MovieChat Forums > Halt and Catch Fire (2014) Discussion > It's over. Reactions? Sad, disappointed?...

It's over. Reactions? Sad, disappointed?


Sad, a little disappointed but I get it.

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I know there was a lot of meaning & easter eggs I will never get & know about because I don't have the myriad of input that I received from IMDb, but to me, the ending sucked. I just realized they got rid of the men. Died. Left. Relegated. So Joe is teaching school at some east coast college pining away for his former life, love, and friends while Donna and Cameron start a music streaming service like iTunes? I did want Joe and Cameron to be together, but if they were apart, at least be happy. Joe did not look happy. Again the plot movement was clunky. I still can't figure out why Joe and Cameron broke up & why all of a sudden Comet went out of business immediately when Yahoo showed up. Can someone explain how that made sense? No thank you Chrises, no thank you.

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I have a different take on Joe. He is doing what he is meant to do, inspiring people (especially young people) and teaching them to dream. Joe is a deep thinker and Humanities makes perfect sense. Did he get everything he wanted? No. People rarely do but during the conversation in the diner, Joe realized his calling was making a difference for others, not for himself. I'm not sure what happiness will look like for Joe or if he will ever find it, but knowing your true nature is a good start. I suspect the closest Joe ever came to true happiness was during his time with Sara.

As for Comet, well that's Joe. There are no half measures, it's all or nothing which is why none of his ideas succeeded. He is a dreamer, one who inspires, a muse; but not a baron.

Joe and Cameron broke up because of Cameron.

Gordon died, it sucks, I wish he had a better ending but people die.

No sure what Donna was thinking at the end, maybe a POS system. Music streaming doesn't really fit her personality but maybe.
edit; on second thought you are probably right about the music streaming, that was the next big thing.

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If he was so happy with Sara, why did they break up? Because he was in love with Cameron.
None of Joe's ideas succeeded? ummm
I know they were talking about Joe wanting children & Cameron not last episode, but what happened to them & Comet was executed poorly.

This season was disjointed and clunky. They've never been subtle at transitioning time. I'll watch the season again and probably have a more positive attitude, but for now, I am disappointed. But I'll always have season one. :-)

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Are you maybe trying to turn dissatisfaction with the story into objective criticism about the show itself. Not every story is going to have a happy ending, not every guy gets the girl, not every girl gets the girl, not everyone makes it; that doesn't make the writing poor.

Sara broke up with Joe because she was afraid of getting hurt. But everyone carries a flame for someone, even if they say they don't. What's important is the one you are with.

Joe and Cameron had very different goals. Joe wanted to have a family and live a life like Gordon, that was what kept drawing Joe toward Gordon and why Gordon's death affected Joe so deeply. Cameron didn't want a family or any permanence.

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I am talking both - content and execution. But as far as content, Sara broke up with Joe because she didn't want to get hurt because Joe was in love with Cameron. I never saw that Joe wanted to live a life like Gordon - just because he said he wanted kids and especially since Gordon and Donna were divorced. I agree that a person's opinion about having a family is usually a deal breaker, but I don't think Joe and Cameron had "very different goals". However, not having kids was a big difference, but Joe didn't rush out and find another woman. He loved and wanted a family with Cameron. Yes, I would have liked Joe and Cameron to be happy if they weren't going to be together.

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I liked the ending. What else would you expect? They fail at everything they did throughout the entire season so I would expect this to happen at the end. Yahoo! style.

They went on to start an App company, in my opinion.

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They didn't fail at everything. Donna wasn't failing.

What's an App company? A company that develops apps? You think Donna was thinking about apps in 1995 when she looked at the old-fashioned music carousal in the diner?

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PayPal.

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Napster. Or more likely Qtrax since that service never really got off the ground.

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It felt too long, too focused on Cameron who most seemed to be an observer. They could have cut 30 minutes off, maybe even 60, and told the same story. I'm happiest with Joe's story. We know what will happen to the women, they outlined the whole story during the Phoenix scene. Gordon's is the most disappointing and sad.

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I loved it. The reason Joe knew they were finished after seeing that Yahoo was in the toolbar of the netscape browser is because they were. If you remember the early days of the internet most people would hit the search engine that was on the browser. Netscape was a huge browser at the time.
Sometimes unrealized love is the best kind. Sure Joe and Cameron never got together during this time period but who's to say they didn't 5-10 years later??? Joe teaching Humanities was the perfect ending for him. The pictures of Gordon, Cameron and Haley are reminders of how he found his humanity, shed his selfishness. How he found his purpose. Don't forget how Joe was in the first season. He was not the most likeable guy. Season 4 he was likeable. Now he is teaching people. Don't forget about what Donna said about people.
20 years ago I would have probably been disappointed with this ending as well. But as you get older you realize there are not true happy endings and probably the happiest any of us can be is have purpose and live long enough to enjoy it. All our characters seem to have gotten that. Except for Gordon if course. But he was in a good place in the end. Good with his kids,friends etc. And still an enormous influence on those he loved.

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Remind me what Donna said about people.

I agree Joe ending up teaching, humanities in particular, was the perfect ending for him. It was a callback to early in S1, I believe it was the first episode, where Joe went to Cameron's class to speak in front of it. He was such an arrogant pr!ck then. Now he's in front of a classroom again, this time with a lot of healing under his belt accumulated over the years, yet still essentially Joe. His character development was believable.

He started out as a quintessential loner, and ended up realising that people were important, and it was okay to let them in, even if he ended up being hurt by the loss of them.

You're spot on as to why Joe knew Comet had heard its death knell.

I thought that since they'd gone with the plot line of Gordon's illness, which admittedly I didn't like, they gave him the best possible send-off. He'd found love again, a certain peace with Donna, genuine friendship with Cameron and Joe, and had become the father he was meant to be. Even his actual death was kind, reliving those memories with Donna and his family.

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it was fine

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Not surprisingly, I'm sad it's over, but was not disappointed in the finale, if that's what you mean.

Episode 7 was breathtaking, heartbreaking, heartwarming, real, and perfect. The tone they hit on episode 8 was also perfect.

The only criticism I have is of the finale. Could have done without the imaginary Phoenix sign that appeared over Donna and Cameron as they talked about their imagined future.

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That future wasn't imagined...at that Instance they became visual narrators of their future as it would eventually unfold. It was a unique way to let us see the future without showing it...

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It could be interpreted either way. Regardless, I didn't like the imaginary Phoenix sign appearing above them. But that's a small criticism. Overall, I loved this last season, and E7 hit it out of the ballpark in my opinion.

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