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

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?

Comments

Dilbert

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Dilbert

[msauve]

You're forgetting about The Walking Dead.

Re:Dilbert

[Darinbob]

Also Office Space, which is technically a theatrical movie, but has been on TV.

Any TV series about startups is absolutely nothing like real tech companies.

The IT Crowd

[Anonymous Coward]

It's funny because it's true.

Re:The IT Crowd

[DontBeAMoran]

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.

Re:The IT Crowd

[Vulch]

Channel 4, not the BBC. Written by Graham Linehan of Father Ted fame.

Re:The IT Crowd

[fermion]

I think it is very best parody of the stereotypes we think of as tech. Alphas is another one.

The fact is that there is no good show. They are all stereotypes. Every tech worker is a stereotype on any show I have seen.

Re:The IT Crowd

[rklrkl]

The IT Crowd was good in its first few seasons when it actually did stuff about, you know, IT. Later seasons were nowhere near as funny as the IT angle almost completely disappeared. By the time they brought it back for the one-off finale, I managed one smile throughout the entire last ever episode (and you've guessed it, it wasn't an IT-related laugh either).

For consistency, it has to be Silicon Valley, which still has hilarious moments in every episode, even after 4 seasons.

HCF was not about working in tech

[SuperKendall]

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.

Re:HCF was not about working in tech

[Scutter]

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".

Re: HCF was not about working in tech

[c6gunner]

Mr Robot is about working in tech the same way that Die Hard is about working in law enforcement.

Re:HCF was not about working in tech

[Xest]

Actually I think Halt and Catch Fire's problem as you describe was exactly the reason it was the most accurate portrayal - it's blandness was a recognition of reality. I actually watched all 4 series for what it's worth, it was watchable, and it did a good job of compacting the rise of the modern computing industry, but if you're looking to be on the edge of your seat then that show isn't it. Whilst the real world industry isn't devoid of the sort of humour you see in Silicon Valley and the IT Crowd, it certainly isn't like that every minute of every day - that's what the Half and Catch Fire captured, the reality of the day to day, the complex egos, the fact that for every billionaire Bill Gates that made it there were hundreds of others who were on the cusp of getting it but just missed the target. That becoming a silicon valley billionaire was as much about the right idea at the right time with the right people working on it being sold to the right people, and that plenty of people had the time and idea, but the wrong people, or the right people and the wrong idea and so on and so forth - that success in the computing industry that's led to the current giants was largely about the luck of stars aligning for the right people as much as it was anything else and that the valley is full of many thousands of equally talented people who had the ideas but just didn't get lucky enough for the rest of it to align - Halt and Catch Fire captures that, it recognises the reality and dispels the myth of the Zuckerbergs, Gates, and so on and so forth as being unique geniuses - it's an ode to those who were equally as talented and innovative but who simply just did not have quite so much luck on their side.

Silicon Valley is funny, but it's an over the top comedy, so whilst it does indeed touch on real arguments, it of course uses an absurdist form of humour which doesn't match day to day reality. That is of course however what makes it enjoyable to watch.

Re:HCF was not about working in tech

[Blymie]

ROTFL -- I made it to the end of episode 1.. maybe you're just a tad more optimistic then I ("It'll get better!").

I suspect that the low ratings, gave 'power' to the suits who immediately tried to add all forms of conflict. Sexual, general interpersonal, marital.

The first season was good. The second was... palatable. But, down it spiraled. I barely made it through season #3.

Shame, really.

FYI -- Mr Robot is nothing like Silicon Valley or HCF. Give the first episode a spin.

Re:HCF was not about working in tech

[SuperKendall]

That sounds like a great description of what HCF was, the thing is I don't exactly need something to grab me to watch and find it interesting, but four seasons of HCF is too large of a time commitment for something I would happily watch compressed into a miniseries. Maybe that was the problem, too many small moments which all were interesting enough, but it was just too many of them.

The IT crowds

[Anonymous Coward]

UK version. Nothing else is close.

Re:The IT crowds

[Krishnoid]

Attempt number three, coming right up.

Obviously

[should_be_linear]

Matrix

Moloch

[PopeRatzo]

The most accurate filmed depiction of working in tech is Fritz Lang's Metropolis. I am not joking.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hpI...

Re:Not sure I follow

[Patent Lover]

You've failed the troll test.

IT Crowd

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you tried turning it off and on again?

The Big Bang Theory

[seoras]

If you remove the fact that they are academics working on psychics then you basically have a good basis for life in the SF Bay.
When I was working there I got taken along to a Friday afternoon premier of one of the Star Trek movies at Mountain View's Shoreline Multiscreen cinema.
Sandals, shorts, pony tails and awful T-shirts. Beards if you can grow one. It's like a uniform for the geek crowd. This was the 90's, I doubt they've changed.
A couple stand up at the front and they shout out "hey everyone, excited?". The crowd goes wild.
"Hey, who here is from HP?". A small patch of the crowd woop and cheer.
"Hey who here is from Apple?" Another small patch of the crowd woop and cheer.
They repeat this with all the big names until finally..
"Hey who here is from Microsoft?". The room goes silent and then everyone starts booing. Then we all laughed.
I do miss that place sometimes...

Star Trek!

[Anonymous Coward]

The original series of course.

OFFICE SPACE

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there anything this movie gets wrong about "working" in IT?

Moron bosses who know nothing about what you actually do? Check.
Multiple pointy-haired types hounding you about your work because they "have to be involved"? Check.
Consultants? Ugh, check.
Outdated tech that needs replacing but its "not in the budget"? Damn it feels good to be a Check sir!

So much more. This is the penultimate look at what working in IT is like. The only thing close is The IT Crowd.

Re:OFFICE SPACE

[Darinbob]

It's not even tech really. All office jobs are like that. Someone who thinks that the day to day workings in a tech company are different than say an accounting firm, has bought in to a media portrayal. I'm in a tech company, but I talk to HR, legal, executives, I sit down at lunch next to manufacturing employees, and so forth. If you'll notice, Office Space only is only peripherally about technology; it goes out of its way to be a rather generic company.

Re:OFFICE SPACE

[houghi]

Nice that you point all these things out that it is close to working in IT while it has nothing to do with IT.
It could also be used as working in the Sales department or accounting or in any other department.

It makeit clear that the IT department is not special. It is just another department that is needed to run a company. If it would not be needed, it would not excist, just like any other department. Even the ones you hate.

Binge Watching Opportunity

[theodp]

Computer Chronicles

Better Off Ted

[NetFusion]

I think Phil and Lem sum up the strife of corporate nerdom well working under the management pressures from Ted and with morally bankrupt of leadership of Veronica.
 
I miss that show

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt12...

None, The problem is

[oldgraybeard]

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 ;)

Re:None, The problem is

[Anonymous Coward]

"ruined their piece of mind".

What a fabulous typo. It's like you shot them in the head.

Is 'Halt and catch fire' about US auto industry?

[mz721]

Never seen it; just going on the title.

No profession is EVER shown realistically

[petes_PoV]

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.