I didn't realize how much I missed "Mad Men" until I saw "Halt and Catch Fire," created by Christopher Cantwell and Christopher C. Rogers, try to do its own version in the 1980s tech industry. After years of hearing the critical praises, I'd like to say that I finally made the time to watch this series for its prestige TV bona fides. However, the truth is that I sought out the show specifically for Mackenzie Davis and Lee Pace, who play one of the couples "Halt and Catch Fire" is built around. Davis is a brilliant young coder named Cameron Howe, and Pace is the corporate shark, Joe McMillan, who recruits her to work on the new personal computer project he's putting together at the fictional Cardiff Electric. Joe has also hired Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) to put together the hardware. Gordon and his wife Donna (Kerry Bishé) are both engineers, with a marriage already under strain from Gordon's prior ambitions.
For the computer literate, watching an alternate history of the early days of computing, where the Cardiff team comes up with so many innovations, and problem solves their way out of so many crises, should provide plenty of nerdy, nostalgic joy. For the technologically clueless like me, "Halt and Catch Fire" is still a great watch for the endless drama of a bunch of volatile, mismatched personalities constantly at each other's throats in the pursuit of creating something great. The corporate antics are often very similar to "Mad Men," with Joe as the ruthless salesman who can talk his way out of anything, Cameron as the rising ingénue, and the Clarks trying to balance home and work lives. The ensemble is much smaller, the writing more plot-driven, and the characters more broadly drawn. Soap opera style dramatic twists come fast and furious in the second half of the season. However, I like that the storytelling is very balanced, with none of the four lead characters really dominating the narrative. Donna might have been the nagging wife archetype on another show, but here there's so much time spent on her perspective, and Kerry Bishé's performance is so strong, Donna easily won me over.
There's a sense that "Halt and Catch Fire" is still finding its feet, and the show's sterling reputation is definitely a factor in why I'm giving this first season more slack. Characters that are underwritten now are on track to improve as the show goes on. The relationship dynamics are going to change as we move on to different projects and different stages of everyone's lives. The performances are all very strong, and the four leads all have interesting arcs set up for them that I'm looking forward to seeing play out. Cameron is probably the weakest link at this point, never showing much beyond her rebel exterior, but Mackenzie Davis is so striking onscreen that I'm invested in her story anyway. And I love that the writers tipped their hand in the last episode to suggest that she's based on the woman from Apple's famous "1984" Superbowl ad.
I wish the rest of the cast was a little better filled out. The only major supporting character sticking around for the long term is John Bosworth (Toby Huss), Joe's boss at Cardiff, who simply is not given enough to do and didn't leave much of an impression on me. Probably the weakest episode is the ham-handed, one-episode appearance of Joe's ex - who happens to be the only African-American character of any importance in the entire season - to throw another temporary wrench in the works.
Right now, my favorite aspect of the show is the music, composed by Paul Haslinger, formerly of Tangerine Dream. The period-appropriate electronica tracks are absolutely perfect. I think I could watch another three seasons of "Halt and Catch" fire just for the end credits music.
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