Mr. Robutt

[Gwardinen]

By the by, Mr. Robot seems much better than I had expected it to be. I'm not 100% sold just yet, I'll try to remember to come back and make a full post if I become so, but so far it's actually genuinely well acted and the dialogue is all pretty natural. Neither of which I associate with shows from the USA network, or really anything about hackers.

[bakelite]

I'm really enjoying Mr. Robot despite the occasional awkward scene: 

[Cleinhun]

I remember seeing a trailer for Mr Robot and thinking it looked like parody of hacker movie trailers. It also featured some of the worst acting I've seen in a trailer. But now I keep hearing that the show itself is actually good and I don't know what to think.

[toblix]

I hear that too. Also, for what it's worth, I heard the entire plot has already been planned and mapped out. I know nothing about the show, but that has got to be good, right?

[feelthedarkness]

I'm loving Mr. Robot! 

 

It's a tiny element, but I love the filmic treatment they use for the title cards. 

[Gwardinen]

  On 8/3/2015 at 3:48 PM, feelthedarkness said:

It's a tiny element, but I love the filmic treatment they use for the title cards.

Agreed. Not least because it means I don't have to watch the same couple of minutes of titles with the same theme every episode as with most shows.

[jennegatron]

Mr. Robot lost me in episode 2 when they made some principled argument for the Gold Standard. I know it's super petty, but it's true, and some Ron Paul libertarian bullshit that people my age have said to me before.

[thenexus6]

I started watching Mr Robot two days ago after never hearing of the show before. Just finished the latest episode (8) and I love it. My favourite show of the summer, great acting, visuals and music. I like the fact they've paid attention to small details that most shows don't bother with, like when someone is on the phone the screen just stays white because they aren't actually using the phone app, however in this show they really are.

[Vesper]

  On 8/13/2015 at 3:27 PM, thenexus6 said:

I started watching Mr Robot two days ago after never hearing of the show before. Just finished the latest episode (8) and I love it. My favourite show of the summer, great acting, visuals and music. I like the fact they've paid attention to small details that most shows don't bother with, like when someone is on the phone the screen just stays white because they aren't actually using the phone app, however in this show they really are.

Mr. Robot is amazing.  They are doing the 'unreliable narrator' to the extreme and the writing is top notch.  I've been thinking of writing in to suggest this as a new TV show to discuss on a podcast now that True Detective is over.

[bakelite]

Superb twists in the latest episode, I really like how they hint at the worst clichés only to subvert them. Good podcast material, but I'd still love to see a The Americans cast. Americast?

[Gwardinen]

  On 8/13/2015 at 8:02 PM, bakelite said:

Superb twists in the latest episode, I really like how they hint at the worst clichés only to subvert them. Good podcast material, but I'd still love to see a The Americans cast. Americast?

 

For the record, if you're looking for some Americans podcast action you could do worse than the Americans Slate TV Insider podcast. It's obviously not as critical as the Thumbs' stuff because it's mostly made by people who work on the show, but hearing the behind the scenes stories and perspectives of the cast and crew is neat.

[Mawd]

So my partner and I love Mr.Robot. At a time when we weren't watching much together because neither of us could motivate ourselves to watch the shows the other liked more (I was worse at this) Mr.Robot comes along and sweeps us off our feet with some super great TV. I don't think I've seen a show that felt this consistently great since In The Flesh.

[Ben X]

I just gave up on Mr Robot. The first two or three episodes were fantastic, but (massive spoilers):

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I started to get very distracted by the fact that it seemed to be pulling a Fight Club - that is, Christian Slater's character being imaginary and all the exact same tricks being used to hide it. By episode 5 I had to google it and it turns out they don't reveal it until episode 9 (along with the fact that he's Eliot's father, which I had also guessed). But apparently everyone thinks it's really clever because the show knows that it's an obvious twist, so it gives him the exact same plan as Durden (blowing up debt data buildings), plays a cover of Where Is My Mind, and has Eliot say to the viewer "you knew already, didn't you?" That doesn't feel clever at all to me, more like trying to eat their cake and have it. Plus it's moot if the effect is just distracting, and the show had really started to lose momentum around episodes 4 and 5 anyway.

 

A real disappointment.

[brkl]

I think I gave up after four or so as well.

[gdf]

Over the weekend I watched the first couple of episodes of Mr. Robot. I found it quite compelling, particularly the main character. However, I can't really tell if the conspiratorial, le wrong generation, wake-up-sheeple angle is meant to be taken seriously or not. Because I'm not sure I can stomach that for 10+ hours if it is. 

[Lechimp]

  On 5/2/2016 at 1:02 PM, gdf said:

Over the weekend I watched the first couple of episodes of Mr. Robot. I found it quite compelling, particularly the main character. However, I can't really tell if the conspiratorial, le wrong generation, wake-up-sheeple angle is meant to be taken seriously or not. Because I'm not sure I can stomach that for 10+ hours if it is. 

 

I'm watching the series right now too and I don't think it is? It kind of feels like they're being ironic/sarcastic to me but maybe that's wishful thinking.

 

Still really liking it though. I think it's nice to see a lead character that has social anxiety and depression and doesn't feel gimmicky to me.

[syntheticgerbil]

What

[Jake]

Did you play the mobile game by Night School? I only watched half of season one but think the game is really clever. 

[syntheticgerbil]

a

[marginalgloss]

I'm glad you started this thread because I've been dying to discuss this show somewhere. My partner and I have been working through it at a glacial pace - we still need to finish the final two episodes. 

 

I've extremely mixed feelings about it. I think the performances, music, cinematography and production design are outstanding, but (and I don't know how else to describe this) it's also one of the silliest serious dramas I've ever seen. I don't mean 'silly' in the sense of 'not serious' - although there is a fair bit of that in season 1, with the omnipresent men in black, the heavy-handed references to 'Evil Corp', etc. I found a lot of that stuff too heavy-handed, and I'm glad they reined it in for season 2. 

 

I mean 'silly' more in the sense that in trying to constantly accelerate the tension the plotting ends up wildly overreaching. The second season in particular is super ambitious, and suffers from the worst tendency of modern big-budget TV shows - it's the mid-season Breaking Bad/Game of Thrones thing of long, ponderous sequences in which a lot seems to happen but almost nothing actually happens, except for another brutal/inconsequential cliffhanger two minutes from the end credits.

And yet I don't really care? In many ways it's beautifully made. I like shows where mysteries are piled upon mysteries, in the vein of early Twin Peaks. I'll always be happy to watch more of something where the reach exceeds the grasp on a regular basis than something where I know exactly what to expect every week. Thus far, a fascination with that oppressive, paranoid, languorous atmosphere has been sufficient to keep me coming back, even though at times I feel like I'm just submitting my patience to more punishment.

 

I read somewhere that Esmail said he wanted to use this season to tie up all the loose ends from season 1, which seems like a particularly cruel joke. It's almost like a totally different show. Season 1 was relatively conventional. Everything was pointing in the same direction towards the Scooby Gang of hackers and their big heist. The audience is kind of hoping they succeed, even though they're doing some dubious things. Season 2, on the other hand, is a mess of difficult and contradictory fragments. It's suddenly about everything and about nothing at the same time - hyper-referential in that superficial way so common to so many TV shows.

Some more detailed, spoiler-heavy thoughts on season 2: 

  Reveal hidden contents

It's got to the point now where I'm not entirely sure how they can possibly resolve the situation without either E Corp or the Dark Army being entirely destroyed. I'm also not sure I have the confidence that the people running the show know how to 'fix' this either - normally that's not something I like, but in this case it seems oddly fitting for a show that's about entropy. 

I think Eliot will ultimately pull something out of the bag that ends up wrecking Whiterose and propelling E Corp towards global dominance. Or would that be too heroic? Something horrible and shaming is probably going to happen to Whiterose. It feels like the Dark Army have been too omnipotent for too long in this series - they now seem to be approaching the status of cartoon villains. I don't think they can sustain that for another season. 

Something horrible and shaming is probably going to happen to Dom, too. That'd be a shame because she is my favourite character. Oh, and through some absurd contrivance, Angela will probably end up in charge of E Corp. I can't get enough of her glassy stare.

I have a private theory. I don't seriously think it's possible, though other viewers seem to have come to similar conclusions, but here it is anyway:

Tyrell is actually the main character in the show. Eliot is one aspect of the persona that lives within Tyrell, with Mr Robot himself being a persona that lives within Eliot. It's a sort of Russian Doll situation, with Tyrell as the biggest and most real doll. 

There are probably too many incidental details we've seen that would render this impossible, but the main reason I find it compelling is because in Tyrell we see a whole other aspect to 'the hacker persona' that isn't captured in either Malek or Slater's performance. Tyrell is Eliot's violent, deviant, sexual side - the really unpleasant, Patrick Bateman-esque side - the side that he has to keep repressed even more than the Mr Robot side. And it strikes me as really noteworthy that Eliot's sexuality basically disappears entirely in season 2 - along, of course, with Tyrell. 

Sorry if this ended up being a bit of a ramble. Clearly in spite of my mixed feelings I have a lot to say about this show! I too have heard good things about that mobile game but I have not played it yet!

[syntheticgerbil]

god

[Ben X]

[double-post due to thread-splitting]

[melmer]

There was a really great tv podcast with Sam Esmail Around the time the second season finished. But I can't remember what it was called...

 

Here it is. It's really great to hear him talk about the risks he took etc. i should have a hunt around for other podcast with him, interesting guy

 

[melmer]

Perfect. Sam Esmail talking about the best TV of 2016. I'll listen to this tomorrow

 

[syntheticgerbil]

awful