Halt and catch fire

[82atari5200]

I hate when period pieces make glaring mistakes. Watching the other day takes place in 85 and there they are playing a 2600jr. At the start of the episode which is supposed to be 83 there sits a 600xl.

[+SpiceWare]

That '70s Show had a C= 64 in '79.

[Omegamatrix]

I enjoyed watching Halt and Catch fire on Netflix, but you got to take it with a grain of salt. Particularity in how they seem to have written it for today's audience, because the characters in the story seem to obviously correctly predict all the big innovations (like the internet). The lense is a little bit too clear to be fully believable, but it is entertaining none the less.

 

 

I do remember when they were reversing the chip that the guy explaining the Hex value shown by the LED's had it wrong. He was saying it was 'B' instead of 'D'. That was the one I really noticed.

[DanOliver]

True.

 

To me they nailed the Gordon Clark's clothes, his home, etc. Reminds me of Games by Apollo days. Texas. Gordon's look reminds me of Steve Stringfellow at Apollo.

 

But the things that make it almost unwatchable for me are the big story elements. Way more interesting how all that PC cloning stuff went down than the contrived story line Halt has. And I really don't care for the portrayal of woman as engineers. It's sexist against both men and women at the same time which isn't that easy to do but they pulled it off. For whatever reason women were virtually absent from those events. And I never saw/heard any male ever say/imply women shouldn't be engineers. No one cared what sex, color or planet someone was from if you could get the job done. Maybe it happened at TI where Donna worked, don't know. No companies I knew cared if you had a degree, experience, what race, sex, etc. Halt's view that women engineers were discriminated against I think is way too simplistic. OK, what secretaries had to endure, probably accurate.

 

Men were the primary force in computer engineering and Halt portraying the 2 best engineers as women and all the men as fumbling morons...well I don't care for that kind of chauvinistic rewriting of history crap any more than when it's done to women, different races, etc. It's weak Hollywood crap just to try and broaden viewer appeal. I certainly do believe women can be great computer engineers and that Cameron Howe and Donna Clark are portrayed accurately as what women engineers could be...but it didn't happen (only a few exceptions). Blaming why this didn't happen on discrimination only adds to people thinking that's what the problem was/is instead of looking at and dealing with the real causes.

 

I didn't really see the detail mistakes that normally drive me crazy because I was already too tweaked by the story. Just too much Hollywood crap for me. I kind of tune out the story and like seeing the computers, clothes, etc., and have zero expectation that any of it makes any sense.

 

[MrMaddog]

I just hope the characters would stop being unsympitheic jerks which is why I stopped watching the show.

 

And I gave up on checking for inaccuries in any televised computer history because it makes me feel like the 11th Doctor after the time stream was changed... "Wrong...wrong....WRONG....."

[Stacy]

I loved watching season 1 and 2. I can't wait until season 3 starts this summer. I don't watch much TV but I love this series.

[phaxda]

i just finished watching season 1 and I like this show a lot. It's a soap opera for sure, but one set in a period that I remember well and came of age in. I used to read computer magazines in my school library and pirate games on the Apple //e and the show brings me back to those times. We didn't have a lot of money when I was a kid; in '83-'84 there was no way we were getting any computer or Atari, but even at the age of 10 I thought the ones we had at school were magic. I was too young to even think of the people behind the machines and for me this show kind of brings them to life. They wear the same kind of clothes (major props to the costume designers) my mom and dad did, the same type of music, the background of Reagan and the space program... it all kinda clicks in a weird way. I don't get hung up on the technical inaccuracies; it's just a fun story.

[kikenovic]

If these "inaccuracies" happen now, I'd hate to hear what other inaccuracies will be told in 20 years.

[jhd]

If these "inaccuracies" happen now, I'd hate to hear what other inaccuracies will be told in 20 years.

 

Watch any modern movie set in the Nineteenth Century (or an earlier time period).

 

As an amateur historian, I find it very difficult to watch (or read) historical fiction because I cannot ignore the anachronisms and genuine mistakes.

[dustfilledhobo]

If I look at the aesthetic overall, I love how everything looks in this show. I know there are mistakes, but I still get excited when I see a bunch of people playing games online using C64s. I'm not that interested in the story to be honest... it feels like a re-boot of Mad Men set in a different time period and in a different industry, but the drama and self-destruction of the main characters is the same (imho).

 

Anyway, the best part of the show is the theme song. Here's a link, just in case you haven't heard it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd85t-ph7s4

Edited March 17, 2016 by dustfilledhobo