Mr. Robot - Catch-All

I enjoyed the series but was underwhelmed by the final episode.

It's really entirely unclear where they could go next and have it be narratively satisfying. At this point I really feel that it's going to go the way of Lost, there are too many mysterious and intriguing questions left unanswered and I think they'll struggle to resolve most of them in a satisfactory manner.

Which is not to say that I won't be watching season 2.

I was just clued into the series by some of my wife's coworkers (she works in IT). We went from not caring to power-watching the show in three days! It really feels like Hackers meets Fight Club, which is a good thing. And I am looking forward to next season!

Arise!

Me and the missus just caught up with this. Holy hell what a show. Really enjoying the way it toys with genre literacy - offering up story tropes and confounding them. The audience-as-Elliot's-alter device works brilliantly. I'm an absolute sucker for the Unreliable Narrator trope and this is a brilliant exploration of it.

Quite apart from the psycho-thriller storyline I'm loving the way it's shot. It's absolutely gorgeous. I'm particularly liking how they frame up the more unhinged characters to the extreme edge of shot, or removing the lead room from a shot and having the character looking off the "near" edge of the screen. Luther did a similar thing and it works really well. Really beautiful meshing of cinematic and small screen photography that had us wondering who the DoP was.

Anyway I gots theories as to where this is going and what Tyrell's relationship to Elliot is but I'll save them for season 2.

Watched the first episode and am into the second. It's good! I especially like how they blend realistic and non-realistic elements—non-realistic being the big-bad-corporation being called evil corp and the whole lawyer thing at the beginning of the second episode. I just love how they throw out subtlety and call it evil corp. It's refreshing.

I don't know what you've read in the thread, but this started about eight episodes in. so you might want to avoid reading much until you get farther. All I will say is that the story is really great, and there are plenty of great moments coming.

Jayhawker wrote:

I don't know what you've read in the thread, but this started about eight episodes in. so you might want to avoid reading much until you get farther. All I will say is that the story is really great, and there are plenty of great moments coming.

Haven't read anything and will avoid the thread for now.

Is there anywhere to stream this without having to buy the whole season?

Apparently it just hit Amazon Prime.

Oh, perfect! Thanks!

Jayhawker wrote:

Apparently it just hit Anazon Prime.

Sweet! I want to rewatch this before the new season. USA's web stream has commercials, IIRC.

Finally got to check this out since it's now on Amazon. Have to say the first episode was really good, looking forward to more.

GioClark wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Apparently it just hit Anazon Prime.

Sweet! I want to rewatch this before the new season. USA's web stream has commercials, IIRC.

SUITS!

They marathoned it last new years day and we DVR'd it. Every lead in to the show was an ad for Suits. By the time we were done, my partner and I had created an entire fake plot line based around the snip-its they had in the commercial. It mostly revolved around people wearing suits and being mad because the other guy wasn't good enough to wear a suit.

Radical Ans wrote:
GioClark wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Apparently it just hit Anazon Prime.

Sweet! I want to rewatch this before the new season. USA's web stream has commercials, IIRC.

SUITS!

They marathoned it last new years day and we DVR'd it. Every lead in to the show was an ad for Suits. By the time we were done, my partner and I had created an entire fake plot line based around the snip-its they had in the commercial. It mostly revolved around people wearing suits and being mad because the other guy wasn't good enough to wear a suit.

That's basically the show, actually.

Maq wrote:
Radical Ans wrote:
GioClark wrote:
Jayhawker wrote:

Apparently it just hit Anazon Prime.

Sweet! I want to rewatch this before the new season. USA's web stream has commercials, IIRC.

SUITS!

They marathoned it last new years day and we DVR'd it. Every lead in to the show was an ad for Suits. By the time we were done, my partner and I had created an entire fake plot line based around the snip-its they had in the commercial. It mostly revolved around people wearing suits and being mad because the other guy wasn't good enough to wear a suit.

That's basically the show, actually.

That makes me smile from ear to ear!

I started rewatching again and I'm just as hooked as I was the first time! Can't wait for the new season.

this show is so f***ing good

Currently finishing episode 7.

I'm finally watching and enjoying this show in earnest. I have a non-plot-spoiler to add!

Spoiler:

That scene in the first episode where they flew off to Dulles to visit a data center? It took place in a data center owned and operated by my previous company. It's actually located about 40 minutes from NYC in New Jersey, so no jet was required. I couldn't make it out there to watch the filming that time though.

More interesting than the location itself perhaps is the map of servers they show. Myself and a colleague had recently created a first version of our 'live' network map (really, my colleague did all of the work, but it was my idea and I was managing it, so of course I get to take credit!). This version of the network map was up on one of the large-screen TV's in each of our NOC's, including that facility. Apparently someone with the film crew saw it and liked it, and they used it pretty much as is for that scene. All of the 'servers' on their are switches, and they didn't change any of the names, just the coloring slightly. We didn't know about any of that until my boss was having a bit of insomnia one night and happened to see the trailer. It's been seeing them mentioned the 'hacked' cs30 throughout the first season.

I had this on my radar for a while, just happened to catch the first episode and was immediately hooked. Binged the whole season in a week. Fantastic dang show.

Finished the season yesterday, overall really impressed with this show. Looking forward season 2!

I was bored yesterday, and after not finding anything on Netflix that interested me, I started browsing the Amazon Instant Video selection on my Roku. On a whim, I decided to watch the first episode of this based on the brief description.

Less than 24 hours later, I just finished watching the season 1 finale. I was immediately hooked, and what a hell of a ride that was. I'm definitely going to watch season 2 whenever it's available to stream.

IMAGE(https://38.media.tumblr.com/df6d120df3e358a03f4bb0e6207d2e2a/tumblr_nily7k2vOH1rd1r35o1_500.gif)

So, tonight begins season 2 of Mr. Robot. They've upped the episode count from 10 to 12, and doubled down on the show by producing a live after show, Hacking Robot, hosted by Andy Greenwald.

I like a good after show, which I consider Talking Dead a great example. But it's not easy, and it takes some faith on the part of the producers and the network. What doesn't work is a panel of actors, writers, and directors of the show. That leads to a bunch of complimenting each other on great, blah, blah, blah is. What works are smart celebrities and journalists with interesting takes.

While Talking Dead pretty much nails this. Even when they do have Kirkman and the producers and actors on, the celebs keep the show focused on the episode and the story. Talking Bad, the show for AMC did for Breaking Bad, still with Chris Hardwick as the guest could get really bad because Vince Gilligan was terrible. He killed the the discussions, and by the 5th season, they were loading the show with actors that spent time congratulating each other for how awesome they were. Preacher and better Call Saul have the same issue, but at least they limit the after show to the season premiers and finales.

Mr Robot is ripe for some good deep discussions, so I'm hoping they avoid that trap. I'm willing to grant them the leeway in the first episode, but moving on, I hope it is a show that works as well when there are people from the show on as when there aren't.

Watched the first two episodes of season two. The show is still great. The show is still a little hard to follow completely at times though. Sometimes things aren't what they seem.

Spoiler:

Someone had to point out to me the mom wasn't real. I think the black friend wasn't real also but I'm not completely sure about him. He did talk and interact with someone other than Elliot.

Spoiler:

I didn't twig the mum wasn't real either. Watched both eps back to back and enjoyed. Nothing too much to discuss at this point. I am enjoying how Elliott and his Dad are inhabiting their Tyler Durdan type space, although the bullet in the head metaphor seemed a little much... I hope they continue to write around that dychotomy so well though...

Loved the return of the show. More than anything, they have really doubled down on making this a cinematic experience.

I will say that the after show, Hacking Robot was just terrible. It clearly was created to duplicate Talking Dead, but they copied everything so dead on, it was kind of embarrassing. Andy Greenwald was pretty awful, as everything felt forced. The lowest moment came when they copied TD's clip from next week segment, butvinstead used the same scenes clip that just aired after the show, but he still acted blown away by its "implications" the same way Hardwick would over a longer clip that would actually be significant.

And he brought on the actresses, and while he finally asked them deeper questions about their characters, it ended up coming off as demeaning, as he kind of mocked their answers.

Really disapointing. But at least it follows the Talking Saul and Preacher pattern of not coming back until the finale.

I've restarted watching Season 1 from the first episode and found that there's a lot I missed the first time. Well worth doing if you have Amazon and hadn't watched the show since last year. Looking forward to catching up by next week (yes I'm a slow binger).

jdzappa wrote:

I've restarted watching Season 1 from the first episode and found that there's a lot I missed the first time. Well worth doing if you have Amazon and hadn't watched the show since last year. Looking forward to catching up by next week (yes I'm a slow binger).

Fiancée and I just did that over the last 2 weeks. My 2nd time, her first. Lots of stuff you pick out, especially if you're looking for it.

The wife and I are mulling over a theory that's been given extra viability in the last 2 episodes.

Spoiler:

Mr Robot is the primary personality and the protagonist Eliot is an alter. He sees the primary personality as his father.

Maq wrote:

The wife and I are mulling over a theory that's been given extra viability in the last 2 episodes.

Spoiler:

Mr Robot is the primary personality and the protagonist Eliot is an alter. He sees the primary personality as his father.

Spoiler:

This totally tracks with the Prophet/God comparison Mr. Robot makes in S1. Mr. Robot is the precursor of Elliot.

GioClark wrote:
Maq wrote:

The wife and I are mulling over a theory that's been given extra viability in the last 2 episodes.

Spoiler:

Mr Robot is the primary personality and the protagonist Eliot is an alter. He sees the primary personality as his father.

Spoiler:

This totally tracks with the Prophet/God comparison Mr. Robot makes in S1. Mr. Robot is the precursor of Elliot.

Spoiler:

Also the dream/hallucination sequence line: "You're not Elliot. You were only born a month ago."