Mr Robot

[DigitalChaos]

I was surprised there wasn't a thread on this already. I just watched the first episode on a whim and it was great! It has hints of Dexter, Fight Club, and Matrix in it.

imdb is showing a 9.4/10 rating (on 22.5k users). That places it as one of the highest rated shows right now. Most of the marketing around it makes it seem like some cheesy show, but it's not.


The lead actor does an incredibly good job of conveying the psychologically and socially broken/deviant character. I was assuming all the tech was going to be stereotypically fake/stupid... but it's actually very legit. People who live this stuff are actually loving it, which is hard to do. But you also have plenty of people who don't work in tech/security who are also loving it. I hope they don't screw it up as the season progresses....

Trailer. It doesn't do the best job of conveying the quality of the show, but you get the general concept:



And you can watch the first episode here, if you don't have the USA Network:
http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/vi...hellofriendmov

[Emil Dorbell]

Probably one of the best premieres I've seen. Editing, music, the actors, the script... So good!

[DigitalChaos]

New episode tonight!

I caught up to the 3rd episode and things are still holding strong.

I really want to know how they are keeping their tech so accurate.
Someone did some digging to figure out what spyware was used in episode 3: https://medium.com/android-news/what...t-bde7804cbac5

[DigitalChaos]

Well that was intense. I'm going to have to watch it again to catch everything.

Any ideas on who we are? We, as in, the audience. Lots of 4th wall breaking going on, but I'm not really sure who we are supposed to be to the character.

[telee.kom]

I watched the pilot last night and was absolutely blown away. It didn't feel like a TV series but more like some Fincher-esque movie. Everything from acting, camera work to music (which I think NIN fans will very much appreciate) is absolutely superb. Just wow. I think I'll just watch the premiere again rather than the second episode, because it was so fucking good and I don't want to miss anything.

Although the tone is quite serious, I'm really enjoying the occasional dark humor in it. The only thing I'm worried about is Spoiler: I hope I haven't figured out the twist ending already. Because they are hinting something about the main character that would be too obvious I think. But probably not, because they are hitting this string quite hard

[DigitalChaos]

The writer mentioned that he started writing this as a film but it got so long that he decided to make it a TV series. I wonder how much of that influences the "movie quality" aspect and wether that will change after enough episodes.

As for the twist that you are hinting at... i agree. It's so blatant that I don't think it is going to be anything big like the end of season reveal. At least... i hope not. There is so much subtlety in the rest of the show it would be really out of character. In one of the interviews, I heard about some of the perfectionist things they did when shooting certain scenes: getting the ferris wheel scene done in a single shot (and reshooting the whole thing if someone screwed up a line), having the subway driver perfectly hit every mark along the planned route so that continuity across shots was perfect, etc. I actually just purchased at bootleg shirt that riffs on the blatant twist.

I actually rewatched all the episodes after seeing the 4th episode. It helped fill in a few bits of info that didn't seem important when I first saw them. That pilot was every bit as good as the first time I saw it.

[telee.kom]

Damn, the fourth episode was like a love child of Trainspotting and David Lynch. So trippy. I love it

[DigitalChaos]

There as a bunch of Naked Lunch going on too.

Last night's episode (the 5th) is something I still need to process. The scened with Bill(?) the low level guard pissed me off for being so stupid while I was watching it. Then I started to understand what was probably going on. Now I'm just confused.

[Substance242]

This series works for me in a similar way to season 2 of True Detective. Specifically, I'm losing interest.

[telee.kom]

Yeah the scene with Bill was gut wrenching. I thought it was incredibly shot. I mean, it's saying something when the show can make you so emotional about a character you know for like 2 minutes. I hated Eliot at that moment, but that's why the scene was so good

[elevenism]

i'm really loving it.

i relate to the opiate addiction, i relate to the anti globalist/capitalist stance, i love the lynchian vibe, i adore the music.
I'm writing this 3 episodes in.

edit: Ok, 5 episodes in now, and i re-watched the first one.

I love this show, it's kind of like fight club vs american psycho.

[DigitalChaos]

Last night's episode was fucked.
As for the Bill scene from the prior week's episode... I'm still not sure if that was real. The entire time he was in Steel Mountain it felt like reality was extremely bent.

[elevenism]

Last night's episode was fucked.
As for the Bill scene from the prior week's episode... I'm still not sure if that was real. The entire time he was in Steel Mountain it felt like reality was extremely bent.

i'm pretty sure it was real

[Substance242]

I said before I am losing interest... wrong, maybe a bad mood or something, the last episode was perfect. (True Detective too, interesting, maybe it was me all the time)

[elevenism]

I said before I am losing interest... wrong, maybe a bad mood or something, the last episode was perfect. (True Detective too, interesting, maybe it was me all the time)

With Mr Robot, i think you could chalk it up to a bad mood.
This show is utterly fucking amazing, btw. I ADORE it.
Is there going to be another season? On one hand i hope so, on the other, i don't want it to have an opportunity to jump the shark.

Also, what language are Tyrell and the woman he lives with speaking? A few things that they have said have made me wonder if they are foreign agents, who may ultimately wind up joining forces with Anonymous...sorry, project mayhem...wait...fsociety...to bring down Enron...ahem..E Corp.

But @Substance242 , you are not wrong about True Detective. It took 4 episodes to get rolling, which isn't good for a show with 8 episodes.

Edit: Why in the hell are we the only ones talking about this? 15 comments?!?!?! This is the best show on TV right now. Maybe ETS will catch on later.

[DigitalChaos]

Is there going to be another season? On one hand i hope so, on the other, i don't want it to have an opportunity to jump the shark.

They were renewed for a 2nd season before the first episode even aired. That's unheard of as far as I know. Especially for a network that is clearly working on their first high quality break-out series.
Also, the writer stated that he has a very clear 5-6 (or was it 4-5?) season plan for the show.

Why in the hell are we the only ones talking about this? 15 comments?!?!?! This is the best show on TV right now. Maybe ETS will catch on later.

Seriously. It's like this mostly everywhere. I'm betting it will be a slow climb to popularity sort of like how Breaking Bad did it. We can hold it down and be the cool kids who caught on first 8)

That said, the name of the show is retarded and not helping gain viewers. All the marketing/promo material has never conveyed the awesomeness of the show either. So, I guess, this will primarily be a word-of-mouth type show until they fix some of that.

[telee.kom]

Also, what language are Tyrell and the woman he lives with speaking? A few things that they have said have made me wonder if they are foreign agents

I read somewhere that they are actually speaking both different languages, one of them Danish and one of them Swedish or something like that. Maybe for the security reasons?

I just got around to seeing episode 6 and my heart sank in last few minutes. I knew that this is how it had to end, but damn.. That was just sad. Rami Malek really pulled it off, it was very subtle performance, but it was exactly what I would expect from Eliot's character. Also the cinematography is so fucking weird I love it.

[DigitalChaos]

I'm kinda freaking out that there are only 4 episodes left this season. What is going to fill this hole that I never knew I had until this damn show came into existence? I'm all out of the good Cory Doctorow books... maybe I will look into Neal Stephenson.

[DigitalChaos]

If you want to see something funny, here are 40+ FCC complaints about this show: http://www.scribd.com/doc/273076997/...s-for-Mr-Robot
It's basically all homophobia. The FCC has no control of cable TV to begin with.


"During the show they had two men having anal sex. They had the sounds effects too. This shouldn't be on TV ever!"


"there was an explicit male gay sex scene. That is ridiculous for any child to stumble on, especially my religious freedom of a man joined with a woman ONLY!"


"was a very graphic scene showing homosexual sodomy. There was thrusting, nudity & sounds of fluid transfer."


"homo sexual sodomy acts in living and graphic color. Can't un-see that. ... Please make it stop."


"Although there was no penetration shown, they did graphicly illustrate one cleaning the others anus"

[wight rabbit]

Haha, those FCC complaints are hilarious... Complaining about the content that effectively serves the story is absurd (especially considering that this show is fairly accurate to real life). I guess those people just don't want to accept reality for what it is.

[the duder]

Just bought and finished episode one. I thought it was good. A lil heavy on borrowing from Dexter - especially with such a similar internal monologue, "secret collection", troubled upbringing - but that's just being nitpicky. Waiting for the missus to get home to introduce her (and hopefully talk her into subscribing to Hulu).

[elevenism]

Just bought and finished episode one. I thought it was good. A lil heavy on borrowing from Dexter - especially with such a similar internal monologue, "secret collection", troubled upbringing - but that's just being nitpicky. Waiting for the missus to get home to introduce her (and hopefully talk her into subscribing to Hulu).

see Duder , i didn't catch any Dexter.
What i saw was a BIG heaping helping of fight club (honestly, to the point where i believe that Chuck Pal should be acknowledged, maybe the way Rush acknowledged Ayn Rand in the liner notes of 2112,) and a steaming side of American Psycho.

BUT...the show is SOOOO fucking good that i can forgive how derivative it is.

[DigitalChaos]

Just bought and finished episode one. I thought it was good. A lil heavy on borrowing from Dexter - especially with such a similar internal monologue, "secret collection", troubled upbringing - but that's just being nitpicky. Waiting for the missus to get home to introduce her (and hopefully talk her into subscribing to Hulu).

The secret collection and the whole vigilante thing stuck out as Dexter influences with me. The monologues to some extent as well. However, the collection is quite a bit different if you think about it. Dexter just kept trophies that served no purpose. Elliot is keeping backups before wiping his machine.

One cool thing to note is that this was EXACTLY how Chelsea (Bradley) Manning snuck all of the files out of the Army. Everything was stored on burnable CD's labeled as Lady Gaga. So it seems like a bit of a nod there too.

There are a lot of interesting nods and I'm not sure if I am catching them all. Some are blatant, like the the monopoly man mask referencing to Anonymous's Guy Fawkes mask. Another was where they were watching a clip from the movie Hackers in the motel room and laughing at how ridiculous the hacking scenes were. Some are more subtle. Ex: They mentioned how The Omegs (hacker crew) was busted because of their leader turning them in to the FBI. I'm pretty sure this was a nod to LulzSec where their leader, Sabu, turned everyone in.

see Duder , i didn't catch any Dexter.
What i saw was a BIG heaping helping of fight club (honestly, to the point where i believe that Chuck Pal should be acknowledged, maybe the way Rush acknowledged Ayn Rand in the liner notes of 2112,) and a steaming side of American Psycho.

BUT...the show is SOOOO fucking good that i can forgive how derivative it is.

It's not really anything that would require forgiving. It's intentional. The writer has talked about the Fight Club connections frequently in interviews. They definitely aren't hiding it.

[implanted_microchip]

Just hopping in to say how taken by this show I've been the past day. Already trying to make other people check it out, it's boggling to me that this is on USA.

[perceptionnexus]

This thread piqued my curiosity enough to check it out this weekend and wow.....I'm hooked. Currently on ep 5. Yeah a little shocked this is on USA, which is a good thing.

I hope they release a soundtrack of the original music at some point.

[blackholesun]

Just binged the 7 episodes over the weekend. Definitely got hooked, the pilot was amazing. It does feel a bit slow at times, but I'm fully on-board. Is it shocking that it's on USA? I didn't know that. They've had some good, or at least well-known, shows before.

[DigitalChaos]

Just caught up on last week's episode. I wasn't able to watch it when it aired because I was at DEFCON. I'd say that way more than half the attendees are huge Mr Robot fanatics. It's so cool. I got quite a few conversations due to my bootleg Mr Robot tshirt.


The ending was, yet again, great. They manage to not only create cliff hangers but also make some pretty heavy reveals at the same time. Another thing to note is that we saw Mr Robot in a scene Spoiler: without Elliot there... i think that's a first. So that seems to be pointing toward my building theory that Spoiler: the audience is delusional or somehow unreliable. This show makes me feel crazy and I love it.

[elevenism]

@DigitalChaos , lovely insights. Good find with the pics.

[Rdm]

Love the show, and absolutely love the music. Is there a release date on the score or a place where I can get it ?

[DigitalChaos]

Love the show, and absolutely love the music. Is there a release date on the score or a place where I can get it ?

best i have: https://open.spotify.com/user/the-sp...GGb9GLUZSuKWWa