so I’m thinking about watching halt and catch fire but I’m kinda turned off by all the heterosexual nonsense at the beginning, how quickly does it get better?

Well, Joe is bi, but I get what you mean. The tonal shift starts in season 2, and some people even say to start from there directly and then return to s1 if you want to see how they got there. I like to see the changes and growth so I personally am still glad I watched s1 first, and I’d recommend that even if you do skip, at least watch the last ep of s1.