Halt and Catch Fire, Season 1, Episode 8: “The 214s”
Directed by Daisy von Scherier Mayer
Written by Dahvi Waller & Zack Whedon
Airs Sundays at 10pm EST on AMC
This is getting to be a frustrating pattern. Each time Halt and Catch Fire seems like it’s on the right track it airs an episode like ‘The 214s”, illuminating everything that’s ludicrous and boring and stupid about the show. The “Cameron and Bosworth hack a bank” plot is terrible for many reasons. First of all, none of it is shown onscreen. Maybe the writers think the surprise of watching the police raid Cardiff distracts viewers from questioning if any of it makes sense. Because it’s one thing for a cocky young hacker to want to impress her boss by doing something dumb. But it takes an incredible suspension of disbelief to buy that a businessman like John Bosworth, who has been shown as professional, relatively risk-averse, and not even really on board with the whole PC project, would jeopardize his entire career and company – not to mention his personal freedom – by robbing a bank.
But at least this storyline, silly though it is, moves the plot forward. The (temporary, I’m sure) dissolution of Cardiff Electric raises the stakes and gets our main characters to COMDEX with nothing but a stolen PC and a dream. The rest of this episode deals with a father/son relationship that nobody has ever cared about and a husband/wife relationship that is quickly becoming almost as tedious. I really hope we never have to see Joe McMillan Sr. again. I hope that he is never mentioned again. I hope he dies quietly off-screen and is completely erased from our memories. Because every time he appears it brings out the worst in the show’s writing and in Lee Pace’s performance. The powerful, disapproving father is a trope as old as storytelling itself, and Halt and Catch Fire’s version adds nothing to the canon. It doesn’t help that the McMillans’ relationship seems to be repaired by a redeye to New York and a hasty “I love you.” If you’re going to write clichés at least see them through.
Once upon a time I had high hopes for Gordon and Donna. The pilot episode introduced a marriage of equals, an intellectual and emotional team. But the writers didn’t trust the dramatic possibilities of mutual respect, and so they reduced Donna’s character to the typical “worrying wife” role and added an infidelity plot that went exactly nowhere. Fortunately the kernel of what was initially interesting about them is still there, buried within a lot of back-story. And unlike Joe’s lonely, injury-prone childhood, Gordon and Donna’s past as programming partners is really compelling. But to leave this version of their relationship in the past, so it is talked about rather than shown, is a wasted opportunity. So, while I’m glad the writers found a way to get Donna down to COMDEX rather than at her mother’s house or (God forbid) with Hunt, I’m not convinced they’ll know what to do with her. Hopefully in the last two episodes we’ll finally be able to see the geeky, computer-obsessed woman who sold her own engagement ring for a chance at greatness.
Halt and Catch Fire has been nothing if not inconsistent. It’s been inconsistent in tone, in character, in plot, and in purpose. In this age of auteurist cable TV it’s rare for a show this unsure of itself to make it to series. And since an entire season is wrapped before it starts airing, its creators can’t course correct mid-season. So as viewers we have to accept the inconsistencies and hope that if their show gets renewed they’ll be able to learn from their mistakes. Gordon and Donna botched the rollout of the Symphonic, their first PC project, but I have a feeling they’ll get it right the second time around. I’m less convinced that their creators will be similarly vindicated.
Other thoughts:
I like the new War On Drugs album too but it’s not exactly period appropriate.
Toby Huss can imbue even the most ridiculous dialogue with a semblance of truth. He’s really fantastic.
Joe Sr: “She let you fall!”
Joe Jr: “At least she took me up there!”
Me: “I wish I was reviewing The Leftovers”
I know it would involve time travel, but I hope we see the dudes from Silicon Valley down at COMDEX.
RIP Joe’s baseball bat.