Lee Pace is just bigger than life, and Mackenzie Davis is electric in every scene, but my favourite on the show was Scoot McNairy's character. A very specific type of nerd that's rarely written with such depth and nuance. Although I guess that could be said of all the main (and not so main) characters in the show.

If anyone else loved these actors watching HACF, I would recommend watching The Fall (Pace), Fargo S3 (McNairy) and Station Eleven (Davis).

All four leads are flawless and I can't really think of a single bad performance.

Same. Having experienced the growth of computing in those eras, the show itself had a very well researched yet very nostalgic sense of "oh yes. I'd forgotten about that".

Silicon Valley is also pretty good. I went in expecting not to like it (in a Big Bang Theory "about nerds but not for them" way) but came out loving it. It may read as parody to some but it barely is. It's a comedic but accurate take on west coast tech industry of the 2010s

I have to admit, when a specific person died I was feeling so bad about it I never watched the last episode. I still have it on the drive how many years later.

It's special for sure. For those on the fence, it has some writing and direction flaws, especially with minor characters, like the disgruntled neighbor and IP theft bit in the first season. But it grows as a show over time, and the 5 leads (including Toby Huss) smooth the problems out with their talent and chemistry.

They really captured the urge to build things in tech, and the problems that come with it. HACF, Silicon Valley, and The Soul of a New Machine are a trifecta.

> Same. It shows the link between big oil and companies in Texas […]

E.g.,

> Texas Instruments was founded by Cecil H. Green, J. Erik Jonsson, Eugene McDermott, and Patrick E. Haggerty in 1951. McDermott was one of the original founders of Geophysical Service Inc. (GSI) in 1930. McDermott, Green, and Jonsson were GSI employees who purchased the company in 1941. In November 1945, Patrick Haggerty was hired as general manager of the Laboratory and Manufacturing (L&M) division, which focused on electronic equipment.[14] By 1951, the L&M division, with its defense contracts, was growing faster than GSI's geophysical division. The company was reorganized and initially renamed General Instruments Inc. Because a firm named General Instrument already existed, the company was renamed Texas Instruments that same year.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments

And how it got in contact with military contracts:

> TI entered the defense electronics market in 1942 with submarine detection equipment,[41] based on the seismic exploration technology previously developed for the oil industry. The division responsible for these products was known at different times as the Laboratory & Manufacturing Division, the Apparatus Division, the Equipment Group, and the Defense Systems & Electronics Group (DSEG).

* Ibid

Oh I'd never connected this. It makes so much sense. I'd always wondered what Texas had to do with computing that made so many things start there.

Huh. I haven’t rewatched the show, but when I saw it originally - admittedly shortly after watching Mad Men - I thought “this is trying to be Mad Men, but it’s the '80s and in the computer industry” and interpreted Lee Pace as a laundered Don Draper.

The show is much more, and much better, than that though. I’m glad I kept watching.