A new drama, Halt and Catch Fire, will debut on AMC on June 1st at 10:00pm ET. The first episode is available online for those who don't want to wait.

http://www.amctv.com/shows/halt-and-catch-fire



Looks like it has a lot of potential.


On a side note, I have a particular interest in the show because I was an extra episodes 1, 6, and (I believe) 10. I certainly won't spoil anything, but in episode 10 (I could be totally wrong on the number - we'll find out eventually), I was cast as a celebrity look-alike and was slated to have a "featured" extra role. There's a party scene and I was going to do a crazy dance. Unfortunately, after a whole day of filming, when it came time to do the dance part, the director nixed it. I'm still in the episode, but just as someone at the party (though still in my look-alike character). If you see someone who looks a bit familiar, though, it's probably me. If anyone cares after the episode airs, I'll give more detail, if there's any info that might be interesting.

In the other two episodes, I'm just a dude in the background. I doubt I'll be seen in the first episode, but I think I have a good chance to make a split-second appearance in the other one.

Got a chance to chat briefly with the lead actor, Lee Pace, during a couple breaks in the aforementioned episode filming. He was very nice and he was, at least during filming, very convincing as the character he was portraying.

looks terrific

cameron is ridic photogenic

and lee pace is the GOAT

Def gonna watch.

Watched the first episode early, as I'll be traveling when it airs.

Very, very solid. One of the things that either draws me in or makes me tune out after even just a couple episodes is character development. Do I care about what the hell happens to these people? I thought the writers/actors did a great job at making me care. The character development was integrated very well within the episode - at times, their back stories were just straight-up told out loud (by characters, not voice over), but it fit in well with what was going on.

This could be a really, really good show.

Side note 1: I did make an appearance in two scenes, classic background stuff. It's like, "There I am! And there I go..."

Side note 2: fanerio commented on Mackenzie Davis' looks. She is quite good looking in person, but the time I saw them both together, Kerry Bishé had her beat AINEC.

Side note 3: For you Atlantans, the movie theater in the episode is the Majestic on Ponce. I don't remember if the name of the theater was CGI, but I think it probably was. The marquee was real, though. The Mexican restaurant where Joe, Gordon, and Cameron have a meeting is Pancho's on Buford Highway. Not coincidentally, those are the two scenes in which I'm a blur.

1st ep is on demand

I'm not super interested in this but I'll give it a shot because, AMC.

I watched this, it held my interest. Lead is mysterious, like the Don Draper of computers maybe.

If it's supposed to be Texas, seems like they could film it in Texas.

Back in '83 my Dad bought one of the first IBM PC clones. It was called a "Corona". As I recall they ended up getting sued by IBM for ripping off their IP. The subsequent clones from other companies were engineered by people that had never been "tainted" by looking at the actual workings of the IBM PC. Lotta good memories from that era. I had 2 half-height 5 1/4" floppy drives a 20 meg hard drive, RGB monitor and a 1200 baud modem. I was the happiest kid in town.

Good enough pilot that I have no problem giving the show pretty much the entire first season

LOL reverseengineeringmentz.
Where the f*** are the Intel 80x88 databooks?

$pike [former Silicon Valley HW tech, 1983-2000]

Also, THIS was available in 1983, as opposed to LED gordian knots:

Yeah, I could see it going off the rails but it's got potential. Hated the extras though, woat extras.

I enjoyed the he'll out of the 1st episode.

Please tell me I'm not going to have to pretend to be smart enough to understand posts like this in order to enjoy this show.

I liked it, but it was very ambitious to roll at that speed, and it's filled with a lot of babble. The Texas accents were pretty laughable, but what do you expect (the funny part is the guy who's actually from Texas has no accent in the show)?

I can't see any way this is going to connect with audiences, though, and its first episode ratings bear that out. Hopefully it will be a good single season show, or they figure out some way to move it to Sundance Channel.

Guy is a real two-pump chump.

First episode tried a bit too hard at times, but I felt that way about FX's Fargo too, and that's since turned out great.

One thing that has me concerned is apparently (according to Sepinwall) AMC opted to only send out one episode to critics in advance. Hopefully the quality doesn't nosedive from here.

They were probably re-cutting the show. I don't think it's a quality thing, more a story thing to probably try to see if they could speed it up.

I think this show is really compelling so far, and well worth watching. It moves a little slow, but it still works well. I thought it was funny that the director got bored in the second hour. I don't think I've ever seen so many pointless dutch angles.

I like it so far. The show's pace is fine for now I think.

First episode was great and I loved it. Second episode was okay but showing cracks and could have some potential wrong turns forming. Lead character is too much of a psycho and could destroy what I have liked so far. Also this is a strange thing to try and fictionalize since the history of computer evolution is pretty well known.

Agree 100% with ^

liked ep 2 way more than pilot

Just caught up with episode 2. Yeah, didn't like it quite as much as the first episode, but thought it was still good. Definitely an intriguing show. Though it's not perfect, it has me wanting to tune in to see what happens.

I did not see IBM's raid of Cardiff coming - that was cool. I also thought the sudden sob speech in the parking lot was odd, but then the twist at the end made it make sense.

I just hope what Joe "really is" is face-melting (or at least super interesting), because the build up is already pretty huge.

Count me among those who thought EP2 was a step down, and keep in mind I thought EP1 was good but not great.

I feel like they're too focused on having "wow" moments and cool scenes, but at the expense of a well flowing narrative.

But I liked the wrinkle at the end of EP2 about how they'll differentiate their PC, and between that and my interest in the subject matter in general I'll give it at least a couple more episodes.