This week, Halt and Catch Fire really put the emphasis on gaming and all the work Mutiny has to put into it; Donna and Cameron (Catherine) are trying to get funding for their little homeless shelter they call a game studio, while Gordon tries to kick the Cocaine habit he developed off screen while working on the Giant, and Joe was off on another planet trying to rebuild the life he had or at least wants.
The Opening scene and monologue by Cromwell was great, him and Joe going back and forth about all the job opportunities he doesn’t have because of last season was a good come back to earth moment for Joe. It is kind of sad to see Joe go from the megalomaniac schemer from last season to a guy that doesn’t have any power, and isn’t even fighting for it yet. He has indeed changed the most from season one, unless you look at Bosworth. He wasn’t in many scenes, but any time Toby Huss is on screen you notice him, his introduction to the group was fantastic, faking a horrible injury to make up a terrifying story only to go all Willy Wonka and reveal that he’s fine was a good opener for him, but after that it was all down hill. He was tormented by old letters to Cameron/Catherine and a terrible License plate joke which eventually lead to Bosworth asking Cameron to wait for him to work things out when Cameron’s only reason for hiring him was to whip these nerds into shape.
“You can work as late as you want but you can not live here…”
Donna and Cameron are still the force of the show, which keeps everything moving. They decided that the pig sty they work in needs more funding so when they went to go get it they were treated to some nice 80’s sexism. And when the hacker known as Tom Rendon messed with them, things got even more chaotic when Cameron Hired him. I can’t blame Cameron for hiring him, sure he’s a smug *&%^head but he’s clearly talented and likes what they are doing, he just went about it the wrong way. I don’t think Donna is even mad that Cameron hired him, it’s more about the fact that at this moment they don’t have great communication going on. And that is sure to blow up in their faces when they expect to expand, or become more than what they currently are.
Original internet troll
Speaking of blow, Gordon has become the energizer bunny. His lack of purpose has only pushed that addiction further down the rabbit hole (lots of puns). His fix for the Tank game was a clever and much-needed one and it seems to have helped that in particular game so it was nice to see him with a goal, but these kids just seem to be a burden to these parents. I mean even Don Draper’s kids had at least one stable parent. These girls don’t even have one. Mom is a workaholic, and Dad is off snorting the good stuff to create a novel idea. Gordon also seems to have stumbled upon something at the end of this episode. Hopefully, he becomes what Donna was to Cardiff last season.
All in all this was a great enjoyable episode with tons of jargon and techno babel. A show like this, which isn’t widely watched, has to be careful as language like that will only drive the uninitiated away. Joe’s plot was the only thing I felt this week’s episode struggled with, it was moderately interesting and seeing James Cromwell was cool. But he seemed completely separate from everything else involving mutiny and honestly any tech what so ever. Joe, not having have any connection to mutiny, is also the most enjoyable part of this early season and Gordon has taken a backseat to the superwoman known as Donna. Cameron, also known as Catherine because her Dad was actually Cameron, had a nice heart to heart with Bosworth who will most likely become some sort of a father figure to her. And it turns out building an Online Gaming company in the 80’s in an old abandon house is harder than it sounds.
