I'm really digging it. We didn't get our first computer until 1984 (C=64) but I still remember a growing fascination with them. I'd already been teaching myself BASIC by this point on paper and would try out little programs on floor models at stores when I got the chance, during '82 and '83.
I love the period aspect of it and a lot of the personalities and drama actually reminds me of what you find in Steven Levy's books, like Hackers. Nothing seems manufactured at all. You get strong, brilliant people together, pressure, money and big ideas and you've got yourself the exact recipe for drama. This isn't the story of drones at desks punching a clock and going home.
For this to actually be successful it's got to be about the human story first and foremost (like good scifi too). I like that it offers multiple characters that don't fit the stereotype that Cameron's roommates and Gordon fall into. If it was only that I'm sure there are some people who would still enjoy it, who identify with those characters, but "normals" would have nothing to stay interested. A show about the tech means you have no show. That's appropriate for a cold and factual documentary, for Discovery or PBS.
They're being as careful as they can to be period specific with the tech. A lot of it is donated or what they can find online. A lot of it apparently doesn't work anymore, which is understandable (they're hand-feeding pre-printed paper quite often through printers). But they're about a year behind on the machine they're designing, as it turns out. The Grid Compass came out in 1982 and was designed in 1979. It was a magnesium bodied clamshell with a flat display. But it cost $10K, ran a proprietary OS and most were sold to the US government for NASA and Special Forces applications.
@Plaz, when I was little, my dad drove a red, Craig Breedlove special edition AMX.
edit: the last episode of the season is titled 1984. I have a sneaking suspicion they're going to see a certain Super Bowl ad that's going to change everything.
