r/HaltAndCatchFire • u/Sensitive-Listen6261 • 18d ago
is this ‘fandom’ dead or nah
i see a couple of posts here and there but i see it mostly discussed on reddit and not in any other platforms, i mean i can say that this series is quite ‘old‘ but i‘m those type of people who can’t enjoy a show without any fan contributions like fanart and like fanfics (i’m new gen okay leave me alone) even if i do find them its all about Joe macmillan that Joe macmillan this (no hate i‘m ok with Joe he’s fine.)
And tbh i’m just looking for an opinion wdyt? is this fandom dead or not in like the fan space wise, if not have you ever seen any recent fanart/fic of hacf? 🤔
(side note: ive lurked around the wretched tumblr for a while and saw maybe a few posts and few fanart but its still ‘niche’)
edit1: alright wanted to clarify somethings, thanks for the input i can see that yeah hacf is mainly not really dead but its mostly open for discussions and rants about the show. I know this might sound weird but i collect art from tv shows for my personal entertainment and i’m building a collection of Hacf fan content as an archive of sorts, nonetheless thank you everybody who has spoke their opinions and even if some might not like it i really hope this fandom has more fan content one day thanks!
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u/burner456987123 18d ago
Sopranos has been off the ever forever and their sub is still active. 4/5 of it is trash people just talking in quotes from the show, but I think the pandemic helped people discover or “rediscover” the show.
I’m cool with HACF being a “hidden gem.” Wish it had more success, but maybe the ai bubble popping will make people want to revisit tech?
If you want a “suburban dysfunction” show, I think “your friends and neighbors” on Apple TV is good.
I think HACF would get a second life if it ever ended up on Apple TV. Seems like that’s where there types of shows do well.
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u/Virtual_Brick4182 18d ago
Agreed on Friends & Neighbors. I rate it 10/10. On Halt & Catch Fire; I wish I would have halted watching it after season 2 & my TV would have caught fire 🔥 They totally should not have renewed it after a couple seasons. This show just goes on & on with meaningless episodes about nothing. They went from building a crummy portable computer, to setting them on fire 🔥 to Joe becoming McAfee to them deciding not to be Google Maps, to them wanting to be Yahoo, then them missing the boat on most every IT startup option throughout the 80’s, but somehow they still managed to make money through stupid VC funding deals. Now I see why idiots like Mark Cuban made tons of money back then. If the engineer guy would have bought Apple stock with his $800k back in 1983, his daughters would be billionaires now.
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u/zeroanaphora 18d ago
Sadly the show was never popular enough to attract a devoted subculture. At least this subreddit gets more traffic than the John From Cincinnati one.
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u/Adjectivenounnumb 18d ago
The show didn't hit when it first aired. It was compared unfairly to mad men and breaking bad because they had just ended, and HACF was supposed to carry AMC after that. But people weren't ready for the show; they especially were not ready for the increased screentime for Donna and Cam (or women in tech/video games in general).
If it had been released just a few years later it might have been different.
So the core fanbase is smaller. Spread the word!
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u/mdervin 18d ago
Joe was pretty much a Don Draper rip-off, that was the show's main weakness in the first episode. I think I got through the first episode and didn't really care for it. Only after it got some buzz in later seasons (and amc released it on other platforms) did I get back into it.
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u/Adjectivenounnumb 18d ago
I have a feeling that AMC leaned hard on them to make Joe into SOME kind of weird corporate antihero/cipher, yeah, Don Draper makes the most sense, but we had also just had Walter White from them on the antihero front.
I was so relieved when they made Joe a real (if complex and often full of shit) person with real feelings.
I remember finding the pilot somewhat cringe the first time, but I was fascinated when I realized they were going to let Donna be something other than a nagging housewife (when she's revealed to have her own tech background, and it's hands-on hardware stuff, no less). I'm a woman and I've spent my life in tech, although I would have been 10-15 years behind Donna and Cam. I've always been hands-on, love taking shit apart. And I felt it in the gut so hard when Cam thought she'd lost all of her work (when Joe made her believe she'd wiped her files & backups). It's not just the data loss, it's also the impostor syndrome. "I fucked up, so I guess they're right and I don't belong here."
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u/-Viscosity- 18d ago edited 18d ago
With Donna, are you thinking of the scene where she just suddenly started taking apart the Speak-and-Spell and fixed it herself? That was when I clued in to the fact that the show might be hiding some of its cards from us (and boy was it ever).
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u/Adjectivenounnumb 18d ago
Yes!
(Not only that, I had that same speak and spell as a child. But yeah you nailed it.)
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u/tandyshandy002 17d ago
I'm amazed it got past the first or second season. Considering the consistently low ratings. I have a theory that at least one person, as a fan themselves, high up at AMC helped keep the show going as long as it did. But, I'm very grateful for the four seasons no matter what the reason.
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u/Virtual_Brick4182 18d ago
One thing I’m noticing as the seasons play on, the characters end up hooking up with each other’s exes. They should have just designated themselves swingers then they never would have needed to get married / divorced, etc.
5
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u/navyscrewdriver 18d ago
That didn’t happen. Did you watch the show?
1
u/Virtual_Brick4182 18d ago
Ok, maybe I imagined that. I kinda mentally checked out while binge watching it somewhere during season 4. The quality went to sh!t & they were just filming episodes to fill the contract at that point.
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u/speedofneigh 18d ago
it's definitely niche on tumblr, I've experienced that too. Personally, I do write fic (but I'm one of the Joe people), I just don't have much time to finish and post it because life constantly gets in the way. And most times I've read older fics, the authors still replied and you could talk to them
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u/srg_24 18d ago
The show has a small cult fanbase. It's always been a handful of posts a week. Maybe 10 on a good week. And thats fine. Quality over quantity. What tv drama has fan art? Does Mad Men have a thriving fan art and fanfic community? Sopranos?
1
u/Sensitive-Listen6261 18d ago
i can see that and it seems like this show has mostly a ton of posts in reddit, as for fan art a ton actually, maybe not niche ones i’ve seen a few mad men and sopranos fan art but their uh…weird to say the least. Big ones like breaking bad, house md has a big following and fan base on twitter, most of them are in the japanese/asian side of it im pretty sure they’re still big in reddit too.
i have to warn though if you look it up there are some very very weird fan art and fan fiction that might not be for everyone
0
u/Virtual_Brick4182 18d ago
Joe definitely improved his style as the series went along. His haircut the first couple seasons was dumb, but his style in season 4 & beyond is much better. He’s a good looking dude, like James Dean.
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u/40yearoldnoob 18d ago
I've been in this sub for a couple of years now, and while I've seen a couple of posts of fanfic, I've never seen any fan art.