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| Scene from Halt and Catch Fire |
All things considered, AMC has become a very cooperative network to work with. Despite a previous disastrous identity struggle following the final years of Breaking Bad, the channel has become lenient on letting its shows' creators finish the shows on their terms. The same could be said about Halt and Catch Fire: the drama focusing on the 80's tech boom. Despite middling success when compared to hits like The Walking Dead, the show has recently been announced for a fourth and final season. All things considered, this is a triumph for AMC's best underdog show, and one that proved in its third season that it is more than capable of holding its own with TV's best. In fact, season three is a series best as well as one of the finest seasons of TV that AMC has produced yet.
The series begins with the transition to Silicon Valley, CA. Having gone through two seasons of programming hits and misses, the team now rejoins on the west coast with the desire to launch Mutiny as a prime computer resource. There's online financial trading, and the competition from the egomaniac Joe (Lee Pace) defines most of the season, especially as the dynamics begin to shift in the 1986 setting. Everyone wants to be the big deal. There's the familiar meetings of partnerships and potential sponsors. There's Joe doing his best to find a way to work against Mutiny before admitting his defeat and joining forces. There's Gordon (Scoot McNairy) who tries to help but finds his degenerative disease holding him back.
If anything, the show doubled down on its focus in ways that have been building for two seasons now. The dynamics are unexpected, especially as business becomes more of a serious roadblock in the way of progress. Former friends in partnership Cameron (Mackenzie Davis) and Donna (Kerry Bishe) start to wane as they find their strategies going in different directions. While they have been an independent business for quite awhile, their transition to the big leagues is met with fraught tension. Their ethics begin to shift and soon they are literally continents apart. By the season's end, both of the business women have spent years on different continents with different marital statuses. Cameron is married while Donna contemplates taking Gordon back.
The computer world has evolved immensely over the course of the 10 episodes, and so have the characters. The show's effective writing is the centerpiece as to why the show worked so well. Every character is given room to pursue their own story while coming to terms with their peculiar issue with California. This is the moment before success strikes them, and everyone wants to have their perfect plan. There's deception and insular speculation galore, and the show effectively pulls off the emotional moments as well as the triumphant ones.
The main issue is that success isn't immediate. Even with optimism and limited success, Mutiny is still not the success it could be. It's a humbling experience, and one that dovetails with Joe's ongoing story of competition and losing a partner to suicide. The early comparisons to Mad Men in season one feel just as prevalent in season three, especially as the series ends on its most profound note yet. Not everyone is going to make it into a new partnership. Symbolism abounds as they discuss their future in a rundown warehouse. They want to make the biggest impact in the computer world. Instead of coming together, it creates a separation that is heartbreaking and a strong example of the writing for the series. It is humble enough to accept defeat, but keeps striving for something greater.
The cast continues to work well together, especially Davis and Bishe. With them representing the heads of Mutiny, their struggle to trust each other becomes distracted as they see the tech industry going in different directions. It is a miracle that they even decide to talk to each other in the final episodes after a four year absence. The world has change and so has everyone's well being. There's certain longings for personal connection that replaced the partnership that was so optimistically started in season one. It's an insular theme, and one that is expertly portrayed by the cinematic technique of the series, which continues to strive in visual beauty.
The question mostly remains the one that every show must ask: how's this going to end? Considering that AMC has been cooperative with Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Hell on Wheels by letting them end on their own time, one can only imagine that certain aspects of Halt and Catch Fire will be met with that treatment. Maybe there will be more episodes. Maybe there will be more shocks. Maybe the show will say farewell over the next two years. Whatever the case may be, the show has worked very much like its show. It has slowly built an audience while improving slowly but surely. Even if Mutiny's launch wasn't that successful, here's hoping that Halt and Catch Fire can say farewell with as much energy and focus that they have showed this time around.
OVERALL RATING: 4 out of 5
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