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What's The Best TV Show About Working in Tech? (gizmodo.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the have-you-tried-turning-it-off-and-on? dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Recently Gizmodo hailed "the best show ever made about Silicon Valley", asking its readers one question: why didn't you watch it? They're talking about AMC's Halt and Catch Fire, which their Senior Reviews Editor says "discovered the fascinating, frustrating human side to the soulless monsters who built Silicon Valley." Unfortunately, "nobody watched it. The show never cracked a million live viewers after the pilot episode. It sat firmly on the bubble every season, getting greenlit only by the grace of AMC."

Today Netflix is making that show's fourth (and final) season available -- but is it the best show about working in tech? What about Mr. Robot, Silicon Valley, or The IT Crowd -- or that short-lived X-Files spin-off, The Lone Gunmen?
Has there ever been a good show about geeks -- besides those various PBS documentaries? Leave your own answers in the comments.

What's the best TV show about working in tech?

7 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Dilbert by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They made a short-lived cartoon series. Dilbert is the most accurate depiction of tech life, ever.

  2. The IT Crowd by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's funny because it's true.

    1. Re:The IT Crowd by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Another vote for IT Crowd.

      They covered a lot of things us nerds have to deal with, such as bad operating systems, people who don't know how to use technology or even people who have no idea what the Internet really is.

      I wish they made all of this up, but you can be sure that each of these situation happened at least once, somewhere.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  3. HCF was not about working in tech by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Interesting

    HCF was just OK, I can see why it didn't pick up a lot of viewers. It was more about the emergence of tech and what that meant to more traditional companies, but the thing was it just was not that gripping for whatever reason. I don't know by what metric you could possibly claim is was a great show. I only made it through most of season one before I grew too bored and stopped watching.

    I've not yet seen Mr Robot but I have seen all of Silicon Valley so far, and THAT is by far the best show about working in tech. If you are not in the valley the crazy stuff around startup culture is not AS pertinent, but the personalities of coders are honestly not too outlandish compared to the real thing. As everyone on Slashdot probably already knows, the whole spaces vs tabs thing is all too real where a causal viewer would probably think that part was absurd... also just sheer arbitrariness of developing any software for a large company is well portrayed.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:HCF was not about working in tech by Scutter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      HCF went from an interesting show about the emergency of tech to a generic soap opera that had nothing to do with tech beyond "these dull characters work in the tech field".

      --

      "Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
  4. None, The problem is by oldgraybeard · · Score: 5, Interesting

    User land tech is just an office type drama. Exception Office Space, for the humor ;) was just funny

    Entrepreneur tech is just crazy, social, rich individual type drama.

    Actual Software Development, can not be put in video because it is thought, the ah ha moments, looooong periods of typing, doing, executing, reading, thinking, testing, a few Got Ya Sucker! moments ;) All of which are, for the most part very hard to visualize let alone record in video in a way that someone who does not do it would understand or even care about.

    So what they always end up with is, the side stories, social interactions, drama, etc, etc. with a little poorly done tech mixed in, to try and make it look techie ;)

    What it all comes down to is, to present most parts of IT, you need to understand that sub section of IT, which those not doing it can not do.

    Example, On numinous occasions I have been sitting at a bar/where ever chatting with a friend/my son-in-law/etc (someone in the business) and people sitting next to us will just kind of look at us, shake their heads and move down the bar/go elsewhere ;) And it was not because we were loud or anything ;) Our conversation was so alien, I think it just ruined their piece of mind ;)

    Also, the IT/Tech fields are not special in this regard, there are many areas like this. I think that is why things always end up going back to the old formulas, drama, humor, social interactions, sex, violence, crime, etc. all packaged in an environment.

    Just my 2 cents ;)

  5. No profession is EVER shown realistically by petes_PoV · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Has there ever been a good show about geeks

    There has never been a "good" show about being an IT worker. Nor about being a doctor, cop, president, soldier, spy, lawyer, detective, scientist or any other job that comes to mind. Even the "reality" shows are completely artificial.

    They are all depicted as disneyfied caricatures, since all jobs are tedious, unimaginative and dull. But people don't want realism on TV - that is what real life is for. TV only ever offers the concentrated, accelerated, no natural ingredients, version of "life" in whatever way it claims to reflect it.

    If anyone thinks TV offers a "window" on peoples' lives, they are either being obtuse or have no actual clue.

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons