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goobster  ·  1610 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My new coup de coeur of a series

Another rowdy and whole-hearted endorsement for Longmire and Halt and Catch Fire.

Anybody could love Longmire. It's just an excellent story with fascinating characters, and is really well acted. I wanna know these people.

Halt and Catch Fire is about a VERY pivotal time in my life, when the computer industry boom was just starting in the late 1970's, early 1980's. Even if the subject matter isn't of interest to you, they do an utterly astonishing job of recreating the 1980's as they actually were, and it was the beginning of a cultural turning point. Prior to this time, the only "interesting" or "cool" geeks were astronauts from the Apollo program.

In H&CF, the geeks finally come up with something everyone else wants, and catch the eye of salespeople, marketing people, executive businessmen. And the culture clash between these geeks who just want to make something pure and perfect, and the "business types" who see a product to market and sell, is very much the initial spark that got the world where it is today, in an eternal battle between art and marketing.

These tech guys were artists, and their art was stolen by the businesspeople.

Sound familiar?

H&CF is not fast paced or shocking or tantalizing. It is just a great story, told well.