Watching this week’s Halt and Catch Fire, I was reminded of a classmate from a creative writing class I took in college. In terms of raw talent, the student showed great promise. His prose was evocative, if a bit cluttered, and there were paragraphs that—taken out of context—demonstrated a preternatural sense of how to use adjectives and adverbs to their best effect. The problem was that he often couldn’t see the forest through the trees. He would focus on crafting moments, rather than stories. As a result, his work ended up feeling underwhelming or highly derivative.
Halt and Catch Fire is a lot like that: it has a clear knowledge of what great television is, and what it should sound like, and look like, but often it shortchanges its narrative in favor of hitting its own variations of the “great” moments from other, similarly themed shows.
In some ways, “Giant” makes good on the promise of “Landfall.” In others, it reiterates several of the show’s bad habits. Looking back at last week’s review, I feel as though I might have gotten a bit too caught up in the lush visual style and heightened drama of “Landfall,” thus leading me to overlook some of the episode’s more problematic elements. It’s still a good episode, don’t get me wrong, but not without its flaws. “Giant” manages to capture some of that episode’s magic. Without the “storm” structure, it has also forced Halt and Catch Fire into regular plotlines that have not been serving the show very well thus far.
The episode opens with Joe and Cameron seemingly in a better place. Of course, Joe can’t go too long without his abrasiveness resurfacing and is soon treating Cameron like crap again. Things get more complicated with the appearance of Simon, a brilliant artist and designer from Joe’s past who Joe wants to enlist to design Cardiff’s PC. It turns out the two used to be lovers until Joe tossed Simon aside. Towards the end of the episode, Simon even has a brief exchange with Cameron where he hammers home that Joe will most likely do the same with her. This leads Cameron to tearfully confront Joe and ask if he’ll eventually “get bored” with her. It’s a strange development, as the two have had nothing but a toxic relationship for most of the series. The fact that Cameron has grown attached to Joe after what seems like only a day or two of emotional openness seems like a bit of a stretch.
As frustrating as the Joe-Cameron relationship is, however, Halt and Catch Fire manages to make a nice splash with the Bosworth scenes, which have the company man demonstrating his enthusiasm and support of what Joe and his team are making. What’s more, actor Toby Huss gets the episode’s single most satisfying moment when he punches a creepy designer for making lewd suggestions about his wife and then calling Joe a “queer.” From simply being the philistine allergic to the changing times to a steadfast supporter of our heroes, Huss has done a great deal with his character in his limited capacity.
Likewise, Scoot McNairy continues to deliver strong work as Gordon’s psyche begins its inevitable unraveling. Seeing the dead man at the end of last week’s episode has obviously affected him strongly, as evidenced by the opening dream sequence wherein he’s struck by lightning. What’s more, we finally are made privy to what drew Joe to Gordon’s desk in the first place. Apparently, Gordon had once constructed his own computer, which he dubbed Symphonic. The machine had the potential to be a game-changer, but died when Gordon was not able to get it to work properly. The fear of newfound failure appears to be driving Gordon to a nervous breakdown. With Donna out of town, Gordon’s anxiety becomes even stronger, leading to him going out to the back and digging a hole by hand. Here’s where that plotline lost me. Even with the added stress of the job, Gordon’s quasi-breakdown still comes across as abrupt and contrived. It’s less a realistic development for his character than an attempt to tie to the episode to it’s title, which refers to a desperate man who planted a fake fossil (called the “Cardiff Giant”) in his backyard to draw attention to his farm and make some income off of the “discovery.”
Speaking of overly contrived, the sexual tension between Donna and her boss finally reaches somewhat of a head near the episode’s conclusion. For some time, it has looked as though Donna’s boss has been nursing feelings for her and, during the ever popular, extra marital-affair-inducing “out of town conference,” he tries to make his move. Donna luckily rebuffs his advances. After some fantastic highlight episodes earlier in the season, such a plotline does not feel deserving of Kerry Bishe, who has proven that she can do so much more than what this storyline is giving her. Understandably, the creative team want to give her material rather than pushing her to the side, but here’s hoping the writers decide to drop this soap opera-like subplot moving forward and figure out a way to better incorporate her into the central story in future episodes.
“Giant” ultimately reveals a show that’s still rough around the edges but slowly making progress. With only three episodes left, it remains to be seen if Halt and Catch Fire can leave on a high note and justify a season dragged down by clumsy characterizations and occasionally ill-conceived plot developments. Despite its issues, “Giant” does make it seem like the creative team is beginning to take a few steps back, and that they just may get a good look at the forest.