AMC - Halt and Catch Fire

We are two episodes from the end. Everyone's really sad. I'm really sad.

I don't know, I really liked the first season. I think watching it well after the fact of Mad Men or Breaking Bad or any of those other prestige-type shows gives it some breathing space. Plus, season one Joe McMillan is hilarious. And the husband and I are fairly nerdy about computer hardware, so we were actually both invested in the tech of it. I missed season one Joe when season two rolled around.

Still, though, the last two seasons are phenomenal television. I particularly love the scenes in season four where the men gradually figure out what Haley's deal is. Just two men, trying to do what's best for a teenage girl. And I always liked Cameron's relationship with Bos. Age-appropriate and non-creepy! And I always liked how they dressed her. Never "sexy" at all.

Man, this is making me sad and missing this show again.

The scene in the first season, where Gordon steals the Cabbage Patch doll and finds the corpse... at the time it felt too on-the-nose, like a lot of Season 1. But it's really stuck with me! This show will always haunt me in the nicest way.

We spent this morning watching the last two episodes. I cried most of the way through both of them because I am a sap, but also just because they are great. I haven't felt this satisfied with a television series since The Wire. The scope of it, the character work that went into it, and the fact that the programme makers understand that sometimes people want an actual proper satisfying ending goddammit.

I thought McMillan's progression as a character is actually really well done (and didn't strike me as unbelievable esp. since he's supposed to be late 20s in first season and nearing 40 at the end of the last). All the characters are amazingly human actually. One of the few shows I can remember watching where for all the character's flaws I really liked and rooted for everyone...

watched through this show over the past few weeks, really remarkable show. each season is a near-reinvention of the show - I thought it was so bold to make Cam and Donna essentially the central characters in S2, while Gordon and Joe take a backseat. the Mutiny storyline in particular that season was so fraught yet fun and nostalgic for me, I may go back and rewatch just S2.

but then S3 and S4 also take the show to very different places. loved how the tone of the show gradually becomes less dramatic, or at least the characters do less to contribute to the drama themselves and handle it in more mature ways. the development seemed very relatable. also, hard to think of another show where I loved and disliked every main character at various points in the show: that's a huge testament to the quality of the actors. it does get a little ridiculous how much these characters' lives intersect at times, but I don't have many complaints about this show

bos is the only character on this show that I actually liked all the way through

Oh right I take back what I said, I never disliked Bos except maybe in the very first episode

late on this, really liked it.

Pilgrim's character's gait/high shoulder movement nagged at me, until re-watching the pilot ep; it's a nice (if obv.) call-back.

I watched S1 and the opening third of S2 a couple years ago, but dipped out for some reason. Coming back to it this weekend and I'm super into it now. Just a little bit into S3 and, if it rains a lot tomorrow, I'll probably finish up then.

it gets so good from s2 on. I finally watched the last couple episodes and they were pretty solid.

Loved this series. Would watch again but there is just so much to watch, it is overwhelming and often I get decision paralysis and just read instead.

I stopped two episodes into the last season. Worth finishing?

if you were inclined to stop watching that far in I can't imagine you're in for any revelations with the remainder

xp yes, because of how it's done, really touching

the final season is extraordinary imo

S4 is great if not as crazy as early seasons, and the ending was a fantastic cap-off to the series

I didn't finish it today, but I only have five episodes left and I'm dying to watch them as soon as I get out of work on Tuesday.

Going to start this show for the first time. In the event that my partner isn't feeling it, how many episodes should we give it until it hits its stride?

unfortunately, for a lot of people it's not until season 2 (though I think the change is more or less immediate?)

And I suppose it's still necessary to watch season 1 to know what's going on, as these things go?

imo yes, though I dimly recall someone upthread saying they started on S2. For me the trick with S1 was to just enjoy the time period/setting details (in which case it helps to have an interest in computing history) plus Toby Huss

Yeah. I think you can still enjoy the first season. Especially if you know that the Joe as Don Draper in Texas thing it seems to be setting up will be complimented by the more fleshed our female characters (and he gets more depth eventually too)

season one isn't bad, it's just kind of unoriginal - it's very "mad men" but set in the early days of home computing. it's still watchable.
xpost!

just started s2 after methodically working through s1, and the jump in quality is pretty evident by the first episode. first season felt like it was punching above its weight, with some leaden, obvious symbolism and a "subtext is for cowards" style of dialogue.

i did enjoy the comdex episodes, though, and i welcome any and all toby huss into my life.

joe was obviously modeled on draper, but the s1 version of joe also reminds me a bit of tyrell wellick (though i think mr robot started a year or two later).

There are so many iterations of Joe that Mad Men only hinted at with Don Draper. If Lee Pace weren't so good at it, they could've recast the role every season and it would've worked.

the shows are similar in that they both eventually abandoned forward-moving plot and instead are just the characters living their lives

pace did a pretty good job of grounding joe and his near-inexplicable actions in s1. again, e1 of s2 is already feeling like a sizable step up. i'll occasionally check in as i move along.

I loved season one! Admittedly not as much as I loved the other seasons, but I loved it while I was watching it. I think people are very down on it, but it's got a lot of fun early-days-of-computing frolics in it. Also, you know, Lee Pace.

I will say this about the s1/s2 switchover: it's one of the few shows I've seen where they figured out what actually worked, including the chemistry between certain characters, and figured out how to make a much deeper show without jettisoning the premise

all the John/Cameron stuff was great and I think Toby Huss brought way more than they were expecting

i love toby huss in this show. i don't know why he isn't in everything.

criminally underutilized in that recent Halloween, although they hinted

he's done much different accents in this and other shows like King of the Hill, but there's something that I recognize about him being from my part of the midwest

I also really enjoyed S1 for the same reasons as trishyb but Joe's actions are hard to believe. They strike a much better balance with him in later seasons

If you see him as an outsized sketch of what he’s trying to be, season one works better

Only made it through S4E8 tonight, will finish up tomorrow. I'd been expecting a "get the band back together" turn, because all ensemble shows do it, but I wasn't expecting the catalyst.

I can't be the only one who noticed the weird circular light thing that was happening throughout most of the season, whether it was the sun coming through a window or someone holding a flashlight, always from a head-on angle. Gonna have to read up on that.

Good ending.

Ok yeah, S1 E1 was a big no go. We're gonna jump to S2 and see how that goes.

S1 has its virtues, but you can probs get by with reading a synopsis somewhere. I worry you'll not benefit from a deeper understanding of the characters, though.

Definitely don’t skip the first season IMO. It’s worth it! Maybe the first four or five episodes are stinkers but the second half of the season is fun, the comdex episode is the first really good one, and it sets up the character dynamics for the later seasons.

but there’s a scene early in s1 where joe’s on a rooftop in the rain and tears his shirt off and starts screaming, and I was definitely like, oy, this show can *never* be good

Maybe zoom forward to the comdex one if you have to

I don't think that would fly with my wife, she was left cold by the set up and the convoluted reverse-engineering/copyright loophole thing (even if based on real events). And the initial market/tech landscape of IBM, hardware vs software, etc was not explained very clearly. It didn't bother me, but I can see how it would come off as "computers computers computers".

Comdex one is second to last in S1?

If her problem with the show is "computers computers computers," this may have to be a show you watch solo.

Ha fair enough, tbh I was hoping it didn't matter in the same way Mad Men wasn't made for people who care about the advertising industry.

i don't remember most of the show being computers computers computers. i think that's mostly s1.

the show becomes much more of a character drama as it goes on

Excellent

Yeah, the industry is still what it revolves around, but it gets more backgrounded over time. The details I had the most trouble following involved all the various buyouts, mergers and general vc stuff.

Yeah, to my mind it's mostly a show both about a specific set of characters and more broadly about the conflicts between creativity and commerce.

I think it may have come off as heavy-handed, but the way things circle back with Cameron and Donna at the end to make explicit how women in this male-heavy industry sometimes frustrate and sabotage each other

S1 got better as it went on but I’m about halfway through S2 and realizing it’s just a soap opera with some lipstick on. The various relationship temptations and transgressions and moral and ethical failings seem really familiar. Not sure what I expect from a tv show, probably too much.