Margaux and I continue to fawn over Halt and Catch Fire‘s kick-ass second season.
Trevor: I feel like every one of our reviews for this show starts the same way, but screw it: I continue to be impressed by Halt and Catch Fire’s second season.
Margaux: And they had an impressive director to boot, Kimberly Pierce of Boys Don’t Cry fame, and there was a heightened cinematic quality to “Play with Friends” that seems to be visual direction of season two. Which is not a complaint at all, only an observation. The nerf gun fight through the Mutiny house could’ve been way cornier than it turned out to be.
Trevor: Absolutely. The use of first-person was a nice bit of foreshadowing, as it told us that Cameron would alight on the idea of adapting the fight into a game. I also liked that when she was in the closet with Tom, the show zigged where most would have zagged and they didn’t kiss. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a little bit. “Play with Friends” was a slow episode, but in a good way. HaCF is letting its story – and its characters – breathe, and the narrative is well-served by that approach.
Margaux: Bosworth taking a more hands-on approach to helping Mutiny get their shit together was sweet, the reluctant salesman rides again. And Bos is the most charming out of everyone that works there so his idea of going door-to-door in attempt to get subscribers back would’ve been a long shot if it was anyone but the Bos.
Trevor: I’m glad last week wasn’t the last we saw of him. Toby Huss is too important to this show. That scene where he spoke to the kid and his mom was classic Bos, just wonderful to watch. Huss gets the most out of Bosworth’s good-ol-boy drawl, and even I was charmed by it. That’s what I like about Bos, though: the charm isn’t an act. He’s not putting on airs, he’s just a genuinely nice guy, who also knows how to get what he wants out of people, but not in a sociopathic way or anything like that. Does that make sense? Basically, he’s not Joe, trying to enthrall you.
Margaux: The way he levels with the mother, whose gone ahead and cancelled her teenage sons Mutiny subscription, speaking to both of them and addressing their concerns (not talking down or being condescending, the way Joe has the tendency to come off, which comes through in a different scene with Joe at his new job) softens the both of them and gets them to rejoin. You get the impression that Bos knows what he’s talking about, even it doesn’t really know what it means (ie: contemporary tech terms). It was a really well written scene, it proved so much about Bosworth’s character without having to convince you of anything, despite him being in a literal salesman position.
Trevor: Just smart storytelling, top to bottom. Which could only take HaCF so far if the cast wasn’t able to deliver. Fortunately, the performances are just getting better. Lee Pace and Scoot McNairy in particular are nicely restrained in “Play with Friends.” I liked the “getting the band back together” scenes, and I doubly enjoyed the barely-hidden animosity between them. Gordon could have easily been a nebbish computer geek who lets himself get walked on, but the show is smart enough to make him an outspoken, up-front pain in the ass. I love it.
Margaux: They’re the Paul Simon to each others asshole Art Garfunkel. I like that Joe knows Gordon, and by extension Donna and Cameron, enough to know that it would never be Muntiny’s idea to be Joe’s first tester client in his plan to rent out high powered servers to other companies during WestGroup’s off hours. And Gordon knows Joe well enough to know that Joe is pulling this off without anyone’s consent because Joe doesn’t ask for permission, he just begs forgiveness for it later. It was funny that Gordon is so skeptical of Joe, he asks him if his fiancee is even real or someone he paid to be at that dinner party.
Trevor: That was funny, even more so because Halt and Catch Fire didn’t play it for laughs. Gordon knows who he’s dealing with, the kind of guy who will wipe the Giant’s OS on a whim. He firmly believes a made-up fiance is in the realm of possibility. That’s smart writing, because it builds not only on what we know about the characters, but what they know about each other.
Margaux: A guy can’t light of a truck full of computers on fire ONE TIME? Just kidding, Joe is a class act manipulator. Gordon has every right to be vocally weary of Joe’s possibly illegal idea.
Trevor: Yeah, I can’t wait to see how that little stunt fucks up Joe’s relationship with his future father-in-law. (Speaking of which, James Cromwell was sorely missed, which is saying a lot because he’s only been in two episodes.)
One thing I found myself wondering: how does Cameron not see the importance of the community? She’s usually so forward-thinking, so I found it odd that she would want to shut down a potentially revolutionary application, one she admittedly hadn’t even tried yet.
Margaux: I think Donna herself calls Cameron out to her face as to why she so flippantly wants to cut community, it didn’t come from Cameron. It’s been proved Cameron doesn’t take feedback too kindly, unless she came up with it first. Take any scene from previous episodes when someone tries to say anything negative about Parallax, she all but takes her earrings off to fight physically fight them.
Trevor: If anything is going to stunt Mutiny’s development, it’s Cameron’s stubbornness. These are a group of guys – hell, kids – who can’t stand still long enough to take a decent group photo. Which is the whole Mutiny vibe, I get it; she’s not trying to make another Cardiff Electric. But unless she’s willing to make unpopular decisions, they’re dead in the water. Fortunately, she made a very unpopular decision in “Play with Friends” by canceling paychecks. It’s as though the writers heard my previous complains about Cameron not showing any growth. Shit, this was a very well-done episode.
Margaux: I’m so glad you brought up the paychecks because I wanted to get your thoughts on the coders who stayed behind, forfeiting pay for shares in Mutiny instead. Only two coders walked out, surprised it wasn’t more, but was surprised by Yo-Yo’s departure and his sorta bitter sounding exit line, “we don’t think the shares will be worth anything”. Not to say that Cameron’s response to his reasoning to leaving was all that mature or professional, he’d stuck around through worse (I thought) so it made it a little sad to see him walk out the door.
Trevor: At least they still have Tom, who’s like the motorcycle kid from Bad News Bears. He’s the ringer. And now he’s bumping uglies with Cameron, which is a development I think 100% of viewers saw coming. That being said, I don’t mind at all. They have a nice chemistry, and it’d be good for Cameron to be with someone who’s…well, basically who’s not Joe.
Margaux: Between Cameron’s shitty last word to Yo-Yo and now her banging her employee, it really makes me side with what Donna said to Gordon in the bathroom scene, after Donna found out Cameron made the decision to cut Community. Why does Cameron only exercise her coolly professional demeanor on Donna and not other things, like not fucking a coder that works in her house for no pay. That’ll end real well. Isn’t Cameron just Girl Joe, anyway?
Trevor: Good point, she’s definitely headed down that path. And once more I have to applaud the cast, because all of these characters are right on the precipice of unlikability.
Margaux: What about Gordon collapsing in the server room when he’s setting up WestGroup’s computers to be accessed by an outside line? It’s never a good sign if Joe doesn’t think you look good.
Trevor: Yeah, HaCF is really putting Gordon through the ringer this season. He had the coke problem in “New Coke,” now he’s collapsing on floors. Normally I’d be worried, because sickness plots are so often tiresome, but HaCF has been so good this season that it’s earned the benefit of the doubt.
Margaux: Between Gordon collapsing and Donna possibly pregnant, things aren’t going super well for the Clark family right now.
Trevor: LOL at Donna’s 80s-ass pregnancy test. Looked like she was starting a meth lab in the bathroom. You want to talk stars?
Margaux: I had to rewind a couple seconds back to spot the pregnancy test because I thought she was making some meth-esque science experiment in there.
Star wise, “Play with Friends” was another 4.5 star episode. There were a lot of new shows to watch last night, but by far, Halt and Catch Fire was my favorite (and more memorable) thing I watched last night.
Seriously Ballers is a show about sports…confusing?!
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