Halt and Catch Fire: Season 1, Episode 10 "1984"

Halt and Catch Fire: Season 1, Episode 10 "1984"

 August 03, 2014


The back half of this season has been excellent. Watching the group finish the PC in time “for the computer to be on shelves by Christmas” has been nothing but entertaining. The season finale, “1984” while still entertaining, ends the season on a little whimper. This episode is all about the characters drifting off into their own thing. Maybe there were a few big speeches, but no crazy surprise was in store for us. I was surprised because the episode does not take the normal route that finales usually do. Instead, we have a more quiet, introspective episode.

The GIANT was an immediate success. Computerland purchased the computer for an enormous amount of money. Joe and Gordon are now rich. They become owners of Cardiff Electric. With Gordon as the master engineer and making the big bucks, he still is not entirely happy. He even shaves his noteworthy beard to add an intimidation factor to his looks (not sure if it really worked). Joe realizes that his baby will only be a footnote in computer’s history. Donna and Gordon plan to move Joe out, but they might not have to. Donna gets fired from TI and her future is murky. Cameron, still irked by Joe’s betrayal, takes Cardiff’s engineers and forms her new company. A company based on network gaming, called Mutiny.

I still thought the episode was decent, but I did not get the bang I hoped for. I am happy Donna and Gordon are still together. The first episodes portrayed her as the killjoy wife, but she really proved herself. Her scene where she was stoned and was dismayed at all the cookies being gone was cute. Joe spent most of the episode wandering around, not really what I wanted. I guess a relationship between Joe and Cameron are off the tables now.

This first season worked much better than I could have hoped. A show about making computers does not sound enticing, but AMC pulled it off. It is all about the characters! The show did not go crazy with ratings, but at least we got several quality seasons from Halt and Catch Fire.

My Grade: B

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