My gut was right. Halt and Catch Fire is a far more engaging series than is TURN. I never did make it back to the latter before it disappeared. Unfortunately, I also started Halt and Catch Fire too late to plausibly make it through the series before it is gone.
It’s funny. I was surprised when I realized that all the characters in TURN are actually genuine, historical figures. While their roles in the American Revolution are, naturally, dramatized – the stories nonetheless have their grounding in fact. So when I switch boats, I assumed that the characters in Halt and Catch Fire were thinly-veiled representations of historical pioneers of the personal computer revolution. The more I watch, though, the more wrong I realize that assumption is.
While there are plenty of true-to-life events weaved through the Halt and Catch Fire plot, the characters are entirely contrived. Just when you think you’ve made some kind of firm connection, the story shows you you are wrong. Some have seen that it is the relationship between Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak that is portrayed by the two main characters – even as one of the characters admits to lifting a pep-speech directly from Jobs. The use of the legal “clean room” to clone an IBM PC BIOS suggests we are looking at Columbia Data Products and its MPC product. Fictional Cardiff’s leap into the market with a portable PC clone says we are viewing the a Houston-area computer start-up Compaq. Neither firm really matches the story and, as with Jobs, the competition from Compaq is explicitly mentioned in the show.
Instead, while the show is strongly anchored in the tech-world of the 1980s, it is best to see this as pure fiction with subtle historical references – not docu-drama. It is also a reminder that the story freedom arising from the freedom to create your own story offers you a potential of producing better art.
Better art this is.
The show was not a top performer with AMC’s audience, although it did well enough to run for four seasons. From the critics’ side of the house, however, it was highly acclaimed, praise that only increased with each new season.
At this point, only just starting Season 2 and looking at the calendar, it is hard for me to see how I could even get more than half way through it. Obviously, my impression of the series you are reading now was formed primarily from Season 1. That being the least favored of the four, I have to wonder if my own ideas aren’t a bit skewed.
Although I knew I was on the clock, Season 1 of Halt and Catch Fire was almost impossible for me to binge-watch. Although it was inconvenient for me as a viewer under Netflix’s gun, it is also a critical part of what makes this series succeed. I remember reading, somewhere, advice for aspiring writers; I think it was from Stephen King. He said, don’t be kind to your characters. The writers for this series have run with that advice. By the end of every episode, something really terrible was happening to one, some, or all of the main characters. It got so I just couldn’t take more than one tragedy every day or two – at most. As painful as it is, I have to acknowledge that Mr. King (or whomever it was) was correct.
A weekly show with a few light-hearted crises that always seem to work out by the bottom of the hour – this can’t possibly be engaging as something that seriously wraps you up emotionally; leaving you with problems for which there can’t possibly be a solution. Overall, this series has a lot more depth in this regard than I had ever expected it to have. The comparison is frequently made to Mad Men, this being an AMC show. While the comparison is appropriate, in many aspects, I don’t agree with the critics who say this is simply a reskinning of their prior show. It is worth remembering that Halt and Catch Fire came out right as Mad Men was wrapping up. In fact, I’d be willing to stipulate that my desire to watch this show was prompted by the trailers shown during Mad Men‘s commercial breaks. I do wish I’d moved on the desire a little quicker.
Surprisingly enough, Season 2 (so far) isn’t so traumatizing as the first season was. Maybe there is something wrong with me. When the stakes are your dream of changing the world with a new product and the risk is failing and having to return, humbled, to your 9-5 job, the stress factor was very high for me. When it becomes more personal (e.g. the gals trying to prove they can do it and do it their way), the price of failure doesn’t seem so high to me. After all, they’re young – they can always pick up and try again. Is it me being callous? Do I not appreciate that our true selves are emotional beings and its our state-of-mind and relationships that really matter?
It is just possible that the surge in critical acclaim was tied to the shift towards women’s issues away from the insider-politics-of-IBM themes. To explore this, I’d likely subject myself to spoilers – and its just not worth it. I’m willing to admit my own shortcomings in this. To me, a fight with the lawyers is more dramatic than a trip to Planned Parenthood. I’m also willing to admit I’m a bad person. Just please don’t tell me that the best season is already behind me.
et tu, Bluto? 
Pingback: Saratoga Things | et tu, Bluto?
Pingback: The Value of Information – How to get IT | et tu, Bluto?