Station Zero

In one of the later episodes of Halt and Catch Fire there is a scene where computer engineer Gordon has a huge row with his teenage daughter in his office. As she storms out, he angrily slams the door behind her. It is a plate glass door, and we brace ourselves for it to shatter into a million pieces, symbolising his impotent rage. But it’s a plate glass door in the trendy offices of a Californian internet company in the 1990s, and it turns out to be un-slammable. So it just gently closes with a quiet little hydraulic sigh, leaving Gordon looking a bit foolish, and us delighted by the writers’ ability to constantly take things in directions we weren’t quite expecting.   With the possible exception of The Wire , I think Halt and Catch Fire is the best modern TV drama I’ve watched. Created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers, at first glance it looks a bit like a Madmen knock off (which is quite possibly what it was intended as). It starts in...