Collateral attractions: Halt and Catch Fire, episode 10

This was one of the more unusual evenings of 2014, so I’ll keep this very, very, very short. We did see an ad for Into the Storm while watching this, which I thought was quite amusing. All caps in this post are taken from material at AMCTV.com.

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The tech question seems to be that Cameron and the coders have realized that (a) the phone companies are intentionally preventing faster transmission of modem signals — they’ve built a machine that circumvents that — and that (b) online interactivity / gaming is the future. By 1984 needs for games were already driving tech developments (the competition between Tandy and IBM was only finally resolved in favor of the PC with the development of the VGA and Sound Blaster cards in 1987) and modems were common features of new personal computers by 1989 at the latest. I confess that I’m only familiar with the technical level of what’s being discussed here in the most general terms; here‘s a potted history of the modem. Also, the “problem” is that apparently one Cardiff Giant machine has a bug — which Joe takes as an occasion to try to regroup; he’s realized the significance of the Macintosh and wonders if they can’t delay the Giant a few more months and restore the interactivity which they took out in the previous episode.

Incidentally: here’s the Super Bowl commercial that Joe is watching:

Donna gets herself fired, and rehired by Cameron, and Gordon seems to end the show at the head of Cardiff Electronics, Joe having given in and realized that his emphasis on practicality has meant the sacrifice of vision — and thus more or less disappeared. All of the characters realize at some point in this episode, even as they’re splitting, that they will struggle to get a long without each other — which provides a nice setup for a second season, should that occur.

The main thing that I want to comment on is again this question that bedevils me about the show which is whether Joe has changed. In essence, I think, he hasn’t. (Sorry.) The “inside the episode” video has someone telling us that he has — but it seems like Joe is just as smarmy or more smarmy than he’s ever been in this episode — and the whole “Joe as visionary” doesn’t really sell well as a change. He’s always been that way — and the setting fire to the computers confirms it.

Also, I didn’t really buy the whole scene at Cameron’s door as evidence of his ongoing transformation. He wants to be a visionary and realizes he doesn’t have it (yet). But he can have that with Cameron, and it’s key for me that he goes to her only after he realizes that all the coders at Cardiff will not be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

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Lee Pace as Joe MacMillan in Halt and Catch Fire, episode 10, telling Cameron he can’t do it without her.

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Not that Pace doesn’t do his absolute best to sell it — but I think the script totally lets him down here.

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Joe (Lee Pace) being rejected by Cameron at her doorstep. For what it’s worth: in my opinion the script gets this exactly right as a diagnosis of Joe’s personality. There is, in fact, mostly potential but no there, there. That boy’s all hat and no cattle, as Texans say.

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As dad said to me, well, the end of this sets us up for a second season. It’s to be wished. Pace, McNairy, and Bishé are all really excellent in these roles, and McNairy in particular really grew on me during the series. All of the main characters developed facets I didn’t expect to see at the beginning of the season and seem to have room in their personae for more such surprises. I expected to be watching this for Pace and by the end that was not necessarily true any longer. So, let’s hope Joe’s trip into the wild brings something.

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And, one last time: some entrancing screencaps of Lee Pace’s hands.

~ by Servetus on August 4, 2014.