Halt and Catch Fire (AMC)
Premiered June 1 at 10pm
I’m always tempted to give AMC series the benefit of the doubt, since some of their most popular offerings – “Mad Men,” “Breaking Bad,” and “Hell on Wheels” – ended up getting much more interesting after their first episodes, which I didn’t love all that much. This one, unfortunately, might fall more into the category of “Low Winter Sun” or “Turn,” shows that proved far too dull and uninvigorating to be worthwhile. This show, set like so many of the network’s series in the recent past, is very into the idea of being hip, featuring dated looks and concepts and presenting them as vital and fresh. It wants desperately to be cutting-edge, yet it feels extremely forced. Lee Pace, who was so sweet and endearing as Ned the piemaker on “Pushing Daisies,” does a full three-sixty to play the oily Joe MacMillan, who can deliver the hell out of a sales pitch but negate it all with his selfish, overconfident attitude. I like Scoot McNairy, from “Frank” and “Monsters,” and Kerry Bishé, from “Virtuality” and “Scrubs,” and I think that they may be the best reason to watch this show as the smartest couple around. I don’t love the dialogue – “You work from now until the day you die” and the like – and the characters generally seem less than complex. This is a show that enjoys getting lost in the science of its not-so-futuristic technology, and I don’t know how much that concept really appeals given that we sort of know how things turn out.
How will it work as a series? Evidently it’s going to be an uphill battle for these three geniuses to be able to build their own computer and make it work just as well as the original. It should be an interesting story, to be sure, but I’m not sure its execution will be quite as enthralling.
How long will it last? At this point, maybe not so long. This pilot was available online for two weeks before it premiered, and therefore numbers were down considerably. It’s not the big hit that AMC wanted it to be just yet, and may end up much like another computer-focused drama that was a one-season wonder on the network, “Rubicon.”
Pilot grade: C+
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