One of the most memorable pop culture oddities of the 1980s, Max Headroom originated with a British TV movie titled Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future. Matt Frewer, who originated the Max Headroom character in 1985, is also set to return to reprise his role, so get ready for eerily perfect hair and frequent glitching. Deadline reports that AMC Networks is developing a reboot of the staple of 1980s pop culture with the help of Halt and Catch Fire co-creator Christopher Cantwell and producer Elijah Wood, whose company SpectreVision is attached to the project. In an environment characterized largely by complex, intriguing men, Halt offers up two of TV’s best female characters.Max Headroom is making a comeback. And, true to form, many of the best moments from the second season’s initial episodes center around the duo’s bantering. If nothing else, the show’s surprise renewal made me feel overjoyed that I would actually get to witness this plotline play itself out. Not to mention Gordon’s wife, Donna, who at first seemed to be filling the requisite “disapproving spouse” role, then proved not only to be shockingly supportive of her husband’s radical dreams but also a more-than-capable programmer who could run circles around her male counterparts.ĭonna quickly developed into my favorite character of Season One and putting her in a business partnership with Cameron at the season’s end was an inspired choice. Instead, the show quickly unveiled Cameron to be so much more than a cliché collection of “punk girl” attributes. Initially, the show looked to be following this template, with Lee Pace’s Joe set to be the visionary antihero, with Gordon acting as his more relatable foil and Cameron serving as the token “kickass chick” role. It’s a particularly great creative direction given that, while this current TV Golden Age has provided us many memorable and iconic TV protagonists/antiheroes, a disproportionate amount of them have been white men. Halt effectively honors their contribution via the characters of Cameron and Donna. Ironically, there were more women involved in tech in the ‘80s than there is today. Adding to this respectability, the show’s composer Paul Haslinger was a member of the 80s era incarnation of Tangerine Dream. #Halt and catch fire cast seriesMoreover, the show is also not averse to including music that, while not necessarily of the time period, perfectly captures the spirit of the series and its characters (“Red Eyes” by War on Drugs ends one episode and Suuns’ “2020” soundtracks a pivotal scene in the Season One finale). The second season premiere alone includes a song from Husker Dü’s seminal Zen Arcade. The first season features cuts by Talking Heads, XTC, Bad Brains, The Weirdos and Violent Femmes, among others. Music supervisor, Thomas Golubi? makes each episode feel akin to the experience of going through your cool, older sibling’s record collection. Luckily, the show takes great care in its approach to the decade, particularly when it comes to its musical choices. Cameron codes to the sounds of “Maniac”). It’s certainly easy to picture a lesser version of Halt complete with garish primary colors, shoulder pads and sequences set to the Big Hits of the time (i.e. Setting a narrative in the 1980s always carries the risk of visually catering to the more romanticized and broad view of the decade. The Creative Team Has Phenomenal (and Not Obvious) Taste in Music Currently, the ten-episode first season is available to stream on Netflix, and I would definitely recommend getting up to speed on what has quietly become one of the best programs on TV.Ģ. While Season Two begins with the core group fragmented, the opening episodes find the show’s creative team-quite the contrary-working in perfect sync and firing on all cylinders. This ragtag group included mysterious idea man Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), prodigious coder Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis), meek, yet resourceful engineer Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy), Gordon’s wife Donna (Kerry Bishe) and a good ol’ boy businessman named John Bosworth (Toby Huss) who becomes their unlikely ally. Set during the Texas tech revolution in the early 1980s, the first season followed a group of damaged dreamers attempting to capitalize on the recent boom by designing their own improved version of the IBM personal computer. While the series experienced a few creative stumbles during its inaugural year (the title was certainly an obstacle), it eventually honed in on its more promising elements, acquiring significant critical support in the process. Tonight, AMC will power up the second season of its tech-based drama Halt & Catch Fire.
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