Halt And Catch Fire

[CuriousParker 3,395]

This topic replaces the old Halt And Catch Fire forum which has been vaulted at the location below:  http://forums.previously.tv/forum/409-halt-and-catch-fire-v/

[ganesh 20,842]

Scoot McNairy is back in the 80s in the new season of True Detective. 

[kieyra 10,537]

MacKenzie Davis will actually be bringing me back to a Terminator movie:

https://ew.com/comic-con/2019/07/23/terminator-dark-fate-linda-hamilton-mackenzie-davis-natalia-reyes/

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jCyEX6u-Yhs

[Miles 2,784]

Let me first say that putting boards on read only is stupid. I get moving them to a more obscure corner once the show is done, so they take up space, but what is accomplished by not letting people comment on episodes, in the age of streaming?

I would have had something to say to quite a few episodes. Now I can only say a few words in summary.

I really liked the show through it's ups and downs. The ending was pretty much perfect. I don't quite get how Joe got a job as a humanities professor, but I'll forgive that. They didn't make it clear what exactly he was a professor of. Does marketing fall under the humnities? Anyway. I really liked that him and Cameron didn't work out and the writers didn't force it. It never seemed like it would work, but lesser writers might have fallen pray of the shippers. I hope Joe can find a nice man and adopt some kids.

Donna and Cam working together again is also a perfect fit. I hope it works out how they dreamed, maybe even with a slightly better ending.

I also hope somebody tells Haley that her uncle Joe is also part of the LGBTQ community (even if the show barely remembered after season one). It can be awfully lonely being queer as a teenager, even today, let alone in the mid 90s. Would be nice if she had somebody to talk to.

[kieyra 10,537]

So Mackenzie Davis walked right past me in the airport today. No idea what she was doing in my hometown. I was absolutely starstruck but didn’t approach her or anything, because she’d just gotten off a five hour flight and also I’m a dork. (I haven’t had very many encounters with celebrities, except for Alison Mack a long time ago, and obviously that’s a bit weird these days.)

[KimberStormer 7,238]

I've just watched this show start to finish over the past couple of weeks.  As people might have noticed with me handing out likes on the old episode threads -- it's really nice I get to do that even when they're read-only.  Very out of character for me to watch a "prestige TV" drama.  But I loved it, in the end.  The first few episodes were so terrible I nearly gave up -- all that kept me watching was Donna -- but it got its groove in the COMDEX sequence, and while it was somewhat of a bumpy ride for the first three seasons, they figured out between seasons 1 and 2 that the main characters were Donna and Cameron and that was the key to the show being as good as it was.  Yet they didn't fail Joe and Gordon; who could not love those two boys by the end?

Over and over I kept thinking how astonishing I would have found my own reactions, if I went back in time to talk to myself after watching, like, episode three.  If I told that younger self that at the end of the season 2 premiere I'd be clapping and cheering to see John Bosworth again, she'd be befuddled.  If I told her that by season 3 I would completely adore Gordon she'd be astounded.  If I told her that little Haley Clark would end up as one of my favorite characters she'd think I was trolling!  Could she possibly have guessed that Cam/Gordon Friendship Scenes would be the most precious and wonderful moments?  That I'd be crying because Joe McMillan finally gets the kids he wanted, all the love he has to give?  That maybe her deepest television OTP would be the platonic friendship between Donna and Cameron and it would turn out to actually be endgame? 

Nothing's perfect, and I wish we coulda seen Uncle Joe get an e-mail (or AOL instant message?) from Haley in his office at the end there because I know how much he loves that kid, I wish Donna's speech and Bos's farewell to Cameron were a little less on the nose, etc, but! my God!  These tiny complaints fade to nothingness in the actual fact.  I'm glad I wasn't on here during the show, because I would have been fighting everyone about Cameron all the time -- I always got her, even at her worst, and was maybe more forgiving than I objectively should have been because I identify with her in some ways.  In any case, though, I think the reactions for the last season were more consonant with mine, and some of the analysis was really nice to read, so thanks guys for that.

Now to get my sister to watch -- this show about sisters -- scuse me while I go cry some more

[kieyra 10,537]

On 10/13/2019 at 3:43 AM, KimberStormer said:

Over and over I kept thinking how astonishing I would have found my own reactions, if I went back in time to talk to myself after watching, like, episode three. 

What's interesting is that if you go back and rewatch the whole show (and maybe you have by now), the earlier episodes that seemed so terrible suddenly snap into focus, and you realize the showrunners had a better handle on the whole thing from the beginning than you realized.

Or at least, that was my experience. I also went from trashing the show on forums in S1, to crying over it by S3. When I went back and did a full rewatch, I realized these characters, in their three-dimensional forms and arcs, existed from the very beginning. It's almost like I was somehow watching it incorrectly at first. Just as an example, I know there was a lot of coverage/chatter about the shift in focus to Donna and Cam, but they were fully fleshed-out human beings from the pilot onwards. And they were both portrayed as being technically talented AND multilayered. Yeah, they gave the boys more screentime at first, but the girls were never just the wives/girlfriends. 

Same for Bos---on your first run-through, he seems like a stereotypical good-ol-boy middle-manager. On rewatch you realize they were laying the groundwork for his character arc from the beginning. 

[30 Helens 21,190]

I just finished watching this amazing show...streamed all 4 seasons over the course of about 2 weeks. I can’t begin to describe how much I loved the experience. The characters were fully realized from the start yet evolved in a way that always felt true, the story never lagged, and everyone ended up in the exact right place. (Even poor Gordon, who I knew was destined for a tragic end as soon as he became ill.) Sorry to come on here and just gush, but damn this was a rare and brilliant show. I’m just sorry it’s over.

[scrb 10,601]

I didn't recognize in the new Terminator movie that MacKenzie Davis is in one of the featured roles, playing a young rambo-ette since the Arnold and Sarah Conner characters are so old -- how does an android age anyways?

Good luck to her, but won't be watching this movie.

[kieyra 10,537]

Yearly rewatch. Still mad at myself for how hard I dragged the show during its first season. 

[MrsR 1,876]

The one thing I love about this show is that it is eventually about failure. No matter what these characters do, what ever their endeavors they ultimately fail.  Yeah they make money and get another opportunity but they are always doomed to be Betamax.

 

Can't stand Joe and/or Cameron. They set Joe up to be a sociopath and then reverse themselves.  And don't get me wrong I adore Lee Pace, I watched the show just to get a glimpse of Lee Pace. I just hate that his character is reverse engineered. And Cameron, God Damn yuck. What a horrible character. Petulant brat, overrated coder and nothing else.

 

Weird show. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by MrsR

[KimberStormer 7,238]

My sister brought this idea to me, that she saw on the internet: Joe is a Loki variant

It's pretty amazing how well it fits IMO.  Perpetually scheming, bisexual, self-sabotaging trickster, desperately looking for a Glorious Purpose, always failing but always surviving, whose real role is to to inspire others to realize their potential for greatness!

[Black Knight 9,114]

That's a cool take. I always liked when Joe was his scheming self - I was so bored in S2 when he was trying to be good (boring), before he ditched the girlfriend.