Collateral attractions: Halt and Catch Fire 3.7
Fantastic episode tonight. I suppose it’s too much to hope that Cameron’s loss of the IPO vote means they’ll write her character out of the series, but I am so tired of the Mutiny plotline. (Are they inventing eBay or Second Life?) The scene in which she was voted out was dramatically pregnant and, as I found, really successful in every moment — loved that scene, it was so, so painful to be in that meeting — except the ones where Mackenzie Davis opened her mouth. Total dramatic failure where she’s supposed to be choking / emoting.
Gordon stands in front of some abstract art, or NSF Net. Hmmm. well, he figures it out later. In Halt and Catch Fire 3.7. This was my favorite scene of the episode.
But, wow. I love the Joe / Gordon scenes. I would really love to see a revival of that creative / destructive relationship as it was written in the first season of the show. It’s that push and pull between the conceptual thinker and the tech geek that is so productive and so interesting, and both actors inhabit their roles so fully. I feel like (for lack of a better word) McNairy and Pace have a really strong chemistry — the tension between them really mirrors the energy of estranged lovers, with both of them wanting things they will never get and yet having no one else to turn to to get them. Particularly where Joe is suggesting to Gordon that he should get a share in the new company — Pace mixes Joe’s humiliation and desperation really effectively with Joe’s pride. McNairy is really great at revealing this vibe in Gordon about how he really wants recognition, to e one of the cool kids, even though he knows he never really can be. We see these stances play out particularly poignantly in the scene where Joe shows Gordon their new premises.
Joe (Lee Pace) and Gordon (Scott McNairy) in the moment before Gordon offers Joe 49 percent of the new enterprise, in Halt and Catch Fire 3.7.
I really hope Joe isn’t a silent partner.
And I’m intrigued by Ryan’s leak of the MacMillan Utility source code. That could be really explosive, and I don’t just mean in a barrel in Ryan’s backyard.
Me + Richard Armitage 
I agree. Sadly, I don’t want to pile on Mackenzie but she can’t compete with nuanced actors like Kerry, Scoot and Lee. Lee is hitting it out of the park – he’s got chemistry with everybody but I love the Joe/Gordon scenes and the Joe/Ryan scenes. He even manages to make the most of the Joe/Cameron scenes. My favorite character is Gordon though he was quite underhanded in this episode – he’s such a rat but Scoot manages to make you feel something for him.
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I think Gordon reflects a type that one sees an awful lot in office situations — someone who’s so rarely taken seriously that he develops a certain kind of deviousness as a defense mechanism. That said, the only point at which I thought “that was shitty” about him recently was last night, when he forewarned Cameron about Donna’s plans to force an IPO vote.
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For me it was his interactions with Donna throughout the episode. From the way he was stuffing his face at dinner to backstabbing her with Cameron and then his “oh woe is me” face I her direction when he put up his hand to vote. You can bet he’s going to leverage that vote over her at a later time. I still like him because of Scoot’s acting but he is veering on the edge of unlikeability if he keeps going on in the same way.
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Huh, none of the intra-marital stuff seemed especially vile to me. Pretty standard — they’re supposed to be married about 20 years or so, no? She also ruined his camping trip a week or to ago, no? She gives as good as she gets.
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Felt a bit more than just interstitial snipping. Donna is not perfect either. He still hasn’t told her about being given Joe’s company. Wonder how that will come out.
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That’s what I mean about 20 years. Maybe it’s 15? Most people I know in marriages that long have one or two deep conflicts that are irresolvable; they’ve passed one of the early relationship points of no return without separating and now they are settled in for the long haul. In this marriage, one of them seems to be power and another related one seems to be gender. It doesn’t seem out of order for me. I’m glad for him, though, that he’s no longer dealing with her parents.
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