Midweek Geekiness: Halt and Catch Fire

The Lee Pace Factor

Let’s face it anyone witnessing his turn as King Thranduil in The Hobbit:  The Desolation of Smaug wants to see him play a character without:

• The blonde wig
• The blue, eleven contact lenses
• The long, flow-y robes
• The kick ass throne
• The equally kick ass elk he rides in An Unexpected Journey
• Pretty much no CGI whatsoever

Halt and Catch Fire represents the second series I can recall him as a lead.  Everyone still remembers, and mourns, Pushing Daisies.  Trust me, Joe Macmillan has none of the sweetness of Ned the pie man.  In fact, I spotted a few Thranduil-esque moments in the pilot.  Remember he’s 6’3 and Scoot Mcnairy is 5’10, and one parking lot scene between these two reminded me of this one:

I wrote earlier about Joe as Don Draper’s successor in AMC’s troubled-male-hero department.  Joe would sneer at Rick Grime’s earlier angst. He even ask Don, “What the (bleep) is your problem?”  In fact, I can swear I hear him rejoicing Rick has finally embraced his sociopath side in The Walking Dead’s season finale.  Joe comes as he is without pretense, but with a single-minded drive to stick it to IBM as far as reverse engineering is concerned.  I would love to find out what turned a mild-mannered Joe into sociopath Joe.  He’s got the same traits people associate with Jobs and Gates: Ambition, Drive, Focus, and the je ne sais quoi  to lead the trio. Although my money is on Cameron to tip the apple cart in some fashion.

Joe, and the actor playing him, will prove interesting over the course of the season.

And Finally…