Halt and Catch Fire Season Three

[Push The Button]

I was starting to wonder if this was ever going to happen, but here it is (scroll down for the 30-second trailer):

https://www.yahoo.com/amphtml/movies/halt-catch-fire-season-3-221408070.html

Halt and Catch Fire two-hour season three premiere, Tuesday August 23rd on AMC.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

I can't wait! I've been meaning to post about its return but kept forgetting to do so.

 

[auntiehill]

Hooray!! I thought it was a goner for sure.

 

[1001001]

Sweet!

Love this show.

 

[Push The Button]

Hooray!! I thought it was a goner for sure.

The second season was better than the first, but overall viewership has always been low, even by basic cable standards. I never thought it was going to see a second season, nevermind a third.

I guess the whole "Silicon Prarie" angle is dead and buried, now that everyone has moved to California. Could this become the serious version of HBO's Silicon Valley? Think of how big PCs and gaming were starting to get in the mid to late 80's, along with dialup services like Compuserve and (later) AOL. It was an exciting time, I hope the show does it justice.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

A nice review of the upcoming third season. Warning, some spoilers in the review.
http://www.redeyechicago.com/tv/redeye-halt-and-catch-fire-season-3-review-20160817-story.html

 

[wayoung]

Hopefully they drop all the melodrama BS and focus more on, well, everything else. It's a fantastic cast and a good premise but it likes the soap opera plot lines a bit too much. As is the idea that these four people are responsible for all of modern computing, from portable PC'S to Steam (essentially) to online chat rooms.

 

[sojourner]

But that's not really what the show is saying. They aren't "responsible" for any of those. If anything, the show is telling the story that there were thousands of people back in the day with great ideas that were beaten to the punch by others with the same ideas or better.

 

[wayoung]

..They still did all those things on the show, whether that's what the show is "about" or not. They invented the portable PC in the first season. The second season they invented online gaming (with mutiny), chat rooms (with community), and custom built PC's. It's a little ridiculous. That said, those are still better than the cliché soap opera cheating storylines, brain tumour, daddy issues...

I enjoy the show, as I said the cast is fantastic, but it has the same issues that all AMC shows seems to have now. It's like they all recieve the same network note "More DA-RA-MA."

 

[sojourner]

Do you know how many companies back in the day "invented" those things? Computer magazines back then were rife with companies selling the same "inventions".

 

[wayoung]

You're ignoring that these are supposedly the origination of these ideas, not the thousand rip offs - a major plot point in the second season is Gordon freaking out over the people doing exactly what you are referencing above - stealing his ideas and advertising them as their unique creation in computer magazines. It's clearly established in this show that these are the creation of these ideas , not clones of them

Yes, it's common for adaptations to simplify stories by reducing the number of people involved in any one discovery to a manageable number, but at this point these four people are the originators of so many technologies that my suspension of disbelief is blown. Use a laptop? Thank these four people. Play a game online? Thank these four people. Used a chat room? Thank these four people.

 

[sojourner]

No. it's an example of concurrent development. It happens all the time in the computer industry. Everyone having the same ideas at the same time. Do you think Compaq was the only company to come up with the "portable" computer? Check out Kaypro. They had essential the same luggable design at the same time.

 

[wayoung]

We aren't seeing any concurrent development - where's the competing online gaming service? Where's the competing chat room? Was all of Compaq's and Kpro's tech invented by the same four people while working for multiple companies? We're those four people also inventing a big chunk of modern Internet usage?

Half this show is the characters gushing over how unique and brand new the products are. We're being shown the first of all these this things, which are miraculously invented by the same four people working together.

If that works for you fine, but I don't see the point in your denying that that's pretty extreme stretch if suspension of disbelief for other people.

Edit: In fact, the only concurrent development we've seen in the show has been expressly presented as IP theft. The rip off of the computer in the trade show, Gordon's custom PC being ripped off, and didn't Lee Paces company steal some of Mutiny 's stuff in the last season? I can't remember exactly. The o Ly genuine concurrent development we saw was the Macintosh OS being similar to Cameron's OS that Lee Pace and Gordon got rid of, and even then only in that it "talked" to people.

 

[Push The Button]

Compuserve predates the fictional Mutiny by several years, and Quantumlink (which later became AOL, and seems to be what the writers are modeling Mutiny after) started in 1985. Also, I believe that Compaq exists in the show's universe, so their early portables would have been contemporaries of the Cardiff Giant.

I don't think the producers are implying that the four main characters were the very first to develop these products and technologies, only that they were close to the beginning, and working on them at the same time, along with like-minded people at a thousand other startups. As with everything else in life, the strong survived, and the weak were acquired by the strong, or went bankrupt.

Edit: Cameron mentions both Compuserve and Quantumlink in the season three premiere, as being current (in 1986) competitors.

 

[Saga]

i'm so looking forward to this. i thought for sure the second season would be the last.

 

[sojourner]

On my DVR Talking Dead was listed as two hours. Turns out the second hour was really the first hour of Halt and Catch Fire's new season.

 

[Push The Button]

On my DVR Talking Dead was listed as two hours. Turns out the second hour was really the first hour of Halt and Catch Fire's new season.

Soujourner, thanks for the timely heads up, and what a pleasant surprise at the end of an otherwise stressful weekend. I had tonight's "two hour" Talking Dead captured on the DVR by default, but wasn't going to watch it, since I despise Fear The Walking Dead. Now tonight feels like Christmas morning.

 

[Green Shirt]

I fell asleep halfway through the first episode, the highlight of which was dust falling on the mainframe. I hope the story picks up, or it could be worse than the 2nd season.

Where is Joe? He drives the show.

 

[auntiehill]

Missed that last episode, then? Joe showed up, in a big way. It's like he's Steve Jobs pushing MacAfee.

The scene with Joe and Gordon during the deposition proved one thing: Joe is still a dick who loves screwing with people's heads--now he's just a successful one.

 

[Green Shirt]

Finally got to Joe. Looks promising.