Halt and Catch Fire: High Plains Hardware
June 16, 2014 7:07 AM - Season 1, Episode 3 - Subscribe

Joe tries to bring in funding, Gordon tries to fit hardware in a tiny space and Cameron finds the only punks in Texas.
posted by drezdn (21 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, if after last week's show you wished for a show that was less uneven, you got your wish: the show's not uneven any more, it's just all bad.
posted by Ian A.T. at 7:15 AM on June 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


I liked Gordon's storyline with the engineer that was acting like he was helping him, but was really actively sabotaging him.
posted by drezdn at 7:28 AM on June 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's amazing how badly Joe plays whatever game he's supposed to be playing... it never once occurred to him that his cantankerous cartoon rage-boss wasn't going to instantly fall in line for that meeting without even a heads-up? and he can't even keep his stupid face and expressions in check for a single meeting with an unlikable investor? What kindergarten helped him hone this business acumen?
posted by SharkParty at 8:52 AM on June 16, 2014


I sort of liked the flash of inspiration she got looking at her Black Flag tattoo but then it didn't go anywhere. Oh & now Joe is somewhat gratuitously bisexual? At least they didn't screw up the tech. I'm still hanging in there but I keep finding less & less reasons to do so.
posted by scalefree at 9:55 AM on June 16, 2014


> At least they didn't screw up the tech

They can't do a split & stacked motherboard as a small company on a short schedule because Intel and AMD wouldn't manufacture it for them? Those guys make the CPU and some peripheral ICs. Daughterboards/mezzanine boards weren't a new thing in '82/'83 either. Apple III had its memory on a separate card.

There's plenty of boring work in a BIOS. If you're stuck, do some of that. Shit, don't even worry about making the first one faster than IBM's. Just make it boot DOS and run Wordstar.

There are so many well-known hurdles to overcome that inventing new ones is nuts. How are you going to make a briefcase-sized PC portable without and LCD or EL display? The GRiD was $10k, not 1/2 of an IBM PC.

The only thing that redeemed this episode for me is Donna Clark.
posted by morganw at 11:24 AM on June 16, 2014


I think this episode was the third strike for me. I'd rather spend the hour on Sunday night watching Sopranos on Amazon Prime. Or doing dishes. Or emptying litter boxes.

Just too much is so forced. Everyone keeps getting sudden inspiration like it's the last five minutes of every episode of House.

And then throwing in the gratuitous OMG he's kissing a guy! And a guy is kissing HIM! And they are kissing each other! And STILL kissing each other! Maybe it will figure into the plot later, but it just seemed like something thrown in to spur water-cooler talk.

So... yeah... I think that's my last HaCF.
posted by The Deej at 12:03 PM on June 16, 2014


Only Cameron is legally able to work on the BIOS, and she isn't supposed to communicate with Gordon or his team at all.
posted by Small Dollar at 12:08 PM on June 16, 2014


So whats the consensus? so far it seems like this one isn't worth watching at all.

Because i was totally getting tired of this midway through the last episode and started just completely zoning out.
posted by emptythought at 3:25 PM on June 16, 2014


I think this episode was the third strike for me.

Me too. It just isn't working.
posted by homunculus at 3:26 PM on June 16, 2014


I would give up at this point despite my love of Lee Pace, but my partner seems to be enjoying hate-watching the show, with frequent pauses to critique the code and hardware. So god help us, i guess we're in it for a while.
posted by Stacey at 6:38 PM on June 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


Everything about Cameron in this episode was a very watchable farce.

The fact that she was surprised by the very presence of a paycheck even though she clearly and explicitly negotiated a salary a couple episodes ago....

The cartoon punxxx in the alleyway who would NEVER SELL OUT FOR A JOB... and who she treats to the most awkwardly shitty party maybe in TV history...

Her getting some kind of frantic idea from a messed up black flag tattoo...

Plus the whole mushbrained deal with the boss and the life lessons about bowling shoes...

She's just a whole flood of bad first-draft ideas about PUNK STUFF with no filter whatsoever.
posted by SharkParty at 8:03 PM on June 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


I'd be done with this show too because I really hate all the characters, but I want to find out what happens.
posted by ob1quixote at 8:52 PM on June 16, 2014 [4 favorites]


This whole episode felt like the lul in transition between a first and second act. For 44 minutes.

What was with the standing naked in the dark looking at competitors hardware. I feel like I'm supposed to be seeing him as Jobs meets Draper meets Patrick Bateman from American Psycho vibe.

I'm committed to this show at this point. I stick this out like I did agents of shield. And maybe like said, it'll surprise me just a little at the end.
posted by The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg at 9:41 PM on June 16, 2014


I love FanFare because I can now give my husband a blunt force legitimate reason for not liking this show: the technology does not stack up.

Armadillo murder should have been enough.
posted by arha at 11:56 PM on June 16, 2014


I don't think Joe "badly played" the meeting with Louise -- I think he intended to scuttle it by over-cooperating in the wrong way -- in this case, by recognizing her boytoy's closeted inclinations and going for it. That's parallel to how John scuttled Joe's meeting with the other VC, so it's tit for tat.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 12:33 AM on June 17, 2014 [5 favorites]


I should add, I spent at least half an hour Sunday night combing through the Black Flag Wikipedia entry trying to prove or disprove whether or not Cameron and her punk buddies could possibly have heard of Black Flag. I guess it depends on when precisely the story is set.
posted by ob1quixote at 1:36 AM on June 17, 2014


Black Flag were pretty well known in the Punk world by 1983, which is about when this show is set (I think). In fact, that was about the time they started to "go metal," losing some of their popularity among the true believers. But gutter punks in Dallas aren't exactly on the cutting edge...
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:30 AM on June 17, 2014


They can't do a split & stacked motherboard as a small company on a short schedule because Intel and AMD wouldn't manufacture it for them?

The guy who said that, at best, just wanted to stop trying to fit the computer into a small space , or at worst, was actively trying to sabotage it.
posted by drezdn at 5:39 AM on June 17, 2014


I don't think Joe "badly played" the meeting with Louise -- I think he intended to scuttle it by over-cooperating in the wrong way -- in this case, by recognizing her boytoy's closeted inclinations and going for it. That's parallel to how John scuttled Joe's meeting with the other VC, so it's tit for tat.

He stumbled on to that power move pretty late in the game. Prior to that he was just a grown man acting like a complete baby in someone else's house and still not getting a result.

Basically the only way he has managed to to solve any business-related problem this episode was to have some sex, so Gordon better get that motherboard working!
posted by SharkParty at 7:04 AM on June 17, 2014 [2 favorites]


Black Flag were pretty well known in the Punk world by 1983

I knew who Black Flag were in 1983 & I was hardly punk.
posted by scalefree at 9:36 PM on June 18, 2014




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