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Shitenshi posted:And I'm probably full of poo poo on this one because my source is Wikipedia, but I'm pretty sure reverse engineering machines back in the day, even just for fun, wasn't illegal. It was in the "we can get sued for this" sense but not in the "we're going to jail for this" sense they keep repeating over and over again in this show. DominoDancing posted:Lee Pace's character just doesn't looks like he's out of the 80s at all, esepcially the costuming. This drove me crazy in ep 1 & 2, until I gave them the benefit of the doubt: he's the visionary of the group. He should look like the one guy who's fashion sense works in 2014 rather than the 1980s. I know they are setting up Cameron as the visionary, but she said "computers will be linked together over phone lines!" in the 80s as if that wasn't already a thing, which it was. WebDog posted:"It's gonna have a handle" Ok, I have to say I'm probably older than most around here, but my dad had one of the exact computers they are about to build in this show and yeah, it was exciting. It was basically a PC suitcase with a built in monitor and it weighed a ton, but it was a sensation at the time. My little stupid mind was blown when I saw it, at least. So far I am enjoying this show, although my one gripe is the technobabble. It's an odd choice. Either go pop tech and strip that stuff out so my mom can understand it, or go full-on realism and hire consultants who know what they are talking about and appeal to engineers. Instead it feels like they took this strange middle ground where the result makes no sense to the mass audience while causing a few major  moments for people who understand the tech.Also, Cameron's character barely exists now. In the 80s... yeah, no.
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Jun 16, 2014 08:47
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Huh I guess I missed that. I assumed this story was about the development of the Compaq Portable. When he talked about making the PC portable he said "we'll put a handle on it!" which led me there, plus the whole reverse engineering the BIOS thing. From Compaq's Wikipedia page: quote:Compaq Portable But honestly this show could be a big mishmash of a lot of different 80s tech stories.
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Jun 16, 2014 17:02
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I agree. I kind of reluctantly enjoy it for now, and it wasn't until the second episode that I forgot about my job and started just looking at this like anyone else would, and I enjoyed it more. For me its working more as a vehicle taking me back to the early 80s and some of my weird-at-the-time excitement about computers and technology, even though I was just a really young kid at that time. We got Byte at my house, my dad had that Compaq. I remember what writing code was like in 1985 vs. what its like now. My first computer was a C128, and later my neighbor's dad who worked at IBM brought one by in 1987 or so. So those aspects are pleasant for me. At least they are introducing some good, modern tv drama now, like the scars, and the man-kiss. Cameron's character is completely ridiculous as a female 80s programming genius, but the character works as boilerplate 80s rebel kid. It's all stupid, sure, but hell I'm curious where its going. I've been comparing this in my head to Pirates of Silicon Valley which was really more about the business than the technology, and I appreciate that they are at least trying to make the technology the center of whatever story they are trying to tell here. [edit] I should also say one aspect I like about this show is the tension between the sales and business guys and the engineers. Its so true to life. Its always a weird mix of respect and reverence, and disgust and pity. "We know we need you, but don't act like you have any idea what we do or I'll laugh in your face." Jake Armitage fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jun 16, 2014 |
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Jun 16, 2014 20:15
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That last episode was definitely a step up, mostly because it had a minimum number of technical moments. But I feel like these characters are so thin that every episode is basically just a couple scenes reiterating the same thing about them over and over again. * Gordon is smart but clueless, relies on wife to save his rear end or reign him in. * Donna is unappreciated in her industry. * Joe will do anything and spin his life any way he needs to in order to close a deal. Also, he has a mysterious past. * Cameron is brilliant but a loose cannon. Every episode just keeps hitting on those same points and this last episode I just kept thinking "for gently caress's sake we get it already". At least Gordon cleaning up his own mess was a nice changeup.
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Jun 30, 2014 16:57
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The costuming for Joe is really quite clever though. I've noticed they have been very deliberate in choosing his wardrobe from the subset of 80s fashion that has come back around in 2014. His knit tie, for example -- big in the 80s and just now making a return. It works really well to ground him in the present (or their future) without making him look like some sort of time traveler.
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Jun 30, 2014 23:00
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This show is definitely getting a lot better. The major characters are still weak as hell though -- honestly Donna's obviously upcoming infidelity subplot doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me right as her husband finally looks like he's doing something right. Gordon's B&E was just bizarre. And Joe's look how good I am with kids! scene was just the complete opposite of everything that came before, in my opinion. Last episode Cameron had the same complete 180 in character. The only one who's been consistent so far has been Bosworth, and he also seems like the only one with anything at stake.
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Jul 8, 2014 18:22
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geeves posted:Joe can only sell his vision; he has no ability to actually make it happen on his own beyond his own force of nature (yes, I've hard Joe is supposed to be a Steve Jobs-type). Joe cribs from other people's ideas (Gordon's article and Cameron's now interactive OS) and in that he comes across even more of an rear end in a top hat when he micromanages people about things he cannot fathom and also how he underestimates Cameron and Gordon. See this is one of the things I really like about this show though, because it rings so true. I deal with people like Joe every single day, guys waving their hands and making bizarre demands even though the people who know what they are doing are saying "not possible", and trying to take credit for things, "look what I built" or "look what we built" when they not only didn't build anything, they have no idea what the guys who did build it actually did. But at the same time, there is a reluctant respect and reliance for those guys, which is why Donna and Gordon hate Joe but respect him all the same. Cameron is just an idiot, but Gordon knows that without Joe's direction, whether he knows what he's doing or not, he'd be where he was the first time he tried this, which is nowhere. Just like all the programmers would sit around hacking Adventure or coming up with absurd ideas like giving a PC a personality at the expense of hardware real estate and limited memory for actual applications. That last episode was especially good because it showed something that's really real in this industry, that it all works because all of those different skills and personalities come together in a perfect blend and individuals either step up or get out of the way or compromise or whatever and then something magical happens. Sometimes. Factor Mystic posted:This is basically is whole schtick. I didn't look at it that way, but I think you're completely right now that you mention it. Jake Armitage fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Jul 8, 2014 |
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Jul 8, 2014 19:27
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Dang mang, she's the futcha I tell you hwut, ain't nothin' scarier than that.
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Jul 8, 2014 20:32
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Honestly I did not see that coming. I'm definitely glad it played out like that vs the other alternatives.
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Jul 14, 2014 04:21
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If they were dropping hints that Boz is gay, they went right over my head. I took it more as Boz saying two things: first, I'm not as stupid as you (Joe) think I am -- I totally read you like a book, and second, I got your back.
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Jul 14, 2014 20:32
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People really thought that last episode was good? It wasn't beginning of the season bad, but it felt like filler to me. The only part that had much substance was Boz but I can't get over how preposterous it all is. His transition from skeptic to true believer is feeling a little rushed, and what he's doing now... I mean we're talking federal crime here. Even Joe was like gently caress it, I'm out, but Boz just bends over like a champ? I didn't really buy any of it. And then the end:  I think at this point, they really need to end the season with something huge, something that makes this a series and not just a long miniseries.
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Jul 21, 2014 18:52
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Cingulate posted:Maybe I should not expect this to be a documentary. Well, since this is so fictionalized, they really have two options here, and 8 episodes in I have no idea which one it is. Either this is an alternate universe, and they are about to change the world with something none of us in this universe had the privilege of seeing, or they are another also-ran from that era that failed miserably and was lost in the garbage heap of history. Their vision for this computer jumped the rails of reality a few episodes ago, for sure. pentyne posted:this is the only chance for Cardiff to rise from obscurity. I get that, but it still seems like a dramatic thing to do, when the alternative is to just get another job. Basically exactly what Joe considered. He'd have to believe in this so deeply that he feels its worth it to spend a few years in pound-me-in-the-rear end prison waiting for this big reward at the end of the tunnel. The problem with that is, just moments earlier he's whining about how much they want to spend on shrimp at comdex. Next scene, he's surrendering to the feds. Jake Armitage fucked around with this message at 20:16 on Jul 21, 2014 |
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Jul 21, 2014 20:10
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hohum posted:It sounds like Cameron is inventing AOL More like Prodigy. Prodigy had games (which it seems the Mutiny coders are big on) and also had a deal for subscribers to get a modem when you signed up, if I remember correctly. That finale was... not horrible. The whole season was not horrible. Could have been better, but hell, I enjoyed it. But the finale was full of the same problem that really all of it was -- a whole bunch of forced "whoah" moments that make literally no one in the audience think "whoah". None of it earned, none of it really genuine. I think if the writers get their act together, they could create something really great out of what they started here, though.
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Aug 4, 2014 05:48
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Factor Mystic posted:Cameron lashing out and being a child and breaking things and spraypainting the walls isn't bad writing because it's completely within the bounds of the character as designed: a 20 year old college dropout hacker prodigy No, hypersleep is right. The "design" of this character is idiotic, and there is no way to write her well because of that design. I know people want to believe this myth of the hot, renegade, brilliant but troubled cowboy hacker but it is not reality in the least. Its like someone saw that mugshot of Bill Gates and ignored literally every other thing they ever heard about Bill Gates and imagined him as some rebel outlaw. Or they think Steve Jobs was the guy writing all the code at Apple because they never heard of Wozniak. It's not realistic in 2014, and it most definitely wasn't realistic in 1983. The kind of work she is doing requires experience and focus, but they chose to give that job to an inexperienced, unfocused mess, and we're supposed to believe that she excels at it. It has nothing to do with her being a woman, it has everything to do with her being an immature child with no experience "changing the world" at her first job, on her first project, alone, while throwing tantrums every other minute. The character is bad, so of course the writing is going to be bad.
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Aug 4, 2014 18:23
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