Mr. Robot (spoilers).... 'cause I suck at this stuff

[Kalbear]

I have to say I was completely spoiled prior to watching it and it made me appreciate it more, I think. I caught all the ways the show was framed when people were talking, or how certain people reacted to others at certain times, or the differences in ways people talked about the corp vs. not. It wasn't exactly twisty - but it was very well done. And more importantly, the twist wasn't really crucial to the plot. Too often the twist is the plot, but here it was just another aspect of the show. 

[Commodore]

this show uses all the narrative crutches Dexter was mocked for (inner monologue, imaginary friends, flashbacks, dream sequences, hallucinations)

[Kalbear]

1 hour ago, Commodore said:

this show uses all the narrative crutches Dexter was mocked for (inner monologue, imaginary friends, flashbacks, dream sequences, hallucinations)

Yes, but it doesn't suck. Using narrative crutches isn't what makes it special. That's basically all Dexter was. 

[Criston of House Shapper]

14 hours ago, Astromech said:

Not possible because the investigators wanted to interview both Tyrell and Joanna when they paid a visit to them at their home. I thought Tyrell was a real piece of work, until we met Joanna. And one of the first scenes of her having Tyrell tie to her to the bed. WTF! She is terrifying.

Yes, the scene with the investigators is one of the main reasons, why I think the theory is wrong. But their relationship is definitely a little weird. I think, the show is trying to mess with our minds and make us come up with lots of crazy theories. Even when the big twist was obvious, they still filmed certain scenes to create doubt. It's one of the funnest aspects of the show.

4 hours ago, Commodore said:

this show uses all the narrative crutches Dexter was mocked for (inner monologue, imaginary friends, flashbacks, dream sequences, hallucinations)

... and it works.

[Boris the Blade]

Sucks we gotta wait another week for the next one, but man I really do love this show. 

[Relic]

6 hours ago, Harakiri said:

Sucks we gotta wait another week for the next one, but man I really do love this show. 

I havent wanted to binge watch anything in over a year, but yeah, waiting a week for episode 3 sucks. 

[Commodore]

getting a strong Catcher In The Rye vibe from this show

[Astromech]

10 hours ago, Criston of House Shapper said:

Yes, the scene with the investigators is one of the main reasons, why I think the theory is wrong. But their relationship is definitely a little weird. I think, the show is trying to mess with our minds and make us come up with lots of crazy theories. Even when the big twist was obvious, they still filmed certain scenes to create doubt. It's one of the funnest aspects of the show.

... and it works.

Haha, the show does that to the viewer. I'm obsessed with finding Easter eggs now.

I am intrigued by the new characters this season, but missed the inclusion of hacks these first two episodes. Angela's arc may be the most interesting this season.

The Hacking Robot after the show was a bit of a waste of time, however.

[Mark Antony]

Might I request editing spoilers into the title of the thread.

 

Enjoyed the two part premiere. Joanna is an amazing character, hopefully she gets more screen time in future eps. Gideons death was very upsetting. He was such a cool good dude, sucked to see him lose everything then get murdered. Elliot laughing was unsettling when it could have came off as corny. Malek is top notch, Only Mathew Rhys comes close as far as male leads on any currently running shows I watch.

[red snow]

First two episodes of new season were great. I was worried they didn't have anywhere to go after season 1's "reveal" and success of achieving their fsociety goal. I needn't have worried the new angle of

Mr Robot might be the person most people "see", raising the possibility "elliot" is the imposter

I am wondering

whether his mother is actually real given the scenes we've seen so far but like others say, I think they are just fucking with us.

Great intro for the FBI agent (where've I seen her before? turns out she was underused in "extant"). It's also weird how Tyrell is still a mystery and how they are playing with that

especially as Elliot seems convinced Mr Robot knows

.

Anyway not sure where this season is going in overall plot but the direction is so stylised and self assured that I honestly don't care too much at the point. I'm happy to just soak it all in.

 

[red snow]

On 14/07/2016 at 6:23 AM, Dickwad Poster #3784 said:

Yes, but it doesn't suck. Using narrative crutches isn't what makes it special. That's basically all Dexter was. 

To be fair I thought Dexter was pretty damn good for 2 seasons (and a 4th). While both shows use the same narrative techniques they do so for different reasons; it always felt more tongue-in-cheek with Dexter (often for comic effect) and ghost dad was usually just lazy exposition.Mr Robot tends to use the techniques for framing the story and keeping the viewer off-guard - it seems like Elliot knows we're watching (or thinks we are another "voice"/observer in his head.

Although there was that awful season of Dexter where they even pulled a Mr Robot style reveal and everyone was pissed as it felt like a cheat given the way the show had functioned previously. That did suck.

Hopefully Mr Robot has more legs than Dexter (or Homeland which also nose-dived) or they at least know when to quit.

[Boris the Blade]

6 hours ago, red snow said:

First two episodes of new season were great. I was worried they didn't have anywhere to go after season 1's "reveal" and success of achieving their fsociety goal. I needn't have worried the new angle of

  Hide contents

Mr Robot might be the person most people "see", raising the possibility "elliot" is the imposter

 

I am wondering

  Hide contents

whether his mother is actually real given the scenes we've seen so far but like others say, I think they are just fucking with us.

 

Great intro for the FBI agent (where've I seen her before? turns out she was underused in "extant"). It's also weird how Tyrell is still a mystery and how they are playing with that

  Hide contents

especially as Elliot seems convinced Mr Robot knows

.

Anyway not sure where this season is going in overall plot but the direction is so stylised and self assured that I honestly don't care too much at the point. I'm happy to just soak it all in.

 

The Newsroom, American Horror Story: Coven, Extant, 

[Commodore]

they're trying to claim that investing/lending/borrowing is evil, that if those functions are destroyed, it will be better

it's just weird

[red snow]

3 hours ago, Commodore said:

they're trying to claim that investing/lending/borrowing is evil, that if those functions are destroyed, it will be better

it's just weird

if that's their core message it's flawed. Austerity sucks too.

I still get the impression it's more about the correlation between wealth and power and how being able to assert one's power/control is a measure of identity.  The super-rich happily ruin thousands of lives in order to make relatively small gains for themselves and they seem most content when playing their power games (look at the board meeting and pretty much everything Tyrell does). You could argue the hackers are essentially the same as they are ruining "small" people's lives too but they at least assert control.

That's at least what I think they are getting at with Angela and her self-motivating program and seeking worth by being part of the machine. Even Elliot is to some extent defined by his power - regular him is essentially a blank slate while hacker him is respected.

[Commodore]

Quote

The super-rich happily ruin thousands of lives in order to make relatively small gains for themselves and they seem most content when playing their power games (look at the board meeting and pretty much everything Tyrell does). 

Point is they aren't really explaining the mechanism by which the lives are being ruined. We're supposed to conclude that if A is rich and B is poor, A ruined B. Or A ruins B by lending to B.

Like the first season the girl's Dad is struggling to pay the mortgage, and I guess we are supposed to be upset at the evil lender, because why?

My guess is that's why they played up the environmental impact/OSHA stuff as another reason to root against EvilCorp.

IMO the real problem is money printing (which by definition destroys wealth) and socialization of risk (bailouts, loan guarantees). But those are state functions the show doesn't target.  

 

[Corvinus85]

47 minutes ago, Commodore said:

Point is they aren't really explaining the mechanism by which the lives are being ruined. We're supposed to conclude that if A is rich and B is poor, A ruined B. Or A ruins B by lending to B.

Like the first season the girl's Dad is struggling to pay the mortgage, and I guess we are supposed to be upset at the evil lender, because why?

My guess is that's why they played up the environmental impact/OSHA stuff as another reason to root against EvilCorp.

IMO the real problem is money printing (which by definition destroys wealth) and socialization of risk (bailouts, loan guarantees). But those are state functions the show doesn't target.  

 

Yes, you are right that the show doesn't quite address that. It's basically taking the real life knowledge that debt can be crushing for some people, and quite shitty do deal with for a majority of people, and says hey there's these hackers that can instantly erase all that debt, so people can work to improve their lives for a change, not work to pay off debts.

[red snow]

1 hour ago, Commodore said:

Point is they aren't really explaining the mechanism by which the lives are being ruined. We're supposed to conclude that if A is rich and B is poor, A ruined B. Or A ruins B by lending to B.

Like the first season the girl's Dad is struggling to pay the mortgage, and I guess we are supposed to be upset at the evil lender, because why?

My guess is that's why they played up the environmental impact/OSHA stuff as another reason to root against EvilCorp.

IMO the real problem is money printing (which by definition destroys wealth) and socialization of risk (bailouts, loan guarantees). But those are state functions the show doesn't target.  

 

Good points. I'm trying to remember if there has ever been a scene where the big players point out the good their dealings may have caused? I guess the drug dealing episodes weren't really blaming the rich directly in that it was addicts getting mixed up with criminals.

There's a lot of cases where I think companies are given undue treatment. Take "big pharma" with their expensive drugs. These are companies that spend a lot of money to get a drug that works (the majority fail) and when they get one to work are criticised for recouping costs (and money for further research). They are taking the risk trying to make them, governments could fund the same research or ones with less "marketability" if they wanted to. Granted there are cases where pharma takes the piss but more often than not they are a business that involves a lot of risk.

[DaveSumm]

9 hours ago, Commodore said:

they're trying to claim that investing/lending/borrowing is evil, that if those functions are destroyed, it will be better

it's just weird

Well.....that's what fsociety think. Whether they're proved right is a different question. I wouldn't say that this is the creators 'message' (if indeed there is one). Already with season 2 we're seeing things haven't exactly turned out as they hoped.

[SpaceChampion]

fsociety fucked up.  If they had stole money enough to pay everyone's debt back (or just the bottom 50% say), instead of wiping out debt which the rich don't really care about, then they might have at least accomplished flattening of the social pyramid and lessening of their power.  With banks issuing loans out of thin air and only having to have a small percent of that as actual physical currency on hand, then they use debtor's interest payments to issue more loans, and repeat the cycle to inflate their credit historically 20x for every dollar they originally had (or borrowed from the Fed).  Wiping out debt is the same as everyone declaring bankruptcy simultaneously.  Who cares?  Bankruptcies just eliminates the possibility of the banker's pile of money from ever evaporating.  Bankruptcies and written off debts just make their credit pyramid scheme immune to evaporation.  The system depends on people going bankrupt or wealth disappears.  So did fsociety created a world of the permanent rich?  Only as long as people continue to believe in money.

[Commodore]

6 hours ago, Corvinus said:

Yes, you are right that the show doesn't quite address that. It's basically taking the real life knowledge that debt can be crushing for some people, and quite shitty do deal with for a majority of people, and says hey there's these hackers that can instantly erase all that debt, so people can work to improve their lives for a change, not work to pay off debts.

but if you destroy the lending industry (debts will not be honored), how does that help people who wanted a loan?