Ending with a vast majority of people not even knowing it existed, Halt and Catch Fire was an excellent drama that displayed the life of computer scientists in the hardware bubble of the 1980's.
The first season feels a little slow, but starts with an ambitious group of friends engineering and creating their own personal computer, which they eventually plan to further develop and release to the market, competing alongside the giant that is IBM, and other smaller personal computing manufacturers.
Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), being both a visionary and engineer, is set on fighting the status quo and revolutionising the world of personal computing with his inventions, but it soon results in a race to fight off all competition, while ensuring no other company can access and reverse-engineer his.
The show focuses on the dramatic tension behind constant competition; the threat of owning a startup that could at any minute go under and fail to meet expectations as a result of lack of funding or concept theft. The characters find themselves in a tech bubble and battle royale.
While the first season's events can feel somewhat exaggerated for the purpose of the drama, the writing and character development remains tightly kept, with the show's ability to portray this world accurately in the front-line. It allows for an interesting watch if you're fond of the gritty, difficult lifestyle of computer engineering and boom of technology in the 80's.
