Halt and Catch Fire Time Intervals
I am watching a show called Halt and Catch Fire (HCF) that has drawn me in like no other show. I want to talk about how they use the passage of time, sometimes in short intervals, and sometimes long stretches of time, to emphasize certain qualities in the characters. They do this more than other shows where there is an occasional "one month later" scene.
Within episodes, HCF often skips intervals of 1, 2, or 3 months. And within seasons, they may also jump months or years ahead. Lastly, across seasons they may jump many years ahead. They manage to to tell a story cohesively, despite the sometimes random and non-contextual jumps. It leaves you feeling like you've somehow witnessed a characters entire life unfold right in front of your eyes. Like you fast forwarded x1000 through a person's professional & intimate life. These are the three main things it brings to mind:
1. I love to extrapolate the current information and make a forecast on the outcome of human relationships. I guess we all do. It feels innate and there is a tricky intuition vs. statistics that needs to be tapped into just right. HCF really lets you form predictions based on a characters demeanor and underlying issues in relationships each episode. Then, soon giving you a chance to check your prediction with the skip in time. Was it a hit or miss?
2. Most major decisions in life don't provide instant feedback. It makes it difficult to know if you made the optimal choice. Leaving us to wait patiently in hope for signals that it was the right choice all along. However, HCF can give almost immediate feedback on a main characters decision and how it affected them in the near future. It also helps to highlight how people grow and change over time. You can began forming a pattern of that characters behavior.
3. Lastly, HCF once again emphasizes the notion I've been thinking about recently: We feel the same at 20 than we do at 40. In other words, when I was 18 I imagined the 25 year old me would somehow feel old, wiser, or maybe just foreign. It is difficult to predict and believe what the future you will feel like. Is the consciousness somehow uninterrupted? Even though an episode may jump four months ahead, we can still see that characters maintain their immediate feelings of worry, hope, and joy. The kind of things that form and shape our daily and minute-to-minute lives. It'd be a mistake to think that the future you is some type of distant stranger. Whatever consciousness is, it is a constant thing.
Within episodes, HCF often skips intervals of 1, 2, or 3 months. And within seasons, they may also jump months or years ahead. Lastly, across seasons they may jump many years ahead. They manage to to tell a story cohesively, despite the sometimes random and non-contextual jumps. It leaves you feeling like you've somehow witnessed a characters entire life unfold right in front of your eyes. Like you fast forwarded x1000 through a person's professional & intimate life. These are the three main things it brings to mind:
1. I love to extrapolate the current information and make a forecast on the outcome of human relationships. I guess we all do. It feels innate and there is a tricky intuition vs. statistics that needs to be tapped into just right. HCF really lets you form predictions based on a characters demeanor and underlying issues in relationships each episode. Then, soon giving you a chance to check your prediction with the skip in time. Was it a hit or miss?
2. Most major decisions in life don't provide instant feedback. It makes it difficult to know if you made the optimal choice. Leaving us to wait patiently in hope for signals that it was the right choice all along. However, HCF can give almost immediate feedback on a main characters decision and how it affected them in the near future. It also helps to highlight how people grow and change over time. You can began forming a pattern of that characters behavior.
3. Lastly, HCF once again emphasizes the notion I've been thinking about recently: We feel the same at 20 than we do at 40. In other words, when I was 18 I imagined the 25 year old me would somehow feel old, wiser, or maybe just foreign. It is difficult to predict and believe what the future you will feel like. Is the consciousness somehow uninterrupted? Even though an episode may jump four months ahead, we can still see that characters maintain their immediate feelings of worry, hope, and joy. The kind of things that form and shape our daily and minute-to-minute lives. It'd be a mistake to think that the future you is some type of distant stranger. Whatever consciousness is, it is a constant thing.
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