Having finally caught up on all those episodes of Total Divas that have been sitting on my DVR has provided me with ample opportunities to explore the depths of hip cable network's summer programing (spoiler: Comedy Bang Bang is awesome). With "..the Blurst of Times" I'll tell you all about whatever show I watched the night before, preferably at 2 in the morning while feeding baby girl.
Halt and Catch Fire is AMC's newest effort to cash in on some of that Mad Men skrilla. It's a fictionalized retelling of the power struggle between IBM and the PC clone pioneers of the 1980s. Until they come up with a TV show about the comic boom and crash of the 90s, I'm not sure there will ever been a show more in my wheelhouse. Too bad I found the pilot episode sooooo disappointing.
The three main characters in the show (pictured above) are such 2-dimensional stereotypes I'm surprised this wasn't written by Michael Bay. In fact 2-dimensional might be giving them too much credit. Basically the show stars Dickhead Steve Jobs, Family Man Steve Wozniak and Angelina Jolie from Hackers. It's almost cartoonish how clearly each characters personalities are written on their sleeves and how the writers are going to beat them into your thick PC using skull (I assume this was written on macbook airs). The plot follows Dickhead Jobs as he moves from IBM to some fictional computer maker with the intent of cloning the sacred IBM bios and revolutionizing the PC industry. Of course the only two that can help him are a sexy/punk rock know-it-all computer engineering drop out (who he screws in the first 10 minutes of the show) and a beaten down genius who's afraid to rock the corporate boat because he has a mortgage and kids.
I could feel my DVR unprogramming the show on its own when we're introduced to the plucky young engineer. Dickhead Jobs is questioning a room of students about the future of computing and LOW AND FREAKING BEHOLD SHE HAS ALL THE ANSWERS INCLUDING PREDICTING THE INTERNET AND SHE HAS A SWAGGER ABOUT HER THAT SAYS SHE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT SOCIETIES EXPECTATIONS.
Yes, the scene was acted in capslocks.
On a scale of Sandra Bullock's The Net (1) to PBS's Triumph of the Nerds (10), I'll give Halt and Catch Fire a Windows 2000. Yeah it's better than NT but none of your drivers work, so have fun with that.
3 comments:
Is The Net the good one or is Triumph of the Nerds the good one?
I was trying to humorously appropriate a 1-10 scale scale so the Net was a 1 and Triumph a 10. The best jokes are the ones you have to explain!
I completely forgot about this show. I remember seeing the commercials and deciding that I was going to watch it, but then I missed the first episode. After that, it just fell out of my mind.
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