Fun In Ones and Zeroes
My Favourite Tech-Related Entertainment
Welcome back to another post where I get on my high horse and recommend things. As my regulars know, I have a love-hate relationship with recommendation lists; love introducing others to art I like, hate having to narrow it down to a manageable list. My struggle this time was coming up with a list criteria that didn’t have too many things I could throw at you. It was tough for a hot minute there, but eventually I thought, “Hey, Hayawani is a story that works to weaves stories from the tech world into entertainment, why not recommend other stories that do the same? Why not recommend my favourite ones?”
Disclaimer: I tried to pick stuff that was based on real-world tech so a lot of great sci-fi and speculative fiction like Devs, Her and Black Mirror got left out.
Onto the list then…
The Social Network
The grand-daddy of them all. And a perfect example of a full host of collaborators working at the top of their game; the actors, the writers, the director… everyone pushes themselves to a different level and leaves it all on the field. But, for my money, the movies real breakout stars are Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, rockstars who had never done a movie score until that point. They’ve since scored Oscars and more for their work, but their work on this movie may still hold up as their finest outing.
You’ll notice I’m not talking about the story too much; and that’s because all you need to know about its cultural impact is that Mark Zuckerberg has never fully shaken the public perception of him set by this movie. At a time when they were becoming gods, the Citizen Kane of the digital age took a shot at the tech-bros and made them human again.
Halt and Catch Fire
There will be other shows on this list, and some of them will come close, but I will die insisting that this is the best tech show yet. Born in the wake of Breaking Bad and The Sopranos, this show started out as another “bad men getting away with bad things” story, this time set in 80s Silicon Valley. Luckily for us, the showrunners got to the end of the first season and realized that, while they did not have an iconic bad man, all their lead actors had great chemistry and the tech setting was the perfect place to explore their ever-changing relationships. What follows is two straight seasons of TV gold. You will arrive at the last season amazed at how moved you are by an episode that’s just two characters talking on the phone.
Silicon Valley
While most tech movies speak about one company or one moment in time, Silicon Valley used its extended runtime to poke at the scene as a whole with pinpoint accuracy. This was a show that made you cringe and laugh in equal measure. And maybe it’s that latter side effect that made the actual Valley embrace the show and even relish being featured on it even when they were the ones getting roasted. And I dare you to pick a definitive favourite character or even a favourite fictional tech CEO by the end. I’m still having trouble deciding between Dinesh, Gilfoyle and Jared all these years later. And I certainly wish the show was still around for this whole AI boom… Sigh.
Mr. Robot
Was there anything as thrilling and out there as those early seasons of this show that focused on the hacking and fsociety? Everything from the isolating camera angles to the Fight Club-style voiceover was against the grain but never out of place. It was gripping stuff. I fully understand why the show had to shift its focus away from the tech and lean in to the global conspiracy angle, I really do. But the transition into the latter was not a pretty one, and that dings it a bit in my eyes.
Blackberry
At a time when every kind of tech biopic has already been made, it’s special when something new comes out and packs a punch. There’s no reinventing of the wheel here; most of the beats you’ve come to expect from these are present and accounted for. But what sets this movie apart is its subtle mastery of tone and details. Everything from the writing to the direction works solidly in the background allowing the performances at its heart to really shine through. And though I’ve seen biopics lean strongly to either side, I’m yet to see one of these merge tragedy and comedy so effectively.
The WVFRM Podcast
Anyone with even passing knowledge of the internet and YouTube will recognise Marques Brownlee (MKBHD) from his tech reviews. The number of people invested enough in his activities to follow the weekly podcast he records with his studio staff are much fewer though. But those of us that are are hooked on the banter. Never mind that half the tech they talk about I will never have access to or even think of getting… In fact, that’s the appeal of the show for me. As someone who works in film and storytelling, there’s very little entertainment out there that doesn’t activate my work-brain. Sports and this podcast are my major ones in that category. Pity, I had to go ruin that neutrality by writing a graphic novel based around tech 😅
And there you have it, Be sure to reach out either in the comments of Instagramto let me know what I left out and I’ll see you all next week ✌🏾