Network: AMC
Episodes: 40 (hour)
Seasons: Four
TV show dates: June 1, 2014 — October 14, 2017
Series status: Ended
Performers include: Lee Pace, Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis, Kerry Bishé, Toby Huss, and David Wilson Barnes.
TV show description:
This fictional drama takes place in the early 1980s, roughly one year after IBM cornered the computer market with the release of its first major product. The title refers to the term for computer machine code instructions that cause a computer’s CPU to cease meaningful operation.
A hard-driving former IBM sales executive, Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) oozes charisma. He shows up at Cardiff Electric and essentially bulldozes his way into a senior position on the sales team. Once he has the job, he orchestrates a plan to reverse-engineer the flagship product of his former employer and build something better.
A once-promising engineer, Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) is sleepwalking through his life until the day Joe approaches him with his plan. Gordon longs for a redo of his past following the humiliating (and very public) failure of Symphonic, a computer he created with his wife which failed to turn on at the computer industry trade show COMDEX. After that traumatizing experience, Gordon reluctantly moved his family to his wife’s hometown of Dallas and took a job at Cardiff that’s far below his abilities.
Gordon’s wife is Donna (Kerry Bishé). Her parents are entrepreneurs who founded a high-end gadget company (à la Sharper Image) called Razor’s Edge. An accomplished musician, she found her calling in computers while attending the University of California, Berkeley, with Gordon. Though she’s resigned to her husband’s being mentally absent following the Symphonic failure, she fears that the new Cardiff project will result in the end of her marriage.
A volatile prodigy who puts her future in jeopardy by dropping out of college to join the rogue PC project, Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) is a shock to the system of conservative, old-guard Cardiff Electric. At 22 years old, she represents what is next in the world of computing and a slap in the face to the traditionally male-dominated 1980s tech industry. The product of a tumultuous childhood, she sleeps at the office, takes stuff from others’ desks, blasts punk music, sleeps with her boss Joe, and butts heads with Gordon.
John Bosworth (Toby Huss) is a dyed-in-the-wool Texan and old-school businessman who has spent the past 22 years building Cardiff Electric into a regional power. As senior VP, he runs the company’s day-to-day operations and finances for founder emeritus Nathan Cardiff. After Joe forces the company into the PC race, Bosworth keeps a wary eye on the interloper who will either make Cardiff into a tech powerhouse or a national laughingstock.
Episode #40 — Ten Swords
Donna celebrates a milestone with her closest allies. Cameron contemplates saying goodbye. Joe confronts an uncertain future.
First aired: October 14, 2017.
What do you think? Do you like the Halt and Catch Fire TV series? Do you think it should have ended or been renewed for a fifth season?
Love this show. I was there when these things were happening — Trash 80’s,Lotus Symphony, Apple IIE’s, PAC Man, Code Crunchers.Exciting. Love how the characters have evolved. Hope Cameron doesn’t show up with a rug rat.Renew.
Absolutely Love the show! Great characters, terrific screenplay and story, the last episode of season 3 was really deep! The best show for me this time, showing besides the drama how relevant all of it still is today – as on the note at the last episode. Please please please go for a season 4!!!!
Renew. I’m enjoying the topic and the interplay of the characters. Feels real for the most part but the infantile playing and lack of discipline of the staff seems a bit overdone. I understand free-wheeling, loose, but this place is totally insane. I understand why Ryan wanted to leave
Keep it going. It has been very engrossing and having lived through the history it is pretty accurate.
Great show. I loved it. There should be at least one more series, PLEASE
Love the show! I’m a baby boomer and it’s like reliving an invention that changed the way the world communicates. Awesome acting to boot! Please keep on keeping on!!!
please, please, give us back great story, characters, acting to us thinkers. shows I like always go away.
I’m not even a computer person and love this show. It’s fascinating to me to see how this industry grew, the entrepreneurs, their brilliance, their passion and the back-stabbing. Keep it going. People with high IQs need something to watch too. Just kidding. I have like an average IQ.
Started watching this in got into deep…Another good show is Mr. Robot go check that on demand for the first season.. It is about some hackers in New York
I’ve worked in IT Support since the early 80’s and relate to quite a bit of it, the storyline is excellent but as in other even more popular series some of the acting could be much better.
Saying that it never seems to slow down, the characters are very believable and their respective story lines are extremely plausible and entertaining.
Very under rated show, everybody I tell to watch it really like it.
Love it! My husband was in gaming/programming in the 80’s in Dallas so this show is something he relates to. Just wondering why it is not shot in Dallas. Because of no tax incentives?
Love the show. As a PC gamer, this show brings back a little bit of history. Do not cancel unless the final season concludes the story.
Love this show. Hope it returns
PLEASE, bring back H&CF for season 3!!! This series is awesome and brings back memories of the evolution of the computer. It’s so different than anything else on TV, but still very believable! Please keep it going AMC! Love Lee Pace! and the rest of the cast especially “Bos”. Would hate to see it abandoned so early and I just gotta know how it goes in Silicon Valley! (I’m sure I’m not the only one).
I hope this show comes back. I have watched it from the start and this year is so much better than last year. I think it is the writing. I want a 3rd season. Why is there little or no advertising for this show? If AMC doesn’t want it, what about Netflix, Hulu, or the CW or something. Let it grow.