Review: Halt And Catch Fire Premiere

Halt And Catch Fire on AMC Sundays at 10pm.

NOTE: This review is relatively spoiler-free, touching on details that were found in trailers and commercials.

AMC has been heavily promoting Halt and Catch Fire for months, especially during episodes of Mad Men.  From the commercials, they make it very clear that it’s about a group of three people who set out to reverse engineer an IBM PC in 1983.  Being a common geek, the concept alone grabbed my attention.  AMC’s attempt/success at making it sexy and exciting is what is going to win over a mainstream audience.

In the premiere episode, former IBM employee Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) shows up in Texas in 1983 with a mission: To reverse-engineer an IBM PC and make his own, non-patented version that he can profit from.  Without going into spoiler territory, I’ll just say that he picks both Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) and Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) for very specific reasons.

MacMillan’s character is sharp as a tack, treating the entire situation like a game of chess, with him as the king, organizing all his other pieces into a strategic position before getting ready to strike the opponent (IBM).  Lee Pace, who I know mostly as Ned, the gentle-hearted pie maker from Pushing Daisies, plays such a different role on this show, and he absolutely nails it playing a strong, confident businessman.

Though she doesn’t get the most screen time in the premiere, I think the other stand-out in the premiere is Mackenzie Davis as Cameron.  She is so intelligent and future-focused that her technology classes in college bore her, and we’re lead to believe that no one takes her ideas about the future of technology seriously.  Add a little punk rock attitude to the character, and she has an interesting dynamic with everyone she’s interacted with so far.

Halt and Catch Fire comes out of the gate VERY strong.  The setup is for very fast-paced, exciting storytelling.  I’m interested to see where the story goes, because we all know it’s not going to take forever for them to accomplish their goal with how smart the team is that’s been assembled.  Wherever that story takes them, I’m definitely willing to continue tuning in to find out.

Halt and Catch Fire airs Sunday nights at 10pm on AMC.