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Mr. Robot

Posted: Fri Nov 08, 2019 4:46 pm
by Flack
I just finished watching season one of Mr. Robot. The show is in its fourth and final season, so I'm a little behind.

In the first we meet Elliot, a cyber security expert who is... "complicated." By day, he spends his days behind a computer terminal, protecting Allstate's clients from hackers. At night, Elliot hacks everyone he has ever met (sometimes for the better good, but often out of curiosity), snorts morphine, and is ultimately recruited by Mr. Robot and his merry band of hackers to hack Evil Corp, which is not only a global business conglomerations that manages every bank in America, but is also one of Allstate's clients.

The other thing that becomes readily apparent is that Elliot suffers from mental illness, which makes him an unreliable narrator. In early episodes, it's apparent things aren't "right." By the end of the first season, it is revealed that things we (the audience) saw didn't happen, or at least didn't happen the way we thought it did.

Mr. Robot is sometimes confusing and challenging, but the hacking aspect is pretty interesting and I'm curious to see where season two takes the story.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 1:08 pm
by Flack
In a bit of a binge, I finished season two over the past couple of days. At this point, every character has at least two motives and are actively screwing other people while also being screwed. It's difficult to catch every detail. Similar to the first season (in which scenes and/or characters appear differently on screen than they happened within the show's reality), in this season there are at multiple story arcs that didn't happen the way viewers thought they did.

I started season three this morning but at this point the show's a little overwhelming. It's good at piling on the drama, but the pace is pretty slow.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 3:12 pm
by pinback
We bailed at the beginning of season 3. Season 1 was a phenomenal Fight Club homage. Season 2 had its moments. By season 3, I think it started to become obvious that they weren't expecting it to be a big hit, and were just trying to come up with something.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2019 9:17 pm
by Flack
Yeah, I don't blame you. I read that Sam Esmail originally intended the show to be a single film, and a lot of what's happening feels like a deliberate attempt to stretch a little bit of content into a lotta episodes.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 10:32 pm
by Flack
I just finished season three so ask me anything.*

(*Tdarcos clause: about Mr. Robot seasons 1-3.)

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 10:43 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
Is it properly ended after season 3?

Last thing I remember is that the cute sassy chick with the lips is Freddie's sister. I think.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Mon Nov 11, 2019 11:29 pm
by Flack
Nope, there's one more season.

So far at least twice in the show's run, there have been long story arcs that in the end were red herrings. It would be like if toward the end of Star Wars, Luke opened the trunk of his landspeeder, slapped his head, and said "ah crap, the Death Star plans were here all along!" What's worse is that both of these arcs led to people getting getting killed.

Season three was better than season two, I can say that. By the end of the third season, none of the characters in this show should trust anyone else in the show ever again.

I think it was in season three but there were some really stupid scenes of Elliot physically fighting himself. The Fight Club homages continue.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 6:37 am
by Flack
Image

The first time was when Romero (one of the original members of fsociety) got shot (by, we think, the Dark Army) . His death was the catalyst that sent the other members into hiding -- Mobley and Trenton fled to another state, got fake identities, and started new lives. Darlene was eventually picked up by the FBI, while Elliot went to jail (I think that was during the same time; it's all running together). Much later, it is revealed that Romero died from a stray bullet completely unrelated to anything. Everybody freaked out for no reason, and the FBI are the luckiest agency in the world.

The second time was when "stage three" of fsociety's plan was introduced. Trenton's parting gift to Elliot is an email that says Romero may have exported and saved encryption keys that could be used to decrypt Evil Corp's data and undo all the damage that's been done*. This story spans most of the third season. The keys were most likely stored on USB sticks which were taken as evidence by the FBI at the site of Romero's murder. This leads to all sorts of story lines, like Darlene seducing Dom (the female FBI agent she's working with) and Elliot getting a job with Evil Corp and all these other things. At the end of season three, Elliot gains access to the FBI's most secure database and discovers the keys are not there; instead, he (Elliot/Mr. Robot) had them all along. Ha ha. Which means everything they did in season three was a wild goose chase.

(*except bring back all the cast members who have been murdered.)

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Tue Nov 12, 2019 8:33 pm
by Flack
I am now up to date and have seen every episode.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Wed Nov 13, 2019 5:34 am
by RealNC
Was it worth it? Should I skip this show?

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:31 pm
by Flack
In S04E07, the show revealed the source of the trauma behind Elliot's multiple personalities. It's tough to tell if this was the intention all along, or if the show decided to throw us a curve ball. Either way, it was a pretty heavy episode.

Spoiler 1: Also, Vera came back.
Spoiler 2: Also, Vera's dead.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:12 am
by Jizaboz
Tdarcos mode post:

I have not seen this show. Partly because I don’t get the channel/stream and also because I loathe “hacking” movies and shows about 99% of the time.

However, I started watching Le Femme Nikita from episode 1 recently. In episode 3 there is a “hacking scene” where the chick is typing away in typical stupid fashion while a dude says “type exactly what I say” in typical fashion.

“Type kill dash nine and the number..” holy shit! Really? Man, how did I miss this show.

Mr. Robot is going on the When I am in Hospice One Day list if you guys can convince me shit like this happens.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 5:32 am
by Flack
Here's a typical hacking scene from Mr. Robot. You may need to pause it a few times because some of the screens flash by pretty quickly, but it's pretty legit.



In one of the earlier episodes, two guys are flipping channels and they come across the movie Hackers. One of them turns to the other and says, “I’ve been in this game 27 years. Not once have I come across an animated singing virus.”

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Wed Nov 20, 2019 7:18 am
by Ice Cream Jonsey
One thing I noticed is that I think I am paying for services that I don't know I am paying for.

https://reelgood.com/show/mr-robot-2015

I have access to all of Mr. Robot thanks to Amazon. Who knew!

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Sun Dec 15, 2019 11:36 pm
by Flack
Tonight was the next to last night for Mr. Robot. Next week is the double-episode series finale.

I want to post a single comment about tonight's episode, but it's a pretty big spoiler, so I'm going to make it real small. Cut/paste it into Notepad if you want to read it.

Whiterose initiated a nuclear meltdown that appears to have moved Elliot into an alternate universe. Everyone who was dead is now alive, everyone who was alive is missing, and in the final scene of the episode, Elliot goes home and runs into... himself.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2019 8:45 am
by Flack
In S04E09 ("Exit"), Elliot became trapped inside a nuclear reactor as it was melting down. Fortunately, Whiterose left an escape behind for him. The answer was hidden inside a graphical text adventure, which Elliot was forced to play on a conveniently located Apple II.

Image

Image

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 12:01 am
by Flack
Tonight was the two-part season and series finale.

You may AMA, although I will warn you that there's a thread on Reddit with 13.7k responses full of people asking what the fuck just happened.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2019 8:46 am
by Flack
Like, aaaaaaaaaany questions about the show.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 1:59 pm
by Flack
It could be about Whiterose. Or the multiple personalities inside Elliot's head. Or the twist ending that people are calling one of the greatest final episodes in television history. Any of those things.

Re: Mr. Robot

Posted: Thu Dec 26, 2019 4:37 pm
by Ice Cream Jonsey
Flack wrote: Tue Dec 24, 2019 8:46 am Like, aaaaaaaaaany questions about the show.
I don't know that I am going to continue figuring out where I left off and watch it any more. I liked the performances. I liked the episode they did that was a throwback to ALF or a typical 80s USA show.

But from what I have seen scanning this thread, it looks like there are lots of questions about what happened? And I just don't think the writers had a plan. Did the writers have a plan, in your opinion?