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Mr. Robot |OT| Byte Club - a new hacker thriller - Wednesdays on USA

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N

nortonff

Hi, I'm nortonff. I spend my life going into threads to say that I don't care about the topic of the thread. It's a really good use of my time.
writerproducer-sam-esmail-and-actors-carly-chaikin-rami-malek-portia-picture-id505449998
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
So i decided to watch this since it has such a high rating

My only issue is that it feels like a "USA" show. Does that make sense? It seems to have some of the dialogue of the many, many shows with "hackers" and "witty one liners" that aren't really that witty.

I dont know if that makes sense. It just has this atmosphere that a lot of those other shows have, unlike something like Dexter which it seems to borrow from, which felt really really special in its debut.

Ill continue watching it, just not sure what to expect.
 
F

forgeforsaken

Member
TimeEffect said:
So i decided to watch this since it has such a high rating

My only issue is that it feels like a "USA" show. Does that make sense? It seems to have some of the dialogue of the many, many shows with "hackers" and "witty one liners" that aren't really that witty.

I dont know if that makes sense. It just has this atmosphere that a lot of those other shows have, unlike something like Dexter which it seems to borrow from, which felt really really special in its debut.

Ill continue watching it, just not sure what to expect.
Click to expand...

I don't really agree, in fact a very common sentiment about this show was "I can't believe this show is on USA."
 
C

CRS

Member
TimeEffect said:
So i decided to watch this since it has such a high rating

My only issue is that it feels like a "USA" show. Does that make sense? It seems to have some of the dialogue of the many, many shows with "hackers" and "witty one liners" that aren't really that witty.

I dont know if that makes sense. It just has this atmosphere that a lot of those other shows have, unlike something like Dexter which it seems to borrow from, which felt really really special in its debut.

Ill continue watching it, just not sure what to expect.
Click to expand...

Are you sure you aren't watching some CSI: Cyber reruns?
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Lol. See it feels like one of those csi shows a bit

Had to cringe at the open office romance and that line by the asian coder...something about rape or something.
 
L

lt519

Member
Just binged on this last week, Malek was absolutely amazing. I was really wrapped up in his character and I rarely get caught up like that. Tyrell and his wife had that crazy House of Cards vibe going on, show definitely borrowed from a lot of other great movies/TV, but it did it all so well while even paying homage. Girlfriend jumped in with me at episode 4 and was hooked immediately too.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
TimeEffect said:
I dont have a problem with the hacking. Just some of the dialogue and presentation that makes me wonder if it's any different from a typical hacker/CSI show. Ill see how I feel after I catch up with the show
Click to expand...
Your posts are kind of boggling my mind. Have you only watched the first episode or something? This show is unique and different from like every other show, let alone "a typical hacker/CSI show."
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Lol sorry guys :p

I'm on episode 6 now. I like it!

Again, some characters like the hacker girl sound like she was written by a high-schooler. Come on, she's so annoyingly written.
 
N

nortonff

Hi, I'm nortonff. I spend my life going into threads to say that I don't care about the topic of the thread. It's a really good use of my time.
TimeEffect said:
Lol sorry guys :p

I'm on episode 6 now. I like it!

Again, some characters like the hacker girl sound like she was written by a high-schooler. Come on, she's so annoyingly written.
Click to expand...

It's just the first season. Maybe it's just me, but I feel that we barely know this show's characters.
 
T

TimeEffect

Member
Just got through the season. I really like it. Curious to see what happens next, seems like they really turned things up a whole lot at the very end, so next season sounds like it'll be quite different, no?
 
P

Prodigal Son

Member
Well, I'm three episodes in and I've got to say I couldn't be more disappointed. Pilot started out great but shit fell apart fast after that. couldn't have tried more to like too.

I couldn't care less about any of the characters on screen. In trying to like the show, I even told myself that somehow might have been the point. (Elliot's disinterest is our disinterest maybe?) But no. They're just non-compelling characters awkwardly hovering around an infinitely more interesting, albeit not-all-that-interesting-in-the-first-place, protagonist.

As someone with crippling social anxiety who lives a damn near troglodyte-recluse like life, I'm really not big on the portrayal of Elliot's anxiety and loneliness. Guy drugs himself up and cries himself to sleep because he's so lonely, yet is surrounded constantly by all these fucking people. Hell, he's boning one of them (a girl whose name I can't, for the life of me, remember.) He's having sex while simultaneously has issues with being touched by people? He's cool with intimacy at its closest but takes issues with hands on his shoulder and hugs? Huh?
I get that he feels apart from them because of his pretentious world-view, overall elitism and contempt of American capitalism, but come on bro.

Not to mention the countless times the dude says nothing during conversations, yet every other beef-head in his life just yacks on with their whole life story. It's bizarre. Tons of other strange writing gaffs too. This shit isn't the fucking tip of the iceberg yet.

Characters make shows like this. If I don't, at all, care about the characters involved, I can't drive myself to care about the plot (which isn't grasping me at all either).

Really, really hopes this becomes better as things go on.
 
C

CRS

Member
Elliott connects through people by looking them up online, not through social norms.

Also, being around people/having sexual intercourse doesn't mean they can't be lonely.
 
P

Prodigal Son

Member
CRS said:
Elliott connects through people by looking them up online, not through social norms.

Also, being around people/having sexual intercourse doesn't mean they can't be lonely.
Click to expand...

I connect to people by looking them up online. I get that bit.
Perhaps it's my bias showing. I live a completely enclosed and shut out life where I barely encounter people because of how shit-my-pants scared I'd be to actually talk to anyone. Seeing a person with companionship, intimacy and ample opportunity to branch out, cry about loneliness feels like a slap. He struggles with mental health issues, but what exactly are we to assume is the cause of his loneliness? What rationally makes him feel as he does? Probably the elitism and pretentious world view. Maybe these questions are answered differently later. Like I said. Only three episodes in.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
Prodigal Son said:
I connect to people by looking them up online. I get that bit.
Perhaps it's my bias showing. I live a completely enclosed and shut out life where I barely encounter people because of how shit-my-pants scared I'd be to actually talk to anyone. Seeing a person with companionship, intimacy and ample opportunity to branch out, cry about loneliness feels like a slap. He struggles with mental health issues, but what exactly are we to assume is the cause of his loneliness? What rationally makes him feel as he does? Probably the elitism and pretentious world view. Maybe these questions are answered differently later. Like I said. Only three episodes in.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think you may just be projecting your own experience onto Elliot a bit too much. He has social anxiety, and just because he has opportunity to engage with others doesn't change that. It also doesn't mean he can't let his guard down and be intimate with someone he is comfortable with. That actually matches my experience with social anxiety more closely, so it's easy for me to understand and empathize with that aspect of the character. A mental health issue means he isn't thinking rationally about this kind of stuff, you know? He's still going to feel closed off.
 
J

jesu

Member
Prodigal Son said:
I connect to people by looking them up online. I get that bit.
Perhaps it's my bias showing. I live a completely enclosed and shut out life where I barely encounter people because of how shit-my-pants scared I'd be to actually talk to anyone. Seeing a person with companionship, intimacy and ample opportunity to branch out, cry about loneliness feels like a slap. He struggles with mental health issues, but what exactly are we to assume is the cause of his loneliness? What rationally makes him feel as he does? Probably the elitism and pretentious world view. Maybe these questions are answered differently later. Like I said. Only three episodes in.
Click to expand...

Depression can make you feel lonely, you don't have to be alone.
 
P

Prodigal Son

Member
-griffy- said:
Yeah, I think you may just be projecting your own experience onto Elliot a bit too much. He has social anxiety, and just because he has opportunity to engage with others doesn't change that. It also doesn't mean he can't let his guard down and be intimate with someone he is comfortable with. That actually matches my experience with social anxiety more closely, so it's easy for me to understand and empathize with that aspect of the character. A mental health issue means he isn't thinking rationally about this kind of stuff, you know? He's still going to feel closed off.
Click to expand...

Yeah. I get you. I guess I overlooked how social anxiety is so different for different people. Maybe I just really wanted to see something in fiction that mirrors my own specific troubles and am giving the show a hard time because of it. Elliot criticizing social networking (my only way of speaking to people while feeling safe) as this evil fake form of intimacy really rubbed me the wrong way too.


jesu said:
Depression can make you feel lonely, you don't have to be alone.
Click to expand...


Fair enough. That said, writing, characters and plot still aren't doing it for me, but I'm still early on. That'll hopefully change.
 
H

Hex

Banned
Finally watching through this via On-Demand.
Had wanted to for a while but never had time.
Love it, will pick it up on blu also
 
S

Skux

Member
Just binged watched season 1. That was fantastic.

It's got everything. It's got hacking that Watch Dogs can only dream of, heists as good as Jean-Pierre Melville films (the Steel Mountain episode is butt-clenchingly tense), and crazy dissociative mental shit.

I particularly like how conversations are framed with people on one side of the frame. Normally it's an over-the-shoulder shot so you can see both people, but splitting the frame up like this adds to the themes of isolation. It never really looks like two people are talking to each other.
 
P

PHOENIXZERO

Member
Aside from a message board or two and Twitter I was almost completely off the grid in terms of social media or well, Facebook up until a little over four years ago and have barely used any messaging program in that time. My decline in using that or chatting with new people through MSN/Yahoo/AIM/ect pretty much started in 2005 or 2006. My online "social life" has pretty much followed my actual social life. I still have only a handful of people on Facebook and really don't use it a lot and could delete it tomorrow and not miss it or anyone on it.
 
P

Prodigal Son

Member
Yaaay

So I just finished episode 10. Boy did his show fucking turn around for me. Episodes 2, 3 and 5 were riddled with really poor attempts at character development which resulted in insufferably non-compelling instances where unlikable characters did things I struggled to care about. Thankfully, Episodes 6 and onward were consistently quite good. The show executes its ideas well despite having a generally weak cast of characters.
I seriously cheered out loud when Shayla or whoever died. What a useless character. They had the nerve to use her as a damsel too. Damsel trope really only works if we've reason to give a single shit about her and we're never given that reason. Series improved in her absence. The prison break was also very well done, at least

They did a good job with the twist regarding Elliot's sister. Turned a uselessly unlikable character into a more grounded and relevant one by virtue of connecting her to Elliot, Mr. Robot and Angela. That's what the characters needed. Not only to have more screen time but to feel connected to each other somehow. Prior to that twist, they were all sort of awkwardly existing in Elliot's life in a way that felt disconnected and meaningless.
The Mr. Robot = Elliot's father was a fairly predictable 'twist' however. Was fairly obvious they were, at the very least, alluding to something of the sort. There were plenty of times when it was quite evident that he was a delusion. Foreshadowing is cool when it doesn't give away what's being foreshadowed.

Glad I kept going. 7/10 (pretty good).
 
N

Not

Banned
Prodigal Son said:
Well, I'm three episodes in and I've got to say I couldn't be more disappointed. Pilot started out great but shit fell apart fast after that. couldn't have tried more to like too.

I couldn't care less about any of the characters on screen. In trying to like the show, I even told myself that somehow might have been the point. (Elliot's disinterest is our disinterest maybe?) But no. They're just non-compelling characters awkwardly hovering around an infinitely more interesting, albeit not-all-that-interesting-in-the-first-place, protagonist.

As someone with crippling social anxiety who lives a damn near troglodyte-recluse like life, I'm really not big on the portrayal of Elliot's anxiety and loneliness. Guy drugs himself up and cries himself to sleep because he's so lonely, yet is surrounded constantly by all these fucking people. Hell, he's boning one of them (a girl whose name I can't, for the life of me, remember.) He's having sex while simultaneously has issues with being touched by people? He's cool with intimacy at its closest but takes issues with hands on his shoulder and hugs? Huh?
I get that he feels apart from them because of his pretentious world-view, overall elitism and contempt of American capitalism, but come on bro.

Not to mention the countless times the dude says nothing during conversations, yet every other beef-head in his life just yacks on with their whole life story. It's bizarre. Tons of other strange writing gaffs too. This shit isn't the fucking tip of the iceberg yet.

Characters make shows like this. If I don't, at all, care about the characters involved, I can't drive myself to care about the plot (which isn't grasping me at all either).

Really, really hopes this becomes better as things go on.
Click to expand...

DUDE. I love this show, but if Elliot was a woman people would totally be calling her a black hole character lol
 
B

Bruce Springsteen

Member
I loved this show, but honestly, every side story that didn't directly involve the lead was absolutely terrible and boring. When it got to the relationship drama between his co worker and cheater boyfriend I would just forward it. The Patrick Bateman wannabe was also quite bad


I hope they don't waste their time on those useless side stories next season
 
L

Lime

Member
Still only halfway through the season but is the show supposed to be funny or tongue in cheek? With stuff like: "Evil Corp", villain beating up homeless people, random executives funding ISIS and Hezbollah (lol!). I'm just uncertain about how to take the tone of the show.
 
W

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
-griffy- said:
Soundtrack update from Mac Quayle:
Just delivered the masters for the @whoismrrobot soundtrack on @LakeshoreRecs. 51 tracks, 2.5 hours of music!
CZmMP1XUEAEclOA.jpg:large


Guess it's gonna be a pretty substantial release. Also confirmed a vinyl release.
Click to expand...

Yeesh, hopefully they use a good mastering process and vinyl pressing plant. That has the potential to be quite the mess in the move to vinyl. The guys who did K. Washingtons "The Epic" could probably get this done right.

That and the price is going to be crazy.
 
U

UrbanRats

Member
Lime said:
Still only halfway through the season but is the show supposed to be funny or tongue in cheek? With stuff like: "Evil Corp", villain beating up homeless people, random executives funding ISIS and Hezbollah (lol!). I'm just uncertain about how to take the tone of the show.
Click to expand...
Yeah you have to swallow a lot of that bullshit to appreciate what good is there (the general vibe, i'd say).
Things like Evil Corp seem played tongue in cheek, and are clearly from Eliiot's unreliable narrator perspective, but then the show is still cheesy enough to make you unsure on whether they're in on the joke or not.
 
L

Lime

Member
Thanks urbanrats

Also I can't handle that Dairene character or whatever her name is. I really really don't like her. Probably the worst and most annoying character on tv in a long time for me.
 
G

-griffy-

Banned
The show definitely has a streak of dark humor/irony running throughout it. Stuff like the Evil Corp naming being the most obvious (which isn't meant to be a literal thing in the show by the way, it's just how Elliot, and by extension the audience, hears and perceives E Corp). I wouldn't call it a comedy or tongue in cheek at all though.
 
J

Jay Shadow

Member
Lime said:
Also I can't handle that Dairene character or whatever her name is. I really really don't like her. Probably the worst and most annoying character on tv in a long time for me.
Click to expand...
There's a specific episode coming up that'll help re-contextualize her. After the episode, the actress even posted on twitter "Do I make more sense?" so you weren't alone in your feelings.
 
C

Cornballer

Member
- Deadline: ‘Mr. Robot’ Ups Michael Cristofer & Stephanie Corneliussen To Regulars; Adds Joey Bada$$ & Chris Conroy
Michael Cristofer (Ray Donovan) and Stephanie Corneliussen (Legends of Tomorrow) have been promoted to series regulars for the second season of USA Network’s Mr Robot. In addition, hip hop artist Joey Bada$$ and Chris Conroy (Members Only) will join the cast in recurring roles.

Cristofer will reprise his role as the CEO of Evil Corp Phillip Price, the executive who maintains a strong disposition in the face of corporate backstabbing and scandal. Corneliussen returns as the smart and ambitious Joanna Wellick, the wife of Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström), who is willing to do whatever it takes to put her family in a position of wealth and power.

Joey Bada$$ will make his TV debut as Leon,
a new close friend of Elliot’s from the neighborhood. He often talks excessively to Elliot, advising him and philosophizing the meanings of life.
Conroy will play Derek,
the young, attractive new man in Joanna’s Life. Their intimate moments leave Derek infatuated with the Danish beauty.
Ben Rappaport and Tom Riis Farrell will also return this season as Ollie and Bill in their respective roles. They join previously announced new cast member Grace Gummer, along with series stars Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday and Carly Chaikin.
Click to expand...
 
W

wenis

Registered for GAF on September 11, 2001.
oh thank god, Bill is coming back. Biggest surprise character of the season.
 
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