Right, it's a TV drama, and should be judged on those terms. And IMHO, succeeds on them, even when it was was a non-obvious turn. The characters are superb.

Why do you say "gender aside" though? I suspect if the real players were women, turning them into men for TV might be looked at negatively. How is this different?

I suspect the differences between Joe, Gordon, and co., and the actual people behind the PC revolution as captured by Silicon Cowboys, go far beyond differences in demographics or check-box traits, to their fundamental personalities themselves. Focusing on such superficial traits is a red herring.

So gender doesn't matter until it does. Got it.

Hey, you're the one who brought it up.

It's basically writing prompts for culture-war mad-libs. Ways to start a fight. You should not regard it as serious discourse.