Halt and Catch Fire 2014-2017

First of all before I start offering up my criticisms of this long 4 year series about the birth of the personal computer and the internet I have to say that I loved this show. Set in the early 80’s through the early 90’s in Texas and San Francisco the show focuses on 4 young people including several smart attractive women, a sexy bisexual male, a married couple along with an older man who invent and come together off and on and come up with the startling inventions and machines that we now know as the internet and personal computers. Its all fiction (yeah right) but based on fact and probably from what I can tell some real figures from the early years of  the computer age. I think the reason that it basically remained unseen even after a nice 4 year run and good to excellent reviews is that people thought it was going to be dry and didactic. Lectures about computers blah who needs it. Its very far from that. 

Wonderfully written and directed with a eye for romance and complicated relationships both in the work place and the outside world with a cast which was mostly unknown to me, a familiar face here and there but mainly young and unknown. All are terrific and with some beautiful leads including Lee Pace Mackenzie Davis and  Kerry Bishe along with Scoot McNairy who is not pretty but is one of the major brains behind all the inventions and gives a superb performance.  Also in the great cast is Toby Huss, Annabeth Gish and Anna Chlumsky along with small delicious turns by Jean Smart, James Cromwell, Annette O’ Toole and a 10 minute bit by Carol Kane as a fortune teller.                                  They are computer nerds and geniuses puttering away in garages but also making big deals in the board rooms and chambers of the infant computer world while having real infants of their own. They are able to connect complex wiring systems, to code serious programs and even  repair complex air conditioning systems but unable by and large to connect with each other on personal and passing connections. Marriages fail, both long and short, arguments and fights abound, friendships die and so do romances and family bonds if they even existed are scattered to the dry hot winds of the Midwest. . Families are in the front and center of the series that is not unusual and some of the characters carry scars both visible on their chests and in their minds and hearts that fester and hurt. There is a  bisexuality line that is light and almost invisible, and there are several gay threads that are also light and almost not visible which brings me to my main criticism of the show and its major fault as deep and visible as the one called San Andreas. How is the AIDS crisis never referred to is beyond me, I was not looking for “Angels In America” or “The Normal Heart” but this series takes place in the eighties and early 90’s in San Francisco and we not a cry or bit of anger over this disease taking place around and within but is invisible and not mentioned. I lived in California for 2 years in the early 80’s and visited San Francisco several times and AIDS was a big part of the scene and our lives, it is not there in this series. Yes there is a well handled but brief disturbing gay bashing and two of the female characters both realize that one of their young daughter’s is gay, handle it in a sweet and carefree manner and then move on. It is a real moment for sure and funny in the nonchalant way that says hey this is no big deal.  And oh yes Halt and Catch Fire “is computer machine code instruction which would cause the computer’s central processing unit to stop working.”   Easily  one of the best things I’ve seen on t.v. and is right up there with Six Feet Under, Mad Men, The Sopranos, Ozark, Giri/Haji, Shtisel and a few others. See this one. Now streaming on Netflix.