AMC is facing Mad Men's final season and Halt & Catch Fire, a series set in 1980s Texas dramatising the rise of the PC, is its most obvious attempt at launching a successor. Nonetheless, it's an intriguing premise for a show which really could take up the mantle once Mad Men finally kicks the bucket. Its central trio, somewhat oddly described by AMC as "a visionary, an engineer and a prodigy", are played respectively by Lee Pace (Pushing Daisies), Scoot McNairy (Argo) and Mackenzie Davis (Smashed), all up-and-coming actors, with Kerry Bishé (Scrubs, Argo) in a supporting role. Like Turn, AMC's other new scripted drama, it's already been picked up by the network. Although the creators Chris Cantwell and Chris Rogers have few TV credits to their names, they are backed by Mark Johnson and Melissa Bernstein of Breaking Bad and Rectify. Halt & Catch Fire hasn't quite got the star power of others on this list, or the benefits of spies and famous literary characters to bolster it, but it's the kind of show which could gain a following very quickly if it's as slick as it sounds.
