[danielvaughn]

Lee Pace's performance in that show is one of my all time favorites. It's incredibly hard to play a charismatic marketing guru because in some sense, you're not acting. In a given scene, the character might be trying to convince people around him of some crazy idea, but if he hasn't convinced you, the viewer, then the entire illusion falls apart. So he really has to do in real life what he's pretending to do on screen.

edit - a great example and one of my favorite scenes from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOR8mk0tLpc

[Slow_Hand]

Funny that this came up today. Last night I started re-watching the series after several years. Just this afternoon I was reflecting on how genuinely charismatic Lee Pace's Joe McMillen is.

You really feel it. Even when we know he's a manipulative sonuvabitch. It's mesmerizing. You have to admire his ability to spin shit into gold. The man has vision.

There's a sequence around S01E07 that I'm looking forward to reaching again, in which Joe is out on the front lawn with Donna's daughters during a hurricane and it's FEELS like magic. His performance feels earnest, and hypnotizing, and genuinely magical as he puts on a show for these young girls in the rain.

There's something intangible and hard to describe about the series. The writers have a way of making it transcend it's core drama and feel very different from just about any other show I can recall. Somehow it feels like pure creative expression that manages to defy outside expectations and tell a story that feels true to life and convey the ambitions of creative people who are fighting to make something beautiful.

[metamet]

You're making me really want to start a rewatch.

It's shocking how few people have seen this show, let along watched it. Part of that probably has to do with how inaccessible it is on streaming. It's only readily available on AMC+. And no one has AMC+.

This is one of those shows that would likely shoot to the top if Netflix got the rights to it and even did a mild push. It's genuinely peak prestige TV.

[walterbell]

> There's something intangible and hard to describe about the series. The writers have a way of making it transcend it's core drama and feel very different from just about any other show I can recall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halt_and_Catch_Fire_(TV_series...

  [actors gathered] at Pace's house on weekends to prepare dinner, drink wine, and discuss the scripts and their characters.. "it was really nice, because you got to hear other people's point of views about your character." For the third season, Pace, Davis, and McNairy lived together in a rented house in Atlanta, with Toby Huss joining them for the fourth season..

  Rogers called Lisco the duo's mentor, saying: "He.. showed us the ropes.. it was a master class in how to run a room, both in terms of getting a great story out of people, and.. being a really good and decent and fair person in what can sometimes be a brutal industry.." Between the second and third seasons, all of the series's writers departed to work on their own projects, requiring Cantwell and Rogers to build a new writing staff.

[AgentCIPHR]

Well said, I rewatch it every few years and few shows come close to making me feel the way this one does.

[raffael_de]

I have Lee Pace on the radar since Singh's The Fall.

Your assessment of movie magic is only partially correct. Obviously, a character has to be convincing by himself but the heavy lifting of the illusion is done by the peer characters acting as if they believe the role he plays.

"The king is always played by the others"

Not sure who is to credit for this quote but in my opinion it is one of the most important insights to understand how movies work and also why movie characters are never relevant role models.

[telesilla]

He's also extraordinary in Apple's Foundation, some say he carries the show. I treasure The Fall and every frame of it, in this he's uniquely blended with other great actors and images.

[nobleach]

Even though Pushing Daisies ended too abruptly, I thought he was GREAT in that series as well.

[mdemare]

Often in movies you have the scrappy character that rises to the occasion by making a great speech, winning everybody over. I used to love those scenes.

Now, I've realized, in real life they wouldn't have let them finish their first sentence.

[OneDeuxTriSeiGo]

Lee Pace is such a phenomenal actor. He really just transforms the roles he's in and makes something special out of each show he's in.

He's also fantastic in Apple TV's Foundation and it's been really impressive seeing his range put on display there.

[billbrown]

Dig up Wonderfalls, his first series, and Pushing Daisies. They form the Lee Pace Triumvirate (with Halt and Catch Fire) as far as I'm concerned.

[mikepurvis]

"... what he's pretending to do on screen"

I remember seeing this discussed around the show The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, which is about a midcentury NYC divorcee getting into the world of stand up comedy. Overall it works and is a funny and enjoyable show, but there's definitely some of the standup routines depicted on-screen that are not actually as funny as the baked-in audience laughs might indicate. Because yeah... you can't really fake delivering good standup, even with a whole writer's room preparing the jokes and all the editing magic in the world, you still have to actually stand there and tell them in a funny way. That part can't be faked.

[Slow_Hand]

It never occurred to me that the jokes were oversold. I think the show is genuinely funny, with a very high batting average. Easily one of the funniest shows on television.

I sure do miss 'Mrs. Maisel'. What a stellar series.

[nonameiguess]

I think I really loved Barry for exactly the opposite of this reason. Seeing a truly great actor play a bad actor was both impressive and hilarious at the same time.

[pchristensen]

A stand up audience from the 1950s shouldn't be reacting to jokes the same way a 2020s audience would.

[IncreasePosts]

Hacks does it fairly well, or it may just be jean smart

[jldugger]

Sadly, Season 1 Joe is just incohesive. Like, you want there to be some structural reason behind his madness and there just isn't any, because there's too much of crazy. Season 2 tries to walk much of that back.

I haven't yet seen season 3 and beyond, but it's clear the OP blogger agrees:

> The best thing the show’s writers ever did was realize that Joe wasn’t the most interesting character.

Like, Lee is a good actor for sure, he was just given a poorly story crafted role.

[tptacek]

His character makes much more sense in later seasons.

[loevborg]

If you like Lee Pace, check out The Fall (2006). It's my favorite film, incredibly ambitious and funny and yet virtually unknown to the public. Lee's performance is incredible, as is his young co-star's.

[croon]

Yeah, it's somewhat splintered in that you're unsure what movie you're watching between different parts, but I have a strong love for movies that dare, and that one certainly does.

I'll also second your comment about the kid, which is one of the best child performances I've seen.

[billbrown]

If you like Lee Pace, watch Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies.

[sgt]

I'll give that a shot. Found it it on torrent already.

[idontwantthis]

He also stars in The Fall, one of my favorite movies ever.

[billbrown]

And Wonderfalls and Pushing Daisies, two of my favorite shows ever.

[deanCommie]

Are we watching the same clip? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

This is from the pilot and I watched it based on high recommendations, and I couldn't keep going because the character you're describing as so convincing and charismatic is so dramatically unlikeable!?

In this scene, he is:

* disrespectful and entitled with a coworker

* privileged and self-important about his background with a client

* then makes an admittedly pretty rousing speech, but TBH the show doesn't really trust us to understand that "this is meant to be inspirational" because it keeps cutting to the other character reacting "inspired", which is significant because

* he doesn't make the sale

* then proceeds to verbally scream abuse at the other character.

and then i'm supposed to be excited about watching the two of these start a computer company together? ..........why?

[georgeecollins]

Great show! Toby Huss is also good as the guy you underestimate. He had a great scene in Weapons last year.

Scoot McNary is good in lots of things-- Monsters is a favorite. Mackenzie Davis in Station 11!

Viewers may have missed the show but casting agents didn't.

[protocolture]

The guy gives me chills, he reminds me of every sales douche who has ever tried to pull the wool over my eyes, or sell a customer something so horrendous and undeliverable as to be actively business ending.

An absolute legendary performance.

[seneca]

> The guy gives me chills, he reminds me of every sales douche who has ever tried to pull the wool over my eyes, or sell a customer something so horrendous and undeliverable as to be actively business ending.

The thing is, Joe is supposed to actually have substance and vision. He's not faking it. The difference is that all those sales guys are pretending to be someone like Joe.

[jrmg]

It was easy to dismiss the show at the time because, though Pace’s performance was great from the beginning, it felt like he was a Temu Don Draper in an 80s Mad Men wannabe with ‘tech’ replacing ‘ads’.

The show is not at all that if you stick with it for even a short while.

[rurp]

Totally agree, he was incredibly good in that show.

He's also really great in the show Foundation, with a pretty different role. I watched Foundation much more recently and it took me a while to realize it was the same actor from Halt.

[rbanffy]

I got really disappointed at the mainframe booting into PC-DOS with a CGA font on a 3278 terminal. The show made such an impeccable job at rebuilding the 3033 CPU and the 3278 terminal just to make such a horrible job depicting its boot process. A VM/SE banner or an MVS login screen would have been sufficient (if inaccurate, if we are looking at the operator console). Did the research point out mainframes don't run PC operating systems?

[esafak]

Lee Pace is a first rate actor but I could not recognize him or indeed, most of the characters in this show, as representative of their roles. I struggled to suspend my disbelief. The show felt like it was written by people who imagined what it must have been like rather than people who had any experience of it. I still enjoyed it somewhat. Not Silicon Valley good but okay.

[mikepurvis]

I'm always surprised Lee Pace doesn't get more recognition; I've loved a lot of his quirkier projects like Wonderfalls, Pushing Daisies, and Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, but it's not like he hasn't also been in mainstream things like The Hobbit and Guardians of the Galaxy.

[gorjusborg]

I really liked the show despite Lee Pace's performance.

Pace really nails the intense Jobs vibe, but having seen his other work, it seems like it might not be 100% acting. There's consistency to the off feeling he gives across roles.

Gordon's role was probably the most setting accurate, but I do feel the story would have suffered if the entire cast was realistic to 80s standards rather than translated into late-2010s sensibilities.

[unmole]

> I struggled to suspend my disbelief. The show felt like it was written by people who imagined what it must have been like rather than people who had any experience of it.

This! It's not a bad show but people calling it the Best Drama are wildly overselling it.

[prhn]

He also played Ronan in Guardians of the Galaxy and King Thranduil in Lord of the Rings!

[swyx]

how dare you mention Lee Pace and -not- mention his role in Foundation, he carried that entire show on his way too muscley back

[bahmboo]

Maybe I should watch a full episode but this clip doesn't sell -me- on it. Heavy handed and a bit phony. Great talent in these scenes, not directed or crafted for my tastes. I'm saying my feelings not downvoting!

[IBCNU]

he reminds me of truly the best bosses

also something about him with a good engineer

reminds me of me and my boss, i hope lol

[hinkley]

Probably help him land Foundation. The narcissism is its own skill.

[imglorp]

More recently, I loved how he killed it in Foundation. Another great casting for a great actor.

[itsnowandnever]

foundation has an incredible cast but even among such talent he's a clear outlier

[gnatman]

maybe some sales look like this but anyone who models themselves after this or madmen or whatever… good luck.

[Nevermark]

Anyone modeling themselves after someone, isn't going to have that electricity.

You really have to believe in yourself and your plan, and have a real plan even if its in flux, to communicate like that and carry it off. But when audacity is backed up by substance, it really gets people's attention.