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Is this season going to have a lot of "weird" stuff going on as well? I watched the first one. I enjoyed the first few episodes, seemed like it was going to be
by auganov 10y ago
Is this season going to have a lot of "weird" stuff going on as well?
I watched the first one. I enjoyed the first few episodes, seemed like it was going to be a drama about people working in InfoSec. Definitely appreciated the relative plausibility of the hacks. Was very disappointed when it turned into a psycho-druggie-anonymous-whatever sort of thing. It went so quickly from a semi-plausible portrayal to a fetishization of [black hat] hackers.
I understand how that's more appealing to a wider audience. Just saying what I'd prefer personally for my own sake.
- DigitalJack 10y agoIt's a re-imagining of fight club, sans fighting.
- mundo 10y agoMy description is "Fight Club meets Pump Up the Volume, set in the world of Watch_Dogs."
- DigitalJack 10y agoI like that, but I think it would maybe be more "true romance" than "pump up the volume." Both fit though.
- oillio 10y agoI'd go with Heathers. You know Slater is screwed up, but you only gradually realize the true depth of his violent angry insanity.
- bduerst 10y ago"Fight Club for hackers, also drugs."
- kmnc 10y agoFight club meets Hackers meets Network. I'm still waiting for the epic "You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr Alderson" which you know is coming.
- matwood 10y agoYeah, all the way down to resetting the financial system. It bugs me because it is such a blatant rip off in many ways.
- kmnc 10y agoHonestly, I think the message is completely different. Fight club was about how cynical existentialism leads to pointless disobedience and a conspiracy narrative of the world. Ultimately it was about how misguided and purposeless the disobedience was. Mr Robot isn't about cynical existentialism, its about looking in the right places and pulling of the right sheets to expose actually broken systems. Elliot's early vigilante hacking shows he isn't some broken man angry at the world, but a purposeful actor trying to make the world a better place.
- psc 10y agoMy interpretation is that it's very intentionally heavily based off of Fight Club in season 1, but that's just the setup. Now it's what happens after Fight Club. If it were a rip off, you wouldn't have so many Fight Club references and easter eggs. I think it's "sampling" and not "biting." Of course there's disputed gray area, but I think the self-awareness makes it clear that there's a respect for the material it's building off of. There's a lot of American Psycho, Taxi Driver, etc. in there too. It's basically an amalgam of all the mind-bending/character study plot techniques.
- rainbowzootsuit 10y agoThere are quite a few homages to the film including the piano cover of "Where Is My Mind" playing when Elliot is showing Tyrell around the Fun Society gaming room. Quite analogous to The Narrator showing Marla the buildings collapsing.
- minimaxir 10y agoMr. Robot is a drama, not a documentary.
- solipsism 10y agoIrrelevant. There are realistic dramas and there are fantastical dramas. Neither is documentary.
- ben_jones 10y ago(Spoiler alert) Agreed. I'm ok with both versions but a switch was definitely flipped in my head when elliot hacked a prison from the outside, via bluetooth in a police car, in order to release a prisoner from the outside. All with 24 hour notice. That was so ridiculous. Oh and after he breaks out the prisoner he stands outside the prison in plain view of guard towers etc. for like an hour just to have a lengthy monologue. There is 0 chance you don't get caught in that situation. Oh and theres a dead fucking body next to him at the time.
- eli 10y agoI'm still kinda hoping that that scene didn't actually happen. Keep in mind we have an unreliable narrator.
- morganvachon 10y agoMy impression was that it was indeed in his head; the prison break happened, but he wasn't on scene that whole time. I could be wrong of course, and that's what I like about this show: The viewer never truly knows WTF is going on.
- TillE 10y agoI actually loved it for the most realistic depictions of drug use I've ever seen on TV or film. Really helped lend it a bit of cyberpunk-ish credibility.
- blahi 10y agoThe most realistic depiction of drug use on TV is The Wire AINEC.
- yayadarsh 10y agoSee also: The Corner
- MichaelGG 10y agoWhat? It was ridiculously far removed from reality. First, he eats 3x10mg morphine pills. Morphine has a terrible oral bioavailability (and morphine pills are relatively rare). Any self-respecting drug user would at least google some basics. He talks about "withdrawal" and having to avoid being sick, so takes Suboxone (buprenorphine) which is stronger than his regular morphine dose! It's pure fantasy. Also, he has an attractive drug dealer girl that just comes over to give him free drugs and screw him? I'm sure this happens. But I doubt it's remotely representative to say that happens to introverted semiautistic "hackers".
- 67726e 10y agoI just binge watched the show last week. I'm fairly certain he always crushed the pills with mortar and pestle, then snorted it. As for the girl, she was his middle woman, and it was only them doing MDMA that one night. Not for nothing but that's not terribly far-fetched. I've had a girl offer me MDMA before.
- MichaelGG 10y agoMS Contin pills are very waxy. Snorting them would be a terrible way to use; he'd literally be better off with IV. I don't think it increases BA anyways.
- bananaoomarang 10y agoThe first two episodes were definitely on the 'trippy' side of things. I wish they'd ditch the whole split-personality plot, but seems like we're stuck with it. It's not a disaster, just sort of tiresome. Seems cheap when compared to the rest of the show's plotting, and I was hoping there'd be less focus on it this season now the 'reveal' is done with. I think it's mainly that they want to keep Christian Slater on screen. The trippy 'Lynchian' stuff really doesn't work for me here either, it seems out of place/poorly handled. Judging by the critics/friends though, I think I'm in the minority there. I think the show is generally a victim of its writer's grandiose ambitions; it wants to appear epic and sophisticated but it ends up oversimplifying. Hacking is still great, though.
- scosman 10y agoAgreed, they need a way to keep Christian Slater on screen. My guess, they'll realize the split-personality is tiresome, and bring the the real person back from the dead somehow.
- __jal 10y agoI think they should have Slater start a pirate radio station.
- celticninja 10y agoAnd turn the volume right up, pump it up if you will.
- 10y ago
- baby 10y agoSame here, I finished just because. Acting was particularly bad I found. I tried watching the first episode of the season 2 and I just couldn't finish it.
- jroblak 10y ago>> It went so quickly from a semi-plausible portrayal to a fetishization of [black hat] hackers. One can already see from the first episode of season 2 (which I suppose you haven't seen yet) that it's much more complex than that. In season one we saw the culmination of that extreme "fight club" ideology. In season two we're going to see the results of those actions. And so far it isn't pretty.
- ogdoad 10y agoSpoiler alert; I think they gave away the point of the second season in -- how to put it -- bringing the perspective of the other both into play and under doubt: jub jnf chfurq, naq jub erpnyyf jung? It's not just a disguised diatribe on mental health issues, or even drawing on a wider understanding and appreciation of such issues in its target demographic, it's more participatory and "phenomenological" than that.
- freyir 10y ago> It went so quickly from a semi-plausible portrayal to a fetishization of [black hat] hackers. It's understandable that a lot of people on HN went in expecting a realistic show about hacking, and wound up with a much more abstract (and arguably ambitious) show about mental health, drug use, the role of corporations in society and politics, hacking, etc. I can see how that might be disappointing, but personally I like it. But I don't think it's a fetishization of hackers. It's a stylized, exaggerated portrayal of many elements of society, that happens to include hackers.
- armitron 10y agoThis is what hacking really is about. The discipline has nothing to do with computers and can be applied to everything. Those who are fixated on the technical aspects of the show are missing the elephant in the room.
- jamra 10y agoAfter the completion of the first season, I started to think of the show differently. At first, I believed the civil disobedience to be resistance against the unfair banking and credit systems that run our society. The show's creator expressed his motivations being from the Arab Spring. I'm starting to see the parallels when looking backwards at season 1. Elliot appears to represent the varied nature of the masses. Not all who want change are willing to commit such extreme acts. To me, Elliot represents that by being both the most revolutionary and quite neutral. In a way, it gives the show's creator a moral pass by showing Elliot as both the instigator of bad things and as a passenger just watching it happen. From a moral point of view, Elliot is not really a good guy, but it is hard to hate someone who is so deeply broken. I'm starting to agree with you. From a personal point of view, I'm starting to tire of this neutral zone that is entered by Elliot's inability to take a moral stand.
- racl101 10y agoHave to agree with this.
- alien3d 10y agoAllready a lot of bad marketing in hacker branding. Yes,im kinda disappointed how oddness mr robot work. Encrypt bin? I rather chown root user to my special user .
- dclowd9901 10y agoThe show isn't just about anarchism and tech. It's about madness -- hell, it basically steals all of Kubrick's most notable filming styles. It will definitely be "weird".
- pmlnr 10y agoThis is a good point; although I'll always choose Soul Eater over anything when it comes to stories on madness.
- tootie 10y agoIt's Fight Club for needs.
- orionblastar 10y agoI'm trying not to spoil the show, but Mr. Robot exists in Elliot's head and is based on his dad who died when he was young. The show changed when Mr. Robot showed up on the subway and said "We live in interesting times!", from there it started to turn into a black hat hacker/Anonymous spin to take out Evil Corp by deleting their bank database and record of debt. Eliot thought Mr. Robot controlled F-Society, but Mr. Robot takes over Elliot's body sometimes and has him do black hat/Anonymous style things. So in season 3, Elliot is staying away from computers and the Internet and trying to get a life and go outdoors. But Mr. Robot is there trying to take control. Elliot speaks to his friend who he describes as a monster inside him, but really it is the audience he speaks to, like he is breaking the fourth wall like Deadpool does.
- the_watcher 10y agoEh, while the "black hat hackers can destroy anything and anyone who is paid to do it is definitionally worse" annoyed me, I always thought of it more as using technology (a language that really does not require interpersonal skills to speak - that doesn't mean that speaking it will make you successful though) as a way to explore an extraordinarily lonely person.
- jasonm23 10y agoIMO "Fight Club" subplot was a lazy idea, executed poorly.
- jasonm23 10y agoIMO "Fight Club" subplot was a lazy idea, executed poorly.
- ivanhoe 10y agoyup, Tyler Durden meets Zero Cool (but without Angelina Jolie)
- dghughes 10y agoAll I could see as a non-Millenial was; hoodie, paranoia, drugs as if 18-35 age group from reddit was made into a TV show.