Halt and Catch Fire is off to a great start! Read words written by Margaux and myself. Do this, now.
Trevor: First things first: it’s great to be writing with you again. It’s been too long since Mad Men left us (RIP).
Margaux: It’s been a strangely empty two weeks, I never thought I’d be as glad to see the return of Halt and Catch Fire as I am, but what the Lord taketh away – the Lord giveth back. Or something, I hated Catholic school.
Trevor: I’m pretty sure we started reviewing HaCF last year for the sole reason that Mad Men was on break and we needed to do something. I wish I knew then what I knew now; “SETI” was a pretty damn good episode in my opinion: focused, confident, intriguing. I dug it a lot.
Margaux: It’s such an unassuming show; as soon as the catchy opening credit song plays, I’m instantly glued. I’m continually surprised and pleasantly impressed that an 80s (why would you do that costuming to your cast?!), Texas-set computer drama keeps my attention as much as it does. Even though I rolled my eyes at the opening flashback in “SETI,” it was almost a benchmark of how far they’ve come, story wise. Cameron is still a somewhat petulant brat, but I enjoyed the pacing and cutting back and forth between the three main characters we were introduced to in the season one pilot.
Trevor: I think the level of quality on display in “SETI” is due in large part to the director, Juan Jose Campanella, who directed a lot of season one. The episode, and the show as a whole, felt very lived-in, more of a continuation than a premiere. And I wasn’t crazy about the flashback either, but I definitely cut it some slack because of how it works in the episode as a whole. There was a real mercenary quality to “SETI” – we jump forward twenty months, Cardiff is getting sold, we’re moving forward. To use video game terminology, the show hit the reset button. It was an unsentimental move that I think worked to HaCF’s advantage.
Also smart: making everyone except Joe the center of attention. Season one suffered somewhat by trying to posit Joe as a Don Draper type, but I like this new approach, focusing more on the maybe-cokehead Gordon and on Donna and Cameron. I get a feeling that the focus on Mutiny means this is going to be a more feminist season; season one wasn’t misogynist by any means, but yeah, let’s hang out with some kick-ass women, I’m wit it.
Margaux: The way season one ended, you could tell that season two would focus more on Donna and Cameron’s newfound partnership, but left the futures of Gordon and Joe up in the air, smartly. Were Cameron and Donna the true engine that drove Gordon and Joe, or are they really the tortured genius they purport themselves to be?
It was refreshing to see how Gordon’s tenure at Cardiff ended up, the very 80s computer commercials for The Giant and Giant Pro were a wonderfully hilarious touch. But, like you said, “SETI” went a long way to reinforce the notion that Joe is now a supporting player. And if you needed explicitly told to you, the scene where Joe goes back to Dallas to collect his cut of Cardiff’s sale and Nathan rips Joe’s check, and ego, to shreds, was the red underline of that notion.
Oh, and, maybe-cokehead Gordon is DEF cokehead Gordon.
Trevor: Maybe that’s why he’s so skinny. This is gonna be a digression, but Scoot McNairy looked great in “SETI.” He’s rocking those glasses. I finally forgive him for shaving his beard last season.
Margaux: I’m sure he’ll sleep better at night knowing that you’ve forgiven him.
Trevor: I like all the role-reversal going on. Gordon is now the domesticized partner, following Donna around the house; she’s the one staying out all night building something, the way he and Joe built the Giant. And finding out that Gordon was the president of Cardiff Electric was a nice touch, hilariously awkward interview skills notwithstanding. Joe, for what looks like the first time in his life, now has to deal with the repercussions of being an asshole. He clearly doesn’t care if he upsets people, because he’s so damn charming that he and Gordon are laughing together two minutes into their awkward run-in, but now it’s cost him a ton of money. Looks like he’ll have to give up his Silicon Valley dreams, at least for now. We’ve seen Joe deal with obstacles before, but they were largely of his own design. This feels like a different set of problems, and I’m excited to see how Lee Pace and his eyebrows and hiked-up leather jackets come through.
Margaux: Probably with something having to do with Gordon because speaking of Lee Pace’s eyebrows, they shot up when he learned Gordon was thinking of starting his own investment firm. And since Joe is legendarily terrible with money, I’m sure whatever new venture they strike out on will have lots of landmines.
Trevor: I like that we don’t know what Joe and Gordon are going to end up doing – or even if they’re going to do it together. Think of what each character actually did in “SETI.” Joe ate dinner and lost money. Gordon gained money and got a nosebleed. Donna and Cameron argued, came to terms, blew a circuit breaker, bought counterfeit computers, and then stole real computers. I’m enjoying Mackenzie Davis and Kerry Bishe together, and it’ll be nice to see Donna break out of that “Mrs. Garrett” mold. Plus, how fucking great was that tracking shot around the Mutiny house? That’s exactly what I mean when I say that “SETI” was a crazily confident episode, and Campanella directed the shit out of it.
Margaux: HaCF definitely stepped their game up this season and have set high bar for the rest of it. I’m happy to see they’re taking cinematic risks, like the tracking shot, and have enough introspection to be make fun of how close Donna’s character almost came to becoming a “Mrs. Garrett” type.
I thought “SETI” did exactly what it set out to do: make you want to watch the rest of the season, which why I keep finding myself circling back to what will happen next – they set the stage for an interesting season.
Also: BOS IS BACK, BITCHES.
Trevor: Not gonna lie, I got a big smile on my face when Bosworth and Cameron hugged. You don’t know how much you need Toby Huss until he’s not there!
Margaux: When Nathan shouted at Joe, “my SVP is doing time!” I wasn’t sure how and when we’d be able to see Bosworth again. So, I doubly didn’t expect the adorable ending, but like you said, I needed it. Everything is better with Toby Huss!
Trevor: It’ll be an interesting dynamic; I think it’s obvious that Cameron is bringing him on board with Mutiny so she doesn’t have to be the “boss.” Fine, let him do it cause YOU CAN’T SPELL BOSWORTH WITHOUT BOSS! IF YOU MISSPELL BOSWORTH! OR BOSS!
Margaux: Toby Huss should just change the characters name to BOSSWORTH and be done with it.
Wanna talk stars?
Trevor: Yep! So I think it’s pretty obvious we both liked “SETI” a lot. There were no glaring problems, and the show seems primed to have a killer second season. However, I am easily excitable, and solid season premieres will cloud my judgment. So to be conservative – by which I mean, hold off on the rave reviews in case there are better episodes than this, which would be awesome – I’m gonna say 4, maybe 4.25.
Margaux: I’ll agree with giving “SETI”4 stars, it did a great job of getting us on board for the rest of the season, but there will be better episodes based upon what the episode has us set up to believe.
Also, I know there will be another awesome soundtrack for this season, too!
About Author
