History YMMV / HaltAndCatchFire

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/CarolKane appears in the final episode as a fortune teller who barely tries to pretend it's not a sham.

** InUniverse, Gordon's general unhappiness can be roughly measured by how much facial hair he has.

* GrowingTheBeard: The general and critical consensus is that the show hit its stride in the second season, among other improvements the script becomes less forced and character development is a lot more natural when not in the Cardiff Electric pressure cooker. This is understood to the point that it's not uncommon to see recommendations for new viewers to start with season two.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** Gordon in Dallas could have his own page: He drunkenly talks shit about his father in-law's catalog company to the Japanese businessmen who his father-in-law introduced him to, fails to check a package to see if it contains a Toys/CabbagePatchKids doll ''before'' giving $80 to a complete stranger, sends his former colleague Stan to pick up Haley and Joanie without calling the school, and then nearly destroys Mutiny with a poorly written program. This is cleared up when it is revealed that [[spoiler: he has brain damage that exacerbates his mental health issues when he is stressed.]]
** In "Valley of the Heart's Delight", Donna and Cameron seem blasé about the huge security implications of people being able to spy on private chat conversations between users on Mutiny, only noting it's technical violation of the terms of service. This unintentionally PO's Ryan enough that it helps motivate him to move to [=MacMillan=] Utility rather than improving and streamlining Mutiny's software (which might cut their costs and improve their scalability).
** Joe's company, after even including a clause in Joe's contract specifically noting his unpredictability, lets the incredibly sensitive deposition regarding Citadel's origins go ahead after informing Joe he's out.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Donna seems to understand Mutiny's underlying issues, and doesn't really contradict Cameron when she talks about the decline in user experience. Was her push for the Mutiny IPO because she thought it was a good opportunity for the company to get funding to address the issues, or did she just want to gain personal prestige before what she saw as an inevitable collapse?

** In "Valley of the Heart's Delight", Donna and Cameron seem unusually blasé about the huge security implications of people being able to spy on private chat conversations between users. They do later make passing acknowledgement of the fact that it's against the user agreement to be able to spy on private chats, however. In addition, this unintentionally PO's Ryan enough that it helps motivate him to move to [=MacMillan=] Utility rather than improving and streamlining Mutiny's software (which might cut their costs and improve their scalability).

** Joe's company, after even including a clause specifically noting Joe's unpredictability and knowing his history, letting the incredibly sensitive deposition go ahead after informing Joe he's out.

** From Cameron's view, [[spoiler:Donna]] crossed it in "Yerba Buena", when Cameron finds out the truth about Diane's decision to allow her to fire the [=SwapMeet=] founders. Cameron's trust in [[spoiler:Donna]] is definitively severed in "The Threshold" when the latter wants to move forward with Mutiny's IPO, while the former wanted to wait and improve.

* GrowingTheBeard: Critical consensus is that the show began really improving in the second season.
** InUniverse, Gordon's general unhappiness can be roughly measured by how large his beard has grown.

** In "Tonya and Nancy", Bos becomes the latest person to exploit Cameron when, in a desperate bid to get financing for the Rover project, he manipulates Cameron into writing a crucial algorithm for him, knowing full well that it would damage her burgeoning relationship with Joe if he found out about it.

* TheScrappy: Cameron has received a lot of hate from the viewers for her bratty behavior.

** In "The Threshold", Gordon unintentionally exacerbates tensions by trying to warn Donna off pushing with the IPO, but then rushing to Cameron and telling her Donna plans to continue and that he would have to vote with her. Had he told Donna flat out he wouldn't vote with her and that he would secure Bosworth's support as well, Cameron might have instead been willing to work with Donna to hammer out an acceptable timeframe for the IPO.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Was Donna's push for the Mutiny IPO because she thought it was a good opportunity for the company to grow, or did she know it had all the issues Cameron described and just wanted to gain personal prestige before the inevitable collapse?

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Was Donna's push for the Mutiny IPO because she thought it was a good opportunity for the company to grow, or did she know it had all the issues Cameron described and just wanted to get out while she still had some prestige?

** Viewers with modern experience of social media will probably spot the major blind spots Mutiny develops.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: Was Donna's push for the Mutiny IPO justified or selfish?

* HoYay: Donna seems like she might like women, too. Her dynamic with Cameron feels almost like she's married to her, and she seems a bit more flustered than expected at seeing another woman changing in a washroom. It's also implied that she ExperimentedInCollege when she and Gordon jokingly type dirty messages into Cameron's Giant OS. The possibility gains even more traction with Donna's clear disappointment that Diane wants to take Bosworth out as a plus one, and her explicit statement to Cameron that a real estate agent thinks the two of them are a couple. Later when she housesits for Diane, she drapes herself in Diane's clothes, then strips completely naked and tries them on. And then later that night, in a fantasy brought on in part by drugs she was taking earlier, she imagines that she is lying next to Cameron on the grass and saying that the two of them need each other. In Season 4, she insists on kissing a female subordinate on the cheek.

** Gordon in Dallas could have his own page: He drunkenly talks shit about his father in-law's catalog company to the Japanese businessmen who his father-in-law introduced him to, fails to check a package to see if it contains a Toys/CabbagePatchKids doll ''before'' giving $80 to a complete stranger, sends his former colleague Stan to pick up Haley and Joanie without calling the school, and then destroys Mutiny with a poorly written program. This is cleared up when it is revealed that [[spoiler: he has brain damage that exacerbates his mental health issues when he is stressed.]]

** Gordon in Dallas could have his own page: He drunkenly talks shit about his father in-law's catalog company to the Japanese businessmen who his father-in-law introduced him to, he fails to check a package to see if it contains a Toys/CabbagePatchKids doll ''before'' giving $80 to a complete stranger, and sends his former colleague Stan to pick up Haley and Joanie without calling the school. The subsequent revelation that he has cognitive issues that are exacerbated when he is stressed helps explain them.
** In "The Way In", Gordon doesn't think to do a test run of his program on an isolated copy of the Mutiny BBS (or at least give it a second look to debug it) before merrily uploading it and running it on the real thing. Disaster strikes when his program eats the BBS's software.

* TooBleakStoppedCaring: Ratings for the first season were abysmal, and the fact that at least two of the three main characters were complete assholes, and that no period of happiness for anyone lasted longer than five minutes or so, probably had something to do with it.

** Gordon in Dallas could have his own page: He drunkenly talks shit about his father in-law's catalog company to the Japanese businessmen who his father-in-law introduced him to, he fails to check a package to see if it contains a Toys/CabbagePatchKids doll ''before'' giving $80 to a complete stranger, and sends his former colleague Stan to pick up Haley and Joanie without calling the school.

** Donna Clark started out as Gordon's naggy wife, though she quickly came into her own and became the show's {{Deuteragonist}} alongside Cameron in Season 2. However, her actions in the Season 3 finale and Season 4 push her into BaseBreakingCharacter status.
** While Bosworth is the least focused on character among the main cast, he is considered a fan favorite for his likable, down-to-earth GoodOlBoy personality.
** In season 4, Haley Clark developed a fandom almost overnight after it was revealed that she was gay.
* FollowTheLeader: With its period setting in a high-profile industry, brooding protagonist with a mysterious past and penchant for inspirational monologues, and female {{Determinator}} co-lead, the show was clearly inspired by ''Series/MadMen.''

** In the third-season finale, Cameron accuses Donna of treating other people like they're disposable once they no longer serve a purpose to her. In season 4, it's revealed that Donna divorced Gordon in order to advance her career.

** Lev is revealed to be gay in "Extract and Defend." The Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage across the U.S. a couple of days before the episode aired.

** In "Adventure", Gordon drunkenly talks shit about his father in-law's catalog company to the Japanese, ''especially'' when said father-in-law was the one who brokered the meeting in the first place.
** In "Landfall", Gordon fails to check a package to see if it contains a Toys/CabbagePatchKids doll ''before'' giving $80 to a complete stranger.
** In "New Coke", Gordon sends his former colleague Stan to pick up Haley and Joanie without calling the school. Then again, Gordon was high on cocaine.

* DarknessInducedAudienceApathy: Ratings for the first season were abysmal, and the fact that at least two of the three main characters were complete assholes, and that no period of happiness for anyone lasted longer than five minutes or so, probably had something to do with it.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: Lev is shown flirting with a guy in Mutiny, but a few episodes later it turns out that it was just a bunch of homophobes luring him so they could attack him.

* GeniusBonus: Cameron actually really lucked out that Atari took a pass on her game, given their imminent collapse with the failure of the Jaguar.

* ValuesDissonance: In the season 1 episode "Adventure", when Cameron finds out that she's being demoted to remedial assignments Lev retorts by saying "Welcome to the short bus" [[note]] a dated term towards special education students [[/note]], this being the 1980s it was common to make such jokes. These days with people having more political correctness a person would be offended at remarks about remedial students.