Like few other shows I can think of, HaCF’s derives drama from collaborative conflicts — emotional, intellectual, financial, creative — in which it’s not immediately clear which character is in the right and which one’s being an idiot or an asshole. It’s tough to describe how thrilling that is to see when you get paid to watch hundreds and hundreds of hours of television every year. (Nice work if you can get it, don’t get me wrong, but you get my drift, right?) I very vividly remember the show cementing its slow transformation into something worth getting excited about back in Season One with an argument between brash young programmer Cameron Howe and her relatively conservative engineering counterpart Gordon Clark. Faced with the dilemma of a competitor making a lighter, cheaper computer than their own, they had to make a decision: Keep Cameron’s elegant, personalized user interface and eat the higher cost and heavier weight per unit, or remove it, ensuring success in the marketplace and continuing employment for the people making the thing but stripping away everything that made it unique — great, even. “Holy shit,” I thought, “I have no idea what I’d do. They’re both making great points, and there’s no easy answer.” Even the best dramas tend to shoehorn viewer responses into a desired direction; Halt left me out there on my own, and I loved it. Thanks to the fine writing spearheaded by co-creators/co-showrunners Chris Cantwell and Chris C. Rogers and the nuanced acting of the core cast (Lee Pace, Mackenzie Davis, Scoot McNairy, Kerry Bishé, and Toby Huss), I’ve been out there ever since.
I reviewed the two-part season premiere of Halt and Catch Fire for the New York Observer.
Tags: halt and catch fire, new york observer, reviews, TV, TV reviews