The second season begins tonight on the USA Network; since no one else has started a thread, here’s one. The hacker drama/thriller stars Rami Malek and Christian Slater. It won the 2015 Golden Globe for Best Television Series - Drama, among many other awards.
The show is one of those “great reviews; ratings not stellar” examples, a la The Americans.
Boxing spoilers for season one might be worth doing, given that some readers of the thread might be inspired to give the show a try. There are some pretty big surprises in store!
Personally I believe that the second season’s Big Reveal will be that Elliot and Tyrell are the same person. I will admit that I’m still trying to work out how that could be, but I think it’s possible, given certain oddities of the filming of season one.
I’m very excited, Mr Robot was one of the best shows last year. Hopefully it will catch on more with streaming and gain more viewers. I could see people binge watching the whole first season in a weekend.
There seemed to be some hints toward that, but overall I don’t think it would make sense, and I hope they don’t because it could just be too many twists and reveals.
I agree that it would be easy to fall into the trap of ‘twists for their own sake’ and it would take very careful writing to avoid that. But Sam Esmail (creator and head writer) has shown that he is capable of care on that level, so, who knows? (Note that he’s on record as having said that one of his major influences in creating the show was American Psycho.)
I really hope the diary isn’t a continuing thing. Watching/hearing a worn pencil gouging across the paper is nails-on-chalkboard to me. I don’t know if I can continue watching while suffering through my spine trying to cramp itself up into a ball. Sharpen your damn pencil!
Elliot is probably not allowed to sharpen his pencil or have other pointy things at his “Mom’s house”.
His room has a sliding door. The entire building is bare. Everyone he interacts with has a routine as rigid as his own. His church group looks like AA. He used to have a dog, but now he doesn’t and Angela has the fish. He probably isn’t in jail since Gideon is still the public patsy, but either he committed himself or E-Corp managed to put him away quickly and quietly without the drawn-out fuss of a trial.
Yeah, my initial thought was that there was no way that was a real residential, person’s home, even if his mom “is the strictest person he knows.”
I am not sure how it could work out that Tyrell is Elliot…not after the interactions between Johanna and Elliot where she demands to know where he is. I mean, ok, maybe she knows he’s a splinter of Elliot’s personality and just wants her sadistic. kinky persona back online, but I…don’t know.
Krista looked absolutely terrified when they were having their appointment. I want to know what he said, but we have to earn back his trust.
Good start to the season. And another reason why I’m suspicious of smart homes. Although I would think the lawyer would be more insistent on getting it all fixed quickly and fsociety won’t be able to camp out there too long.
Great scene with the ransom in the park, with how it kept upping the tension, and with the Phil Collins song getting louder and creepier as it goes on.
I agree on the sound, but it was funny to see Elliot writing what Mr. Robot was doing and saying as it was going on.
Also, he meets his new friend Leon at the same time each day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same place. Even if Elliot needs to keep on a schedule and has nothing else to do and nowhere else to go, seems strange that he has a friend who has the same schedule. It seems that either Elliot is in jail or Leon is another split personality. Gideon is the public patsy for the Evil Corp hacking, but Elliot has done other things he could be jailed for, like hacking the therapist’s boyfriend.
Speaking of Gideon, that was so terribly sad. He knew he was caught up in something bigger but didn’t know how to get out. Was the guy who killed him someone from E Corp who wanted this whole thing done and out of the way? The FBI agent who was chatting to the clerk and who went to talk to Gideon in an interrogation room is a new part of the cast, so I’m guessing Gideon told the FBI what he knew about Elliot and now the FBI will be on Elliot’s trail.
I didn’t scan it, but from articles online it apparently leads to this website, still under construction and has been since the 90s. Maybe it’s for a business Elliot’s dad was going to start since his computer shop was going under? He specifically said that they didn’t need to worry about bills, which made me think that he was going to hack the hospital billing department, but maybe it was something related to a new business instead.
The dog guy retrieved a basketball for the players, but I doubt everything about Elliot and his reality. He could be sitting in a padded cell wrapped up in a straightjacket for all we know, and it’s a bit irritating.
I don’t like his sister.
All the hackers camping out in the smart home isn’t very realistic. Oh, nobody take the same route back here, wouldn’t want anyone to notice twenty hackers coming and going.
His blond childhood friend has gotten really weird too.
I have been reading the Reddit for Mr Robot, and wow those fans are committed. This thread is about the journal entries - freezing and reading them. It’s marked All Spoilers so be aware.
Thanks, raventhief–nice to know the freezing and transcribing has been done by others.
Speaking of spoilers, I’d initially suggesting we should try to keep from mentioning Season 1 developments, but that seems less and less reasonable. I guess the guideline used by many other TV-show discussion thread might work, here: spoiler-box stuff gotten from reporting on episodes not yet broadcast, but otherwise, just post and trust that people who are watching the show after it’s been broadcast will refrain from opening the thread until they’ve seen that episode.
Has there ever been a show that was so overtly postmodern like this? That’s not rhetorical, I’m really curious. Breaking the 4th wall but also utilizing unreliable narrative and blatant allegory. It’s like James Joyce on TV. Portrait of the artist James Joyce, not Finnegans Wake, but still. I can’t think of anything else that played with the form of TV the way this show does.
I loved that they had Elliott straight up tell us that he planned on lying to the audience this season because he doesn’t trust us anymore. Iove that they don’t try to hide that Elliott is locked up (mental institution makes the most sense for the story, but prison fits the imagery better) but trust that, like with the Christian Slater being Elliott thing, we are just going to pick up on it. They are ok with being subtle, which makes the moments when they are not subtle very powerful rather than ham fisted.
I am so excited to see the next episode. I may go back and rewatch last season while I wait.
I watched Mr Robot last season but somehow I watched it…reluctantly? Or out of a sense of obligation? I remember that I didn’t quite like it. It seemed like it took itself too seriously.
However I just watched the first two episodes of this season and I quite enjoyed them. Maybe because Elliot isn’t preaching as much about society this time or something. OR, I am just in a different mood right now and am feeling the show’s vibe.