show THAT much.
In fact Firefly was the last show that made me feel this way.
Now that I have finished watching the finale, there is a void that feels similar to finishing my favorite book, or my best friend since childhood moved away.
Its a feeling of loss, a big fat loss, cause something great is gone.
I love ensemble cast shows in general, but this one, this one is something rare.
It has character development that is flawless, ironically talking about a TV show that is about failure and the beauty and pain that comes with it.
Not one minute is wasted, the writing is superb, choices of music are perfection, the look is way cool and the acting is sublime.
One word to describe this masterpiece of a show: MAGNIFICENT !
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SEASON 1
I just caught up on this show and it's terrific! At first I thought it was aping Mad Men a little much, but it's transformed into an incredible drama that has both a great plot and amazingly complex characters. Just when you think you've figured out their relationships to each other, they surprise you in ways that don't feel forced or inorganic. Incredible show from top to bottom.
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SEASON 1
So far it’s promising without being riveting, with the potential to be Facebook--or Myspace.
There's a tentativeness to Halt's first hour--it doesn't end especially strongly--but overall, the drama has a mostly credible pilot and lead actors who will probably be able take the show in compelling directions.
While Halt and Catch Fire captures the professional and financial excitement and mystery of those days, before we knew computers would change the world, it also takes on the complex personalities involved.
So how is the Halt and Catch Fire pilot? Surprisingly good in some ways—and fairly typical in others. Surprisingly good in some ways--and fairly typical in others.
At least in the one episode sent to critics--Halt doesn't offer up complicated, three-dimensional characters. Instead, we get versions of familiar types pulled from the character storage room by the writers.
I absolutely love this show. I was literally addicted to it! 5 of 5 stars! Great cast. Lee Pace as Joe is amazing! You will love all the characters and the plot. They are now on season 2 and episode 2 comes out every Sunday at 9:00 pm.
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SEASON 1
Season 1 is very watchable but doesn't demand your attention. None of the characters are all that interesting and important characters (*cough* Joe) seem to make decisions on a whim, without any rhyme or reason. There were many great elements of the season, but it was unfocused and suffered by not settling on a direction. Mad Men fans will find some similarities in terms of the workplace atmosphere, Joe MacMillan, and "Shut the Door. Have a Seat," but it would be a shame to watch Halt and Catch Fire for the Mad Men similarities. Halt is at its best when it learns to distance itself from Mad Men and gives its characters room to breathe; in other words, Halt is at its worst when it tries to be Mad Men. It would have always been a knockoff Mad Men, even if only for coming second, but even at its worst, it was still entertaining, if mostly unnecessary and generic. Season 1 is a good dish-washing show; Season 2 is a good season, period, and the second half of the show is excellent.
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SEASON 1
1983, la préhistoire de la micro-informatique... c'était un véritable petit chaudron un peu (peut-être) comme peut l'être l'avènement de la réalité gerbuelle incessamment sous peu bientôt... ou pas. Un jour... La difficulté de créer et de lancer une nouvelle machine est admirablement rendue et restituée dans cette série, ce saut dans l'inconnu et ses ambitions démesurées, les défis et les sacrifices que cela comporte.
Ici, ça se passe à Dallas et justement, on se croirait dans "Dallas", ouais Dallas avec JR, Bobby et tutti quanti. Je me doute bien que les coups de putes, les entourloupes et les tours de passe-passe sont sûrement légion dans les entreprises américaines au taquet mais tout de même, les personnages de cette série sont tous dignes de jouer dans Dallas et non, ce n'est pas un compliment.
Cela signifie qu'on sombre dans une caricature permanente du premier au dernier épisode (de la première saison en tout cas !) et qu'à cet égard Joe et Cameron remportent la palme ! Voir tous ces personnages se faire de telles saloperies puis se raccommoder et se taper dans le dos, coucher et découcher, sabrer le champagne et que sais-je encore, laisse pantois et fortement dubitatif. Notez que les acteurs ne sont pas en cause et se révèlent tous excellents : le souci est à voir du côté de l'écriture outrée...
Peut-être est-ce spécifique au Texas me direz-vous : au Texas, on est comme ça : on profère des menaces de mort dès qu'on hausse le ton et quand on aime pas ces sales voitures japonaises, on fait une fête entre nous et on file des coups de masse sur une Datsun. Chacun son tour. On aime bien rigoler, ouais ouais.
Néanmoins, tous ces aspects excessifs participent au rythme sans faille de l'aventure d'autant que la mise en scène est assurément soignée mais on aurait aimé une approche plus sereine tout en restant un minimum réaliste. Là, on retient surtout que les gens de ce milieu sont tous des tarés et que les heures supp' (non payées) les rendent fous.
Ce n'est pas le réalisme mais la crédibilité qui prend un coup sévère sur la tête. On a trop souvent l'impression d'assister à une thérapie de groupe de névropathes dans Halt and catch fire. Espérons qu'ils soient vraiment guéris dans la prochaine saison.
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SEASON 1
Heartless and dull.
You keep waiting for the characters to do something meaningful, anything that matters really, and they never do.
I watched the entire season and don't care to have any of those people back in my home ever again.
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SEASON 1
I really wanted to like this show. I was a part of the period it depicts and it was a fun, crazy time when technology - especially hardware - was exploding. Everywhere you looked (in Silicon Valley) someone was doing something really, really cool.
The 1st episode was decent, though the characters were WAAAAY too cliche, so I was wary. But it wasn't so bad I'd stop watching, so I kept on with it.
Then, in episode 2, when the hacker chick rants about a 16 bit bus and a photo-realistic screen, I turned it off, and I'm done.
I get it that this is TV, and it's a fictionalized version of things. I get it that it's targeted toward today's audience. But the writing is horrible:
1) In the early '80s, there were no female programmers, let alone homeless ones who were as hot as Mary Stuart Masterson in "Some Kind of Wonderful".
2) No one hooked up the way she and "Steve Jobs" did.
3) No one demanded 16 bits. We were all too busy trying to get 8 bit to work.
4) No one used the term "photo-realistic". Character-based screens were the norm, CGA was cutting edge, and the original Mac's graphical UI was mind-blowing.
So, by dropping a 2014 femaie-cliche into a 1984 period piece, they've made it simply unwatchable. Very sad.
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SEASON 1
