mwbmis

Thought this week was a terrific episode. Not surprised by Donna's decision.

Recognized the irony of having Annette O'Toole appear in the episode where the guys try to hook up an illegal HBO signal so they can watch Cat People.

I wish more people watched this show, but I am just enjoying what I can before it's inevitable cancellation.

slop101

I can't decide if Joe's a fucking asshole, or he needed to do what he did in order to push that company to the next limit.

mwbmis

Probably a bit of both.

Coral

As soon as Joe was pushing for $5/hour (when earlier he was concerned that $5 might be too high for Mutiny), I knew he was going to reveal that he wants to buy the company.

Not enjoying Gordon's storyline this season. His character is best used in tech storylines, not drugs/health/affair/brother stuff.

I'm not sure if Joe knew right away that he was being deceived or if he just figured it out while playing chess. Even though they mentioned he probably wouldn't know much about it - I have to believe Joe would know that Mutiny wouldn't be able to port the whole interface, community, games and network to Unix in just a day. He may not be a "techie", but he still understands enough to know the complexities involved.

coli

I thought it was a very good episode, but the Gordon/brother stuff seemed rushed as they could have maybe developed the animosity between them as it just seemed to come out of nowhere, as we probably won't see that character ever again.

The show has always been at its best when the Big 4 (Joe, Cameron, Donna, Gordon) have all interacted and linked together in one storyline because they have very good chemistry and I actually find the characters more interesting then the storyline sometimes.

mdc3000

This is currently the best show on TV (I know, lots of great stuff isn't airing right now which helps, but still). I really hope AMC realizes this is a show finally hitting it's stride and one that people will eventually discover - give it another season please!

cultshock

Really good episode, except perhaps for the Gordon storyline. I agree that the show is at it's best when the main characters are all interacting with each other.

What the...?? "Master of Puppets" and "Reign in Blood" were far, far away from the airwaves in 1986. At that point, the spreading success of both bands was due strictly to touring and word of mouth, radio wasn't touching them with a 10 foot pole in 1986.

flashburn

Yep, agree 100%.

PhantomStranger

Joe may not be a technical wizard but he's proven again and again that he understands people very well. I was surprised Cameron thought she would be able to hoodwink him.

This was a very good episode. I think moving Donna to center stage on the show has upset some of its balance. She's taking up a lot of screen time that went to Joe and Gordon last season. I don't mind Gordon's storyline if they handle it correctly and don't let it dominate.

mwbmis

I don't mind that at all. I've always thought Donna (and Kerry Bishe's portrayal) was probably the most interesting character on the show.

coli

I agree as I really liked the Donna character, but the only problem is it looked last season that Joe was going to be similar to the Don Draper character on Mad Men. Mad Men has a great supporting cast, but the show is really about Don Draper and his struggles. That is the way they set it up last year in that Joe was going to be the show and the #1 compelling character, and this year he has been relegated to a secondary role and probably has the weakest storyline of the Big 4.

mwbmis

I view the show as an ensemble more than a 1 and 3.

Given how season 1 ended, I'm not sure that you could realistically rush Joe back into the game. I've liked his slow transition. Unfortunately b/c of the slow transition there hasn't been as much story to him this year. It looks like he's fully integrated now.

JTH182

Uh, at this rate Gordon is DEFINITELY going to need that miracle cure if this show gets renewed for season 3.

Another winning episode. I wonder if Cameron's choice will spell the end of Mutiny? Her vision would have been gone if she sold anyway.

PhantomStranger

I think Cameron may backtrack and leave the company, allowing Mutiny to be sold off to Joe.

By the lack of screen time they are giving Joe's girlfriend, I have a feeling that relationship won't last past this season.

dek

2 more episodes left, shit. AMC better renew this for a 3rd season.

coli

I'm really enjoying this season and hope they renew for Season 3, but my one beef with the season is they have sort of ruined Gordon's character. Maybe they know they aren't getting revewed for Season 3, and that is why they are taking his character in this direction?

Dan

Or maybe Scoot McNairy told them he wasn't interested in doing 3 seasons.

Either way, I agree. Gordon is ruined.

I like where things are going so far, in that I can't really anticipate what they'll do to overcome this. I just hope the season ends on a high note.

Shady12

Loving the show but the Gordon stuff blows. Would really suck if something this good doesn't get renewed.

mdc3000

I love the Gordon storyline - actually making him INTERESTING this year. He was fine last season but was totally playing third fiddle to Joe and Cameron. Now I actually CARE about the character.

slop101

I don't think so.

The brain thing is so ill-defined, it's like a magic writer's device. This scene, it'll make him forgetful, this scene, it'll make him an asshole, this scene, it'll make him illogical, this scene, it'll make him hallucinate. It's kinda stupid.

coli

Another great episode that is leading up to the finale next week, but the Gordon storyline is like an alternate universe at this point? Maybe if he was a big time Football player in College or something, but this CTE/paranoia plot line is just puzzles me because he was such a great character last year.

Poor Joe who pretty much screwed over everyone last year is trying to do the right thing this season, but keeps getting backstabbed by everyone on the show.

benh911

The paranoia/manic behavior could be a side-effect of the coke abuse.

Glad I stuck with this show. It kind of lost me near the end last year, but I love the direction they went this year and love this season a lot more than last season. Although I wasn't born until '87, so I don't have the nostalgia of reliving the old technology. I'm sure that's pretty cool for a lot of people.

Jadzia

I didn't quite understand what happened to the computers during the demo, could someone explain to me?

PhantomStranger

That whole bit was obtusely presented. The audience was supposed to get the impression that Cameron's floppy she gave to Joe magically wiped out Westnet during the business presentation. I guess Cameron being a hacker had come up with some kind of virus to wreck Westnet.

I have no idea how they bring Gordon back as a functioning character with this season's arc of his health issues. If I didn't know better, I would say they were setting things up to write him out of the series. AMC definitely wanted more of the focus on Donna and her involvement in Mutiny. It looks like Gordon has been shuttled off into a meandering b-story.

flashburn

Gordon's story this season is the only thing I dislike about it. It's a shame too, because everything else is so great, but his struggles are such a bummer. If it wasn't for his story, I'd say that I liked this season way more than the first.

I thought it would be mostly obvious to a non-tech savvy person to realize what had happened with the computers, but I guess not. They could of been a bit more clear about it and instead of showing the user count going up insanely fast, shown red text (universal code for hacking!!!) and some sort of error messages.