Halt And Catch Fire ended last week, and ever since I’ve been sad. It was made for the me, that show, with it’s 80’s/90’s cultural nostalgia and plot that steadfastly refused to allow any of its characters lasting happiness or success. You rooted for all of those characters, because they had huge ideas to do important work, and your heart broke each time one of those ideas ended in underestimate-the-competition or overlook-the-wrong-variable failure. I identified with the show so much that I made its theme my ringtone.
The quality of the stories we consume plays a significant role in the quality of the stories we can conceive and tell. So I’ve been cataloging my shows, the ones I have watched to the end and the ones I will.
Halt And Catch Fire
Deadwood
The Wire
The West Wing
The Leftovers
Les Revenants
The Walking Dead
Fear The Walking Dead
Mr. Robot
Game of Thrones
Stranger Things
The Americans
It’s a larger catalog than I thought I possessed, and there’s not a comedy to be found in there. Most of it is dark and complicated.
I’m not sure what to make of that.
From my running list titled “Video I Would Own”:
Breaking Bad
Studio 60
Battlestar Galactica
Sherlock
The Newsroom
LOST
The Sopranos
Sports Night
The West Wing
Six Feet Under
Firefly
Being Erica
Deep Space Nine
Parks & Recreation
Mozart in the Jungle
Gilmore Girls
Game of Thrones
White Collar
Chuck
In this age of streaming, I’d like to have these series in physical form sitting on my shelf like old, rare books. Each of them have characters tilting at windmills, hoping to make the world a better place or, maybe, discover one that is. HACF will likely be added.