I do enjoy what a cipher Joe is as a person. I know it gets bandied about a lot these days but his sociopathy feels very complete & deliberate as a character choice. The only time he’s anything close to being “himself” is when he’s getting over on someone in a sale or a pitch. Pace does a really good job of making him a really weird unknowable guy. And McNairy is so good at being the unhinged guy trying not to be completely unhinged. Gordo is just a bucketful of crazy crammed into a suit 24/7, like you can see the squirming twitchiness in his eyes constantly even when he’s not being outwardly bonkers. That’s hard to pull off acting-wise
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 November 2017 19:44 (six years ago) link
otm about McNairy. I happened to see him smoking a cigarette outside a coffee shop in Austin a few months ago and it took me a few minutes to realize who it was because he was so relaxed and his body language wasn't so twitchy and high strung.
― ryan, Sunday, 12 November 2017 19:51 (six years ago) link
to the show's credit, the more it goes on the less they are caricatures. Even Joe makes sense as a real person eventually.
― dan selzer, Sunday, 12 November 2017 20:09 (six years ago) link
Cameron so far is the only character who still feels underbaked somehow. I get the 20’s thing where everything is a reaction or a statement & she’s still in the edges of idealism but it makes her so one-note, or two note, i guess. REACT!! RESIST!! PANIC ATTACK!! repeatMaybe that’s the point, that she’s so much younger than the other characters
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 12 November 2017 20:52 (six years ago) link
I was going to start a new H&CF watchers club thread but this one is pretty spoiler-free and short!
John might be the character that surprised me the most -- starts out seeming like this good ol' boy and you're waiting for him to do something that throws a monkey wrench in the works, but he just keeps being sympathetic
― mh, Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:06 (six years ago) link
hoping it doesn't take forever for season 4 to hit netflix. probably be a while though.
― scott seward, Thursday, 16 November 2017 16:13 (six years ago) link
now i'm wondering if there is some ps4 thing i can buy though...
Hope to make some S3 headway this weekend
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 17 November 2017 00:46 (six years ago) link
nobody expected me to be that useful at work so I watched 2.5 episodes while poking around on a project at work, tell no one
― mh, Friday, 17 November 2017 00:47 (six years ago) link
this seems kind of h&cf-ish since I’m totally on that kind of project
― mh, Friday, 17 November 2017 00:48 (six years ago) link
how did I not know Toby Huss is a fellow Iowa boy?!?
so great, love his king of the hill work
― mh, Friday, 17 November 2017 02:24 (six years ago) link
I was loving this until halfway through season 2. That any of the protagonists would seriously contemplate going back into business with the sociopath was too much disbelief to suspend.
― mick signals, Sunday, 19 November 2017 17:16 (six years ago) link
his season one characterization was an incredible misstep in the show and retooling him was the best thing they did, but I feel that
― mh, Monday, 20 November 2017 17:18 (six years ago) link
another thing I will say here (trying to avoid reading spoilers while posting) is that whoever chose Cameron's music selections knew what was up with early-80's Texas punk rock (Big Boys!), Bobby Soxx "Learn To Hate In The 80's" was especially inspired.
― sleeve, Monday, 20 November 2017 17:22 (six years ago) link
Really Red as well. Amazing music supervision and not just deep knowledge of Texas punk. Tiny meaningless spoiler but when Joe goes to the Stark Club they nailed the music.
― dan selzer, Monday, 20 November 2017 17:49 (six years ago) link
yeah the music supervision stays good through the rest of the show
― Simon H., Monday, 20 November 2017 17:51 (six years ago) link
watching the final season a couple days after attending a funeral for a relative was emotionally wearying
― mh, Monday, 20 November 2017 17:52 (six years ago) link
his season one characterization was an incredible misstep in the show and retooling him was the best thing they did
Maybe the thing for the viewer to do is pretend it's a different character entirely. After season one, Pyro Joe died on the way back to his home planet, please welcome Believable Joe?
― mick signals, Monday, 20 November 2017 23:38 (six years ago) link
for some reason that i have not analyzed it gives me great pleasure to see the look on someone's face when they GET AN IDEA on this show. it happens about 5 times an episode. hey, that picture of a hacker on the magazine cover....THAT GIVES ME AN IDEA.
i just really love it.
i'm watching the whole first 3 seasons again with maria. she didn't watch them with me the first time around.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:05 (six years ago) link
The one thing that this show did well that is seldom done in television is having characters decide to do things off camera and just kind of report later "oh I did that" or "I changed my mind". As if there are things going on in the world, some of them important to their lives, and we're not seeing all of it.
― mh, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:08 (six years ago) link
i love when episodes start and time has obviously passed but they don't really make a big deal about it.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:12 (six years ago) link
i also don't think i remembered that when joe goes and gets his check at the start of season two that almost two years have gone by. 20 months i think it says at the beginning. that's a long time.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:14 (six years ago) link
Some of it seems to come out of nowhere when the series gets toward the end, especially when (not really major spoilers here) starts speaking to others about how women were continually marginalized in the computer field and unfortunately ended up playing against each other. But when you look back at the series and realize all of the in-house drama with her and Cameron has this much larger context the little lightbulb comes on
― mh, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:17 (six years ago) link
whoops, when *Donna* starts speaking, that is
yeah i should probably stay away from this thread until i've seen season 4.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:40 (six years ago) link
i wonder if i should just pay for the fourth season instead of waiting for netflix. PS4 will probably sell it to me.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 18:42 (six years ago) link
I bought it via Amazon
It's on the AMC streaming app if you have any sort of cable, but it has commercials and is kind of glitchy
― mh, Tuesday, 28 November 2017 19:21 (six years ago) link
bummed at how normcore Cameron is, fashionwise, by the end of s2
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 20:00 (six years ago) link
she's going to switch it up
― Choco Blavatsky (seandalai), Tuesday, 28 November 2017 21:14 (six years ago) link
Just finished season four after a month's binge and feel bereft :(
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 7 December 2017 20:21 (six years ago) link
man that wedding scene in S2 with Bosworth and his kid was really well done
"your mother would combust"
― sleeve, Thursday, 7 December 2017 20:28 (six years ago) link
Yeah - every character gets amazing material but Bos especially. What a show, though. It's been a particularly rough month of my life and watching this got me through a really fucked up November. It's such a privilege when a piece of art reaches you at exactly the right time in your life - a few years ago or a few years from now I might have been less moved, or given up.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 7 December 2017 20:39 (six years ago) link
:/
https://soundcloud.com/user-193544149/halt-and-catch-fire-gordons-tape
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 14 December 2017 19:59 (six years ago) link
season 4 is on netflix! woo hoo! i'll come back after watching that.
― scott seward, Friday, 15 December 2017 21:36 (six years ago) link
I just finished this and I am gutted. I'm going to miss the hell out of these characters
― Evan R, Sunday, 31 December 2017 16:34 (six years ago) link
I am about halfway through s4 and am not loving it as much as prior seasons. Should I hope for a turnaround?
― mom tossed in kimchee (quincie), Sunday, 31 December 2017 16:35 (six years ago) link
100% stick around. You've made it this far, so even if the ending weren't outstanding I'd say stick it out, but those final four episodes really are beautiful
― Evan R, Sunday, 31 December 2017 16:37 (six years ago) link
Some minor, minimally spoiler-y thoughts:
1. No show that reboots its main character so many times had any right to be this good2. They gave Bos so much amazing material in the final season3. Haley was an incredible character who turned out to be as engaging as any of the series principals. I hope that actress lands a series of her own one day.4. I need a hug
― Evan R, Sunday, 31 December 2017 16:39 (six years ago) link
Otm re: Haley. And amazingly, that was her first acting job
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:17 (six years ago) link
Also Bos leaving the doctor to Fanfare for the Common Man <3 <3
― Chuck_Tatum, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:18 (six years ago) link
didn't realize "Cardiff Giant" was a clever name for longest time.
― Philip Nunez, Sunday, 31 December 2017 18:45 (six years ago) link
All those little anxious tics that Haley did... I couldn't tell if that was a great character choice or if the actress just does those naturally. They really trusted her with some pretty demanding material. Both daughters were pretty remarkable, though... they did a great job making two characters who essentially didn't exist for the first three seasons feel like they were there from the beginning.
I still don't get "Cardiff Giant" but I do love how those final episodes paid homage to that whole storyline.
― Evan R, Sunday, 31 December 2017 19:52 (six years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiff_Giant
― mh, Sunday, 31 December 2017 21:12 (six years ago) link
I think I'd probably put this show in the top 5 dramas of the last 10-15 years, behind the big four (Sopranos/Wire/Mad Men/Breaking Bad). It's not up there with those, but I think it comes as close as anything else I've seen.
― Evan R, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 16:23 (six years ago) link
i think it works better as a comedy (and it's frequently much funnier than silicon valley)
― Philip Nunez, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:13 (six years ago) link
Just started this on y’alls recommendations... finished ep 2 of season 1 and lolled at the ending “handle! It needs a handle!” and the sales dude imagining the future of portable computing when the IBM dude who visited him to give him his back pay literally used the briefcase for its intended purpose (to hold the check) and not do any portable computing
― calstars, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 20:17 (six years ago) link
yeah that first season really does start off as rocky as everybody warns you it is. Kinda amazing the show became such a great character drama, given that it doesn't begin with any great characters
― Evan R, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 23:44 (six years ago) link
bos is the only character on this show that I actually liked all the way through. the way they handled the clark family story arc in the final season was very touching. i don't want to spoil anything but the donna/gordon flashback killed me
― dynamicinterface, Tuesday, 2 January 2018 23:52 (six years ago) link
yeah so far it's not as bad as I was expecting, will definitely stick with it. doesn't hurt at all that mackenzie davis is beaucoup jolie
― calstars, Wednesday, 3 January 2018 00:07 (six years ago) link
Not sure I want to continue now after that mind numbing Texas county fair Japanese car bashing scene
― calstars, Saturday, 6 January 2018 12:36 (six years ago) link