TV Retrospective: Halt and Catch Fire - Season 1

Left to right: Scoot McNairy, Mackenzie Davis, and Lee Pace

It has been a rough first season for the AMC drama Halt and Catch Fire. In fact, AMC's recent output has been rather abysmal with the critically lambasted Turn and the notoriously awful Low Winter Sun. It is hard for the network to move on from their prestige programming by making logical predecessors. In fact, there's a lot of ways that Halt and Catch Fire WAS Mad Men in the 80's from the outfits to even the opening card that read out the title's meaning. However, by the end of the first episode, "I/O," it gave a lot of promise. By the end, it may have resulted in an uneven season, but unlike most other shows on this summer, there was something alluring about it that made it feel like this strange, experimental gem. To me, it is one of the better shows of the past few months.

I know that this sounds crazy to consider, but I stand by it. Where shows like Penny Dreadful, The Strain, and to an extent The Leftovers were more dramatic, they were often pretentious and uninteresting with their dynamics. While The Leftovers has picked up, there hasn't really been a show with defining personality this summer quite like AMC's new series, which for better or worse, lived up to its own built-in hype. There's a lot of elements that didn't make sense and maybe building computers in 1983 isn't the greatest story, but much like the network's other shows, its hook was to play it fast and loose. In between negotiations, there were character moments that unified the building and deconstructed the people who made technology into our best friend.

There were moments like in "Giant" that were straight up ridiculous, including when Gordon Clark (Scoot McNairy) dug up an old computer model out of his backyard after telling his kids a story about P.T. Barnum. It left plenty of odd questions as to why that was integral, and it remains one of the many questions that weren't necessarily answered. Even the businessman Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace) added a strange charm to the series by being the risk taker. By risk taker, I mean managing to be temporarily bisexual and also doing elaborately crazy stunts simply to get attention. Building a computer never has been more ridiculous, and thus compelling.

The real heart of the show was Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis), who evolves the most as a character. With that said, some changes didn't make sense ("1984" for one is riddled with quick abrupt changes). We are first introduced to her as a punk rocker playing The Vandals while playing arcade games. Throughout the season, she evolves from a street kid who has the laziest clothes shopping montage in history to the leader of her own company. She almost births the computer alone and it is fascinating to watch her do it to one of the most infectious soundtracks on TV right now. Yes, the songs often ended abruptly for scenes, but it added an aesthetic and helped to dive into the character. As the season went on, the music turned more new wave and much like Cameron, took on a more mature and important vibe.

Left to right: McNairy and Pace

There's a lot that could be argued about the show's disappointment. It was by no means perfect and the subject of computer building is boring. However, this was a series about so much more. It wanted to defy the expectations and eventually got it not through success, but failure. Like the show, the characters were inconsistent professionally and it reflected in their work and relationships. Yes, there wasn't much development of personal home life versus the work environment, but there were attempts made. It even attempted to get metaphorical with a wounded bird in "High Plains Hardware." To say the least, the unpredictable nature and sometimes downright shoddy elements made for a more interesting narrative than if the show had been a literal alteration of the Mad Men ethos.

The show waned in the middle, eventually coming through strong with a finale that played fast and loose. It built up to the launch of their computer, and things only went hectic from there. If the rebels who set out to change the computer world in "I/O" had done anything, they had their pride handed to them. It is a lot harder than rebellion to make a difference. While some would consider this move anticlimactic, it does allow for it to have a humbling ending. Considering that Cameron with Gordon's wife Donna (Kerry Bishe) have started a new company, there is a sense of creating a new beast and unleashing it as their own competition. The computer failed, but it was fun deconstructing how the modern appliances took on their personality.

To many, the experimental tone is a detriment. The fact that I am using what seems to be pejorative language to describe it is also alarming. The show isn't perfect. However, compared to series that sought higher callings like the dull eroticism of Penny Dreadful or disjointed misery of The Leftovers, I feel like Halt and Catch Fire deserves a lot more credit as a show that was actually taking chances. Like the characters, it broke the mold and found value outside of it. By the end, its own narrative began to work out and its true intentions were made. Yes, most AMC dramas take awhile to get going, and this may be one of the most acquired tastes of them. However, I remain convinced that its choice to do arbitrary stuff at points was kind of its identity and purpose. It stood out as a result and while not in any way as explicit as The Strain, it at least was tonally more interesting in the long term.

The sad truth is that Halt and Catch Fire may not even be around for another season. This seems egregious when considering Turn's confirmed return. Of course, the show's ratings are to blame and the lukewarm to negative reaction is a catalyst. The charm of AMC has been dying as Breaking Bad and soon Mad Men depart the network. Very few new shows have taken off like they have hoped. They aren't zeitgeist material. AMC is an identity crisis right now and while it has made for some entertaining train wrecks, I firmly believe that Halt and Catch Fire has something of value. If The Walking Dead is allowed to be a zombie soap opera, then Halt and Catch Fire can be that weird computer show. With a delicious soundtrack and cinematography as well as solid performances, there's plenty to admire in the unpredictable elements of this series. It doesn't rank among the best, but its direction definitely felt promising for the network in that it took something familiar in the drama and breathed new life into it. If that isn't success, then nothing is. I hope that I am proven wrong and see this back around in 2015.

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5