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'Mr. Robot' may be fiction, but its hacking plots are all too real
- 3chelon 10y agoI would be interested to see if the downloads of Kali Linux have shown any significant spike since Season 2.0 was released.
- draxofavalon 10y agoalso the Wickr Me app
- stuxnet79 10y agoOne of the developers hosting Kali posted about it here once. Basically he remembers one morning waking and seeing that traffic had spiked and he was really puzzled about it. Up until he clued in to the fact that a certain episode of Mr Robot (where Kali Linux figured prominently and was advertised quite profusely) had been aired the previous night. So yes, there has definitely been a spike in Kali Linux downloads over the course of the show.
- 3chelon 10y agoExcellent. I kind of thought it must be true. Suddenly everyone's a script kiddie running aircrack-ng and no-one's home wifi is safe anymore!
- routerdam 10y agohi firnd
- agentgt 10y agoI'm going to play fan boy here. After almost finishing the second season I have to say Mr. Robot is the best TV show I think I have ever watched. Even better than Homeland. The funny thing is if it didn't even involve hacking I would still consider my favorite show. The psychodrama existentialism of the show is so good. The plot is so damn good. The acting is so damn good. Th music, the timing of title screen and the font used. I love it all.
- Retr0spectrum 10y agoThe easter eggs and hidden details are great too.
- romanovcode 10y agoI don't agree, before even reaching the middle of S01 it was pretty obvious that what "twist" will be in the end. (Obv. hiding for spoilers)
- enraged_camel 10y agoYeah, not only that but it was also very unoriginal. Straight up lifted from two particular movies in fact.
- meira 10y agoI didn't watch second season yet, but first season isn't "too real" for me. But it is still a good highly fictional show.
- cmdrfred 10y agoI only watched a few episodes, but the whole "She needs to learn to hack in 24 hours" bullshit was a little too much for me. Everything she was doing could have been a script. There was 0 reason to have her punching in commands like that, and either way that's simply using Linux. 'python hack-it.py' would have sufficed. If you haven't seen it, it wasn't much better than this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmz67ErIRa4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmz67ErIRa4 and at least that was entertaining.
- Retr0spectrum 10y ago[SPOILERS] Except the basic CLI knowledge prepared her for when she needed to run some emergency commands e.g. to restore the network connection. I'll allow them a tiny bit of artistic license here, it certainly added to the tension.
- cmdrfred 10y agoIf bouncing a network interface is hacking, I'm Captain Crunch. Maybe the other episodes are better, but that ruined it for me.
- mdrzn 10y agoI think he wrote "emergency commands" not "hacking commands". Because she's inside the same network, she can send those commands from her cubicle, so she needed to know how to do it.
- cmdrfred 10y agoThe show emphasized many times that "she is learning to hack" to the point of ad nauseam. Nobody who has a clue would ever call it that. In reality, she was learning to use Linux. Side note: Why is everyone using Kali Linux all the time? Does anyone (who isn't 14) really run that as a daily driver? They use it to surf the web and check their email. It makes no sense.
- danso 10y agoI love this show. Haven't been excited about a show like this since The Wire. Not because it is "real" in the same way that The Wire is, but because it is so fresh and challenging. There are points where things go wildly left-field, but it's not predictable. Even the first season twist, which is fairly predictable depending on what movies you've seen, is preceded and followed by other twists. The second season has veered quite dramatically from the first season, and part of me misses the hacking-focused plots (particularly the realistic handling of social engineering). But I can't fault the creator for avoiding expectations, even if the show's pace feels slower (apparently he had both seasons planned out before he started).
- zbisch 10y ago(I tried to be vague to avoid spoilers but now fear my post makes no sense) One of my favorite things about the twists though is that I feel like they actually lay a lot of groundwork and foreshadow them very well. For example, I think the twist before the main "first season twist" that you mention was foreshadowed beautifully at the beginning of the episode. By the end of the pre-opening credits scenes, I knew something was up. Similar story this season. There were so many scenes that felt weird to me (things weren't "matching") that I knew something was up. And as soon as that twist was revealed, they had laid the background/groundwork for it so well enough in season 1 that I immediately knew why it was that way. Edit: My point was that I've heard some people complain about the twist in season 1 being predictable, but I don't think a "twist" being unpredictable is always a good thing, sometimes it's shitty writing. Almost every time I'm surprised by something in Mr. Robot, I had suspected something was up and thought, "I should have seen that coming". It's almost like watching a really good magic show: I know how a lot of tricks are done, I know they're going to try to trick me, and I'm still surprised when they pull it off.
- dvtv75 10y agoI had the first twist in the pilot. As soon as Elliot entered the ... club rooms, I figured it out. I'm very good with patterns, and one thing that annoys me is knowing how TV shows are going to end before they do. I had BSG early on, Sixth Sense ("I'll bet he dies and we see a ghost. No, that's just too obvious."), watched three episodes of the Mentalist and had the culprit in the first five minutes of each episode - even within the first minute of the first episode I saw. I'm almost at the point where I can quote some more ordinary movies while I'm watching them. (That's not as odd as it sounds, it's the patterns that are used to build each scene and the overall film that are the giveaway, but it's more subconscious than deliberate.) So where is Mr. Robot going? Damned if I know. That's what I like about it. As you say, some of the scenes were so odd that it was clear something was up - why is he watching the game from the bench? Why were they so angry with Elliot, and why was the friend such an influence on them? I didn't pick that one, although perhaps I should have re-watched season 1 before starting 2. I don't think that was the big twist, though, that came later - Juvgrebfr'f fhecevfr gung Ryyvbg qbrfa'g xabj jung Cunfr 2 vf tvira gung vg'f uvf cebwrpg, naq nyy gur cbgragvny snyybhg sebz gung. Vf Juvgrebfr hfvat Ryyvbg sbe uvf bja raqf? I think the other shoe has yet to drop on that one. I think that people who write it off as "just Fight Club" are hugely missing the point - the narrator in that is just too reliable after we learn the twist, and after all, Fight Club was just a backlash against the overall commercial exploitation of the world at the time. Mr. Robot is about n qryhfvbany cnenabvq fpuvmbcueravp jvgu n fbpvny nakvrgl qvfbeqre, jub unf n zhygv-ynlrerq cyna. Jr'ir bayl frra gur Svtug Pyho cneg bs vg pbzcyrgrq, jung ryfr vf pbzvat? Really hanging out for the finale tonight.
- wcummings 10y agoThey're at least self-aware, in one scene the fsociety crew is watching "Hackers" and one of them comments "I wonder what will ruin the next generations perception of hacker culture" or something like that. Not my favorite rendition (full disclosure: "Hackers" is my favorite), but they do really drive home the "otherness", which is the core of any "hacker culture" story.
- pawadu 10y agoI find the Australian mini series "The Code" much more realistic.
- rm_-rf_slash 10y agoI think the lesson non-hackers need to take away from Mr Robot is that hacking is as psychological as it is technological. You could have the greatest firewall known to man and just one stupid or disgruntled employee with too much admin access and it may as well be the Great Wall which Genghis Khan simply walked around. Otherwise society at large is poised to think of hacking in the laziest Hollywood depictions: -- -sofprosjgpwiguwpgegepvueifuvu -"I'm in."
- touristtam 10y agoYe I would recommend reading The Art of Deception from Mitnick for those non techies. :)
- roninb 10y agoI find it really interesting that they do so much research to try to make sure they're not ruining cyberpunk culture like so many other artistic entities have[0]. [0] http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/mr-robot-halt-and-catch-fire-hacking-1201859371/ http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/mr-robot-halt-and-catch-fire...
- Demoneeri 10y agoI've watched S01 but I'm not sure I'll watch S02. The cliché about dysfunctional people in IT is too much for me. I'm a normal person and I don't have difficulties in dealing with other human beings. Also the part about vilifying companies and loving big government is not my cup of tea. At least in Person of Interest both were bad. Last part, vilifying money as a medium of exchange is just absurd. Are they expecting to exchange their computer services for eggs at the supermarket?
- dllthomas 10y agoYou should watch S02. The dorm-room philosophy of the protagonists is not handled uncritically.
- k__ 10y agowhat? S02 takes the whole thing to another level...
- jknoepfler 10y agoThis is probably the reason I'm willing to watch the show. The writing is pleasantly, surprisingly intelligent at times.
- jonknee 10y ago> The cliché about dysfunctional people in IT is too much for me. I'm a normal person and I don't have difficulties in dealing with other human beings. TV shows centered around normal people are really boring.
- scrollaway 10y agoIf you like Mr. Robot, you should watch Person of Interest. POI is a pre-snowden series about a world "in which the NSA has a system which spies on every american citizen in order to fight terrorism" (sounds familiar?). The show begins with the weak premise of "help us fight crimes we predict will happen", but don't be fooled by its appearance of a run-of-the-mill CBS show. Without spoiling it too much, I do want to say that by the end of Season 1, it transitions from "monster of the week" to an extremely high quality science fiction show, nearly invisibly. I don't want to oversell it, but if you're reading HN it's very likely to be a show that you will appreciate. And like Mr. Robot, it's one of the very rare shows that has a lot of respect for tech and doesn't vomit gibberish on their audience.
- tech2 10y agoExcept that the main storyline is likely to be rushed to completion due to the final season being massively cut in length.
- scrollaway 10y agoIt honestly wasn't.
- jorams 10y agoThe last season has been out for a while. I ended up being very impressed by just how well it's executed. When the cut was announced after season 4 I thought it could only end in disappointment, but after watching season 5, I truly felt like the series ended how it should have ended.
- tech2 10y agoThen I guess I'm going to have to track it down, thanks for allying my fears.
- Swizec 10y agoPOI is an amazing show. You can really tell how they started off with a bonkers scifi idea, then between S1 and S2 Snowden happened and the writers were like "Oh fuck this shit's real??". The show much improved from there and pushed the scifi to the max. Like ok we know this is real, but what if it was waaay more powerful? The only downside is that they let some techno babble seep in by S3 and the hacking has become a bit odd in its explanations. Overall a solid 5/7. You should watch it. And unlike Mr. Robot, it's watchable to nontechies so if your SO couldn't do Mr Robot, they'd probably watch POI with you.
- JustUhThought 10y agoSorry, rip-off from Fight Club is just too obvious and sustained. No can do.
- scrollaway 10y agoHow does a TV series rip off Fight Club?
- JustUhThought 10y agoGood god man. You asked that question? Movies rip-off books, books rip off real life, tv rips off movies. Format doesn't stop one from appropriating material. Just google Fight Club and Mr. Robot. There are plenty of interviews with the creator of Mr. Robot where he explicitly discusses the Fight Club connection. Straight from the horses mouth. I don't have a problem with referencing other works, but it's got to the point of a simple rewrite. Fight Club: A prototypical, disillusioned male worker with daddy problems has a psychotic break causing him to make an imaginary friend, and this immaginary person pushes him to destroy all debt records to set everyone free to have a fresh start. In order to do this they start an undetground club that collects members who band together to accomplish this task, who are not totally in the know regarding the immaginary friend. In the process one of the main members of thr club is shot in the head and dies. There is a woman who has a very close relationship to the main character, who is central to plot development, who is portrayed as being very antisocial and rowdy. I could go on. Sound familiar?
- scrollaway 10y agoThe word you're looking for is "inspiration". Watching Fight Club is absolutely not the same experience as watching Mr Robot.
- JustUhThought 10y agoYou say inspiration, I say rewrite.
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- psyc 10y agoI'd probably think this was one of the best shows ever written, even without a lot of the hacker stuff. The fact that they obviously use consultants who know their stuff, and depict hacking better than 97% of other fiction, is a great bonus.
- xufi 10y agoI agree 100 percent. The second I heard (and the fact that I watched the last documentary like episode of the show of Season 1 that talked with the cybersecurity experts). That made me love it even more
- adrianlmm 10y agoShow had so much potential, all when down the drain in season 2.
- Crespyl 10y agoCare to elaborate on what you didn't like about S2? I enjoyed most of season 1, but started to get turned off by the philosophy/politics towards the end and kind of stopped paying attention. Now I'm seeing people say S2 is more critical of the characters and explores the ideas in some more interesting ways, which has pretty much convinced me to start watching again. You're the first I've seen who specifically didn't like S2.
- dllthomas 10y agoSeason one ends with a lot of momentum. Season two starts very slow, for good reason. It doesn't stay that way.
- adrianlmm 10y agoSeason 1 had a clear goal, to hack E Corp to collapse banks, every chapter was about hacking E Corp, it was a little more simple. Season 2 is slow, not as exciting, and who knows what the goal is, maybe to survive after the hack, maybe something that will be revelead in the last season episode that only Mr. Robot knows, still, it is more slow paced, and tries to over analise the complicated behavior of the characters. IMHO,Elliot's double personallity should have ended in season 1. Another thing is that despise the collapse of the banks, the series doesn't show an apocalyptic world, everything is just like season 1, like if nobody cares about the collapse. And Every character is overcomplicated, Elliot with his double personallity, Angela with her ackwardness, Darlene a control freak, White Rose a time freak, and so on, and every damn character always has a monologue, it gets boring, it tries to hard and there is little substance in the story.
- dvtv75 10y agoThe first chapters of a book seldom give you the resolution at the end, here you are complaining that the first chapters of season 2 don't. If you have such a short attention span that you need something to shock you into continuing the show, perhaps television like this isn't for you.
- Philipp__ 10y agoHalt and Catch Fire is my favourite at the moment. Although it had some hmm not so great moments, third season is beyond amazing. Probably my favourite show of the year!
- ersii 10y agoConsidering that Edward Albee was mentioned in the article with a quote, I find it worth while to mention that he has unfortunately passed away at the age of 88 - just now. Edward is/was known for works such as The Zoo Story (1958), The Sandbox (1959), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962) and A Delicate Balance (1966). http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/16/462191417/playwright-edward-albee-who-changed-and-challenged-audiences-dies-at-88 http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/09/16/462191417/...
- heisenbit 10y agoThis show would not have been possible in the old world where networks all were targeting the general audience. This is a show for a narrow audience. The programming middleman managing the limited resource - prime time - is leaving. I hope this is the beginning of an age of increased content diversity.
- red_blobs 10y agoI watched the first couple of episodes and had to stop. The 'I'm special and nobody understands me' theme was incredibly derivative. Being an uber liberal-minded hacker in the US today is mainsteam and trendy, not rebellious..which is exactly the antithesis of the hacker credo. I just wish there was more original thought and less pandering to the Reddit community. Truly great shows make us think, not just tell us something it thinks we want to hear. The hacking scenes are accurate, but I would rather open up a terminal and do it than watch a poor representation of it on television.
- atombath 10y agoIgnoring everything else, Mr. Robot builds a spectacular atmosphere, which is an almost impossible task in television. This show is wonderful. I'd say it competes with Game of Thrones on quality and it's my favorite show right now. They get the technical details right enough to earn respect. Sometimes you need to give artistic freedom to the writing as long as it doesn't devolve into a graphic of Pacman eating data. Gives you some meaningless pride when you see a protagonist empty a can of Pringles into the trash, knowing exactly what they are doing. If someone has a problem with the series, my natural reaction at this point is that they're pretentious... it's not fair but imo really that's what all the criticism has boiled down to: You noticed the heavily telegraphed twist? Good job! Gold star for you! You're going to criticize a show with such wonderful atmosphere building for having long episodes? Wow, your time must be really important! He uses the wrong text editor or Linux flavor? You must be a master, could you please fix my iPad? The characters are flawed or mercurial? Could you please elaborate on the strengths of two-dimensional characters?
- instakill 10y agoI usually avoid most of the comments on here because of the negativity. I'm loving the declarations of endless love for the show on here though. I've been convinced this season that Mr Robot is my favorite show of all time and these reaffirmations make me confident in my position. Amazing monologues, realism, extreme tension, brilliant writing and acting, Mac Quayle, Sam's directing work, an attractive cast, the unreliable narrator, good story arcs and wonderful narrative styles. This show is pure art.
- touristtam 10y agoI wished the Bureau (original title: le bureau des legendes) would have had the same solid technical background.