Halfway through the first episode of AMC’s new drama Halt and Catch Fire, two characters reverse-engineer an IBM PC. Hardware whiz Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy, Argo) and his partner, a slick salesman named Joe McMillan (Pushing Daisies’ Lee Pace) de-solder chips, check pin voltages, and transcribe memory locations, eventually ending up with the assembly-language code that makes the computer tick. It may not sound like compelling television unto itself, but like the meth cooks of Walter White and Jesse Pinkman it's a slick and riveting sequence in a pilot full of outstanding moments. — and it could be setting up the network’s most unlikely hit yet.