"Halt and Catch Fire," Year Two and Three

Spoilers ahead

I'm writing about the second and third seasons of "Halt and Catch Fire" together because they cover the whole arc of Donna and Cameron's partnership, and their time together at Mutiny.  This pair become the most prominent characters in the show as they see their company through thick and thin, from building their initial subscriber base with a ragtag group of programmers, to their growth and expansion in Silicon Valley.  I initially thought that each season of "Halt and Catch Fire" was going to focus on a different product or technological advancement.  Instead, we see characters tackle multiple ideas and businesses, covering a wide gamut of the tech sector.

The Mutiny storylines drive these seasons, but that doesn't mean that Gordon and Joe don't get their share of screentime.  Joe spends season two with a new romantic partner, Sara Wheeler (Aleksa Palladino), who just happens to have an industrialist father (James Cromwell) that Joe inevitably ends up in business with.  He also can't seem to stay out of Cameron and Gordon's lives, occasionally dropping into their storylines like a Mephistophelean devil figure to make their lives more complicated.  Season three seems to see Joe turn a corner and find enlightenment, but it's hard to say for sure.  Gordon's story is more personal and less structured, seeing him adrift in his career and his marriage in season two as he confronts a major health scare, and mired in a mess of shifting loyalties in season three.  

However, what I've come to love the show for is Donna and Cameron.  They've both come a long way from season one.  Cameron's road to maturity is a very rocky one, and she's never good at playing with others, but seeing her fight for Mutiny - even when she's in the wrong -  is compelling.  Getting another love interest, Tom (Mark O'Brien) is good for her growth, even though Tom isn't much of a character.  I found Donna generally more sympathetic, but she's the one who crosses the line for the sake of her ambitions, and ends up regretting it.  I love how the partnership evolves as Donna becomes more invested in Mutiny, befriends a financier played by Annabeth Gish, and helps push the company in new directions.  The last few episodes of season three are the high point of the show so far, and the big dramatic, heartbreaking confrontation feels fully earned after two seasons of being set up.   

I like that these seasons slow down from the breakneck intensity of the first season, and are willing to dig deeper into the characters.  Some of my favorites are the hangout episodes, like the one where Gordon and Cameron spend a whole day playing "Super Mario Bros." and bonding.  And of course there's a laser tag episode, because the show's production team seems determined to recreate every nerdy nostalgic part of the '80s they can get away with.  Having the  Mutiny programmers around for easy comic relief also never gets old.  There are still some wild twists and turns afoot, and a lot of creative tinkering with the history of computing, but the characters are much more well-rounded and I've become fully invested in their fates.    

The only part of these seasons I'm not onboard with is nearly everything to do with Ryan Ray (Manish Dayal), a talented Mutiny programmer who falls under the sway of Joe in the third season.  Ryan is essentially a plot device, despite a good faith effort from the writers to show how his relationship with Joe progresses over multiple episodes.  A lot of the supporting roles like Tom and Sara feel similarly underwritten, but Ryan is so pivotal to the show and especially to Joe's development that his flatness feels particularly egregious.  Ryan's prophetic predictions about the internet are the lowest point of "Halt and Catch Fire" in more ways than one.

I admit that I've been binging the show, but I'm making myself take a break before the final stretch of the fourth season.  There are time skips ahead and I'm not ready to revisit the '90s in this universe quite yet.

    

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