Halt and Catch Fire understood video games better than any other show
Despite numerous advances in the medium, video games largely remain something of a (usually solitary) frivolity, at least when it comes to on-screen depictions. Even when a show is ostensibly about games — your Players, your Mythic Quests — it’s really all about the interactions that occur outside the games, or the process of their creation.
Halt and Catch Fire would appear to fit into this. The much-beloved AMC show made no secret of the fact that it was never really about the technology covered in a season; in the words of Joe MacMillan (Lee Pace), the computer was always “the thing that gets us to the thing,” a vector for connection, expression, or some other deeper human need. In that way, Halt and Catch Fire understands the draw of video games better than any show that’s come before it.
It would first demonstrate this in its second season when — in the aftermath of a scandal and a company liquidation — Cameron Howe (Mackenzie Davis) left computer company Cardiff Electric to form Mutiny, a primitive attempt at online gaming. The seed for the rest of the season comes when Donna Clark (Kerry Bishé) notices two players still connected after finishing a game, spurring the creation of a chat board. Even with the limitations of dial-up and 1-bit graphics, people still found ways to communicate.
Many shows set in the ’80s would feature Super Mario Bros. on the NES. But not many would follow two adults over the course of several days trying to beat it, giving tips on how to get past a tricky area, and trading off when one gets tired so they don’t have to restart the long ordeal again, all ending with them having grown closer to each other as well as with a deeper understanding of the people in their orbits. It’s less about nostalgia and more proving how technology — no matter how rudimentary — can lead to moments of insight and catharsis.
Season 4 takes this idea and furthers the distance: Cam has released a new Myst-like game called Pilgrim that no one seems to
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