Critic Reviews

The first five episodes of that third season are as good as anything I’ve seen on TV this year.

Halt finally looks like a series going someplace important, and worth viewers going there with it.

Season 4's first three hours make major investments in everyone, especially Gordon, imbuing them all with deeper poignancy. ... Halt and Catch Fire is an urgent story of rehumanization for a cold, wired culture. Plug in now. [18/25 Aug 2017, p.88]

Halt and Catch Fire succeeds by making its tech narrative not a dry history lesson, but rather a battle of wills between four very flawed, compelling characters, each possessed of the kinds of manic ambition and tendency toward self-destruction that make for the best television drama.

It’s one of the best made series on TV, in terms of writing, performance, and direction, but it rarely bothers with anything that would immediately call attention to itself.

Those who stayed patient with Halt season 1, or those who come to the show now that the quality has gone up significantly, will be rewarded.

It would be easy for all this reinvention to feel jarring, or like Halt desperately racing from one idea to the next because the last one ran out of steam. But each transition has felt natural, earned, and of a piece with what came before.

The [characters'] growth over four short seasons is immeasurable, and now is the time to take it all in; to accept the lessons and apply them, before it’s too late. Viewers would be advised to do the same. Your future will be improved by making this your present.

Halt and Catch Fire--despite its frayed edges and a few humdrum subplots--has taken that mantra [“Good is the enemy of great”] to heart this year, approaching a status that reaches, and frequently surpasses, greatness.

Halt and Catch Fire is almost over, yet these early episodes feel like it’s just getting warmed up. Enjoy it while you can.