Halt and Catch Fire
Close to the Metal
TV Flash files “Close to the Metal” as hour 4 of 40 in the TV Flash guide — Halt and Catch Fire (2014–2017) on AMC, season 1, episode 4, aired 2014-06-22, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E04: listed hour 4 of 40 in the Halt and Catch Fire guide, hour 4 of 10 in season 1. It aired 2014-06-22 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “High Plains Hardware” (S01E03). Next is “Adventure” (S01E05).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
With a mid-project success with the BIOS code, Joe makes two bold moves within the office. First, he destroys the book that contains the IBM proprietary code, and second, he invites Wall Street Quarterly to do a story about their PC clone project. The story Joe wants written may not happen first because the reporter, Ron Kane, doesn't see what's happening as being newsworthy, and second as a crisis occurs in the office during Kane's visit, that crisis issue which may in turn be the story.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Close to the Metal sit in the Halt and Catch Fire guide?
S01E04 is listed hour 4 of 40 — hour 4 of 10 in season 1, season 1 episode 4.
When did Halt and Catch Fire S01E04 air?
Close to the Metal aired 2014-06-22 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Is it slow at first?
It found its soul mid-run. Seasons 3–4 are the critic-consensus peak; starting at one teaches the beige-box ambition the later years earn.
In the series
Why this series still plays
1980s clones to early web: Joe's pitch, Gordon's hardware heartbreak, Cameron and Donna building companies the industry still would not credit. AMC's critics' darling that found its soul mid-run. Tech history as human drama — ambition in beige boxes, and a prestige show actually about making the future.
The flash is a beige box and a pitch that should have been a premiere. Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers's AMC drama (2014–2017) — Lee Pace's Joe MacMillan selling the next computing revolution, Scoot McNairy's Gordon taking the hardware heartbreak, Mackenzie Davis's Cameron and Kerry Bishé's Donna building companies the industry still would not credit, Toby Huss's Bosworth in the blast radius. Texas clones to early web. Relationships crash as hard as stock prices. The museum guard will call it…
Filed against
- Lee Pace as Joe MacMillan
Lee Pace’s Ned made Pushing Daisies a pie-shop tragedy in candy colors — 2000s catalog noir, a touch he cannot use, Bryan Fuller’s sugar rush canceled too sweet. Halt and Catch Fire and Foundation stretched the same elegance into…
- Scoot McNairy as Gordon Clark
Scoot McNairy's Gordon Clark gave Halt and Catch Fire its hardware heartbreak — 1980s clones to early web, Joe's pitch, Cameron and Donna building companies the industry still would not credit. AMC's critics' darling that found its soul…
- Mackenzie Davis as Cameron Howe
Mackenzie Davis’s Cameron Howe built companies the industry still would not credit on Halt and Catch Fire — 1980s clones to early web, beige-box ambition — then carried Station Eleven’s traveling Shakespeare through a humane collapse. AMC…
- Kerry Bishé as Donna Clark
Kerry Bishé's Donna Clark built companies the industry would not credit on Halt and Catch Fire — AMC's 1980s-clones-to-early-web critics' darling, beige-box ambition, hardware heartbreak with a woman's ledger. TV Flash files her as 2010s…
- Toby Huss as John Bosworth
Toby Huss’s Artie the Strongest Man turned The Adventures of Pete & Pete into kid logic as literature — endless summer, garage bands, a suburb like an indie film — then walked Halt and Catch Fire’s beige-box ambition. Nickelodeon poetry…