The best thing the show’s writers ever did was realize that Joe wasn’t the most interesting character. Subsequent seasons trace the dissolution of his complex, as he finds himself confronting the limits of his charisma and the consequences of his actions. It’s the death of the antihero, and in its place rises a show imbued with newfound life, as the burgeoning business partnership between its two main female characters becomes the central narrative.
Season 2’s opening sequence establishes this wonderfully energetic change of pace with a three-minute scene shot entirely in one take. The handheld camera swings and pans around a suburban home crammed with coders, construction tools and cables strewn across the ground. It’s a cinematographic manifestation of the crackling energy, messiness and all, between people taking a risk to create something new. Here, we meet Mutiny, Donna and Cameron’s video game subscription service that takes center stage in Season 2 and 3.
As the two navigate the passions and pitfalls of running a startup, the melodramatic tension of the first season is replaced with a palpable lightness and ambition. There are still plenty of great dramatic revelations and story beats, but none of it feels forced or in service of a half-baked antihero arc. The stakes feel genuine and emotionally potent.
The partnership between Donna and Cameron is largely the impetus for this. I can’t think of a better portrayal of female friendship on television that I’ve seen than the one in this show. Rather than be defined by their relations to Joe and Gordon or by tropes like the working mother, they’re given agency and allowed to be flawed and ambitious and all the other things media has constantly told women not to be.
Cameron, who grew up learning how to survive on her own, opens up to collaborate and trust others — but there’s a constant fear of losing the company to which she’s dedicated her whole life. Donna, who has experienced the heartbreak of a failed product once before, comes into her own as a leader — but, by trying to always make the most logical decisions for the company, loses the partnership she needed most.
The progression of their friendship — the ways in which they support, hurt, and eventually forgive each other — is treated with such nuance, and it’s a genuinely moving relationship to watch unfold.
Their bond is just one of the many complex dynamics this show explores. As the show matures, so do its characters. Joe learns to understand the importance of those around him — that people are not only the means to an end, but the end itself. Gordon, so eager in earlier seasons to prove himself and be remembered for something, finds confidence and peace in the present, and leaves a legacy that will long reverberate in characters and viewers alike. As much as these characters grow and evolve, what remains at their core is what brought them together in the first place: a shared ambition to build something that makes a difference in the world.