Mutiny, Chaos, Servers and a Subdued Protagonist: I dislike the new Joe but I still love this show...
**Spoilers if you haven't seen Season 2 premiere of Halt and Catch Fire**
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| Credit: AMC
Am I a complete freak for having a strange fascination with Lee Pace? Oh yeah and Mackenzie Davis as well. It's totally okay if you think I am a weirdo.
If you tuned into the first season of Halt and Catch Fire you may know things ended strangely last year with confusion (on my part at least) and Joe being out in the middle of nowhere. There was also a time where it seemed like the show may not get picked back up by AMC at all. I didn't love the first season as much as say my husband did, (but then again he is an I.T tech, and a pretty good coder to boot!) but I love Lee Pace so I stuck around. I am glad I did it is a great show that kept getting better and better!
I was excited when I heard there would be a season two a few months back and even more happy it would be premiering in the summer because then I'd have at least one more summer show to look forward to....
On to today, where I asked my husband this morning "why aren't they showing a marathon of the first season of Halt and Catch Fire today like AMC does with all their other shows?"
His response: "cuz maybe AMC doesn't care as much about Halt and Catch Fire and apparently they figure people would rather see Jurassic Park all day." Haha hilarious sarcasm there honey. (not)
Well I just got done watching the first episode of season two not long ago and for the most part I am very pleased. I loved that the first scene starts off with us getting to see Joe (Pace) and Cameron (Davis) in a seemingly happy moment in 1983 teasing each other over a video game. Shoot to a 20 month later time jump the very next scene. Welcome to 1985 now in the world of Halt and Catch Fire. Seriously! What the F-! Why? Why couldn't they give the viewer a little bit more time of adorable Joe and Cameron?
It's 1985 now and Mutiny, Donna (Kerry Bishe) and Camerons' start up is in full blown chaos, which at least is good in terms of the company is still kicking. Mutiny is having network problems, servers that can't handle the load of power etc., and Cameron also seems to be tech support for the choose your adventure like game she has created. My favorite part of these scenes in the frat like set up they have with lots of coders is when they start fighting because one of the coders had installed a 500k version of backgammon that is slowing their network.
Next we see Gordon (Scoot McNairy) on some sort of business like talk show where we see him telling host about his days making the GiantPro computer and how Cartiff Electric is getting acquired by a larger company. The host asks him what he may do next and he says he may start his own investment firm out of his garage. Which means he will most likely get to building hardware again.
When we first see 1985 Joe he is running in woods, and comes home to another woman! Oh hell no I am so pissed about this as a viewer! We soon find out she was an old college sweetheart of Joe's, they are living in Austin,TX and she at least seems to know his back story from his days at Cartiff. He also is seen talking to her about going in to get his shares after Cartiff has been sold and then they briefly share at a dinner party with friends that they may take said money and move to Silicon Valley. I so hate this new seemingly boring Joe, and even at one point in scene he looks melancholy as well about his new life. (Don Draper syndrome I thought. Joe will always be a salesman at heart.)
Donna is left to continue to take care of power company issues and Cameron just acts like it's no big deal and they can basically just steal their neighbors power she called it "trickle down electricity" one of the best lines of episode. Donna is dealing with a lot between feeling like she is cleaning up everyones messes (company and house alike) though a bratty Cameron points out that "no one asked her to do that."
Joe and Gordon finally are in the same room to collect their shares and even share a brief laugh about the mistakes they made in the past. Joe isn't laughing for long though when Nathan Cardiff (owner of company) rips up his check in front of him telling Joe he "can sue him," but he won't let Joe see a cent after he basically destroyed company and hurt so many people years earlier. We see a bit of the old defiant Joe here where he gets attitude with Cardiff a bit. Gordon asks Joe in elevator as they are leaving " So what are you going to do with your shares?" Lol!
Donna and Cameron get in a bit of a sticky situation when they meet a guy that they are supposed to be getting used servers from to help with their power issues back at Mutiny, but then they realize guy ripped them off when they discover they were Chinese knock offs. Donna and Cameron then talk about all the issues of their start-up at a bar and who is going to be the "boss" but they both don't want title. More on that a bit later... They also then run into scammer guy at said bar and Cameron gets ballsy when she demands her 500$ back before getting shoved into the wall. Cameron being the fearless badass she is snagged guys' keys that pushed her and they steal actual good IBM's from guys trashy van.
Back in Austin... Joe (Lee Pace) returns home to his woman (as I sneer some more) to propose seeing as she is most likely taking care of him financially and otherwise. She tells him not to worry about money he didn't get from Cartiff and they can do as planned. I am assuming part of their plan is Joe starting up his own company in California... By episodes end we see Cameron pick up their original boss at Cartiff from prison and they both seem very happy. I am hoping this means he can be the boss since Cameron and Donna don't seem to want to take that on in regards to Mutiny.
My Bottom Line: While I'm not sure yet if I love this fresh start so to speak that Halt and Catch Fire is dishing out, I do still love the characters, Cameron more so now then ever. I do hope however that Joe and Cameron find their way back to each other and that they fill in some time gaps with flashbacks maybe. Overall I think this is one of AMC's best shows and I for one will keep tuning in and hope for the best as the show progresses with it's new style.
What do you think about Halt and Catch Fire's new direction?
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