the new USA show MR. ROBOT: the rise of Rami Malek and the inexplicable solidness of Christian Slater

just rewatched the latest one - the last scene killed me on second viewing.

"I wanted to save the world."

yeah fuck

also loved that the mr robot store was in north jersey (a bergen-something storefront replaces the original in the time lapse), after all so many catastrophic personal disintegrations begin in northern new jersey

least surprising sloth post yet

wow rude

clearly referring to the insinuation that northern NJ is conducive to catastrophic personal disintegrations, NOT saying you are known for any catastrophic personal disintegrations

lol i was jk, also tbf i have had several catastrophic personal disintegrations in north jersey (and elsewhere)

evan are u watching this show btw because you totally should be

I just clicked the thread so far, haven't seen it. Avoided reading it too closely in case of spoilers, but yeah I might give it a shot if I can access it on demand somehow.

yea its on demand if you have cable, also you can get it online on USA's website if you have a comcast/cablevision/whatev login

ah, ok!

I feel it is most appropriate to pirate this show

i stole my copy of abbie hoffman's steal this book iirc and told the guy at the register as i left
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PaoLy7PHwk

sam esmail w/ some vague insinuations about how things will develop (no real spoilers):

Honestly, the thing about how I wanted to end this season was that I wanted to set up the larger story of Elliot’s journey. So that’s where we’re ending. A lot of things happen in these episodes that are going to give people who are following the show a lot to process and a lot to rethink and a lot to figure out. I think what I wanted ultimately was the experience coming into season 2 to be, “Okay, now I’ve got everything.” In the feature-screenwriting world, this [season 1] was the Act 1. This is our setup, essentially, to sort of inform you, “Here’s what the series is going to be about.”

Usually television shows maybe do that in the first couple episodes. We essentially took the whole season to do that, and now, going into season 2, you’ll know — you’ll know what relationship we’re going to be focused on, and what ultimately the dynamic of the series moving forward will be. So that’s where I want audiences to be by the end of the season.

on E06 and annoyingly i can't stop watching it

its biggest problem is the almost total dezoning of humor from its repertoire. it's OK to be ridiculously self-serious as long as you've got some jokes (even kubrick knew that, most of the time). i want to say that its other problem is the weird flat airlessness of the direction and editing - scenes just sort of end; long establishing shots lead to slow-ass dialog with long, pregnant pauses - but it's like 90s indie film catnip for me, i can't resist it. the cinematography feels fincherish but the mood is more like "clean, shaven"

its new york locations
which are v credible & sort of temporally accurate & meaningful vibewise

otm. like the scene where elliot takes his neglected dog about 5 feet from the front door of his tenement and points to a little square of non-paved sidewalk as the preferred destination for the dog to "deuce it out". shiver.

the hacking stuff has been alright but i could not resist a guffaw when beardy glutton announces portentously that he's "downloaded the PDFs"

yeah the humorlessness of the show really puts me off it. also it would be so much better with the narration taken out.

i always thought there was a kinda cool harmony in the wire between things the show was ~about~, these being rich & deep & intellectual, & its mode, which was something on a less lofty plain, pretty often vaguely resembling the overheard mcguyver extracts in simpsons episodes, like daniels being such a classic steely boss perpetually on the brink of taking someone off the case, just more in line with the guttural appeal of super familiar genre. the flatness/90sness/sincerity/teenage cool of the voiceover is like ... one of the things about the show that isn't unique & isn't as distinctive or absorbing, BUT: i think it's pretty satisfying? the occasional stretches of super trite anti-9-to-5-ism aren't fresh, are kinda matrixy, fight-clubby, but i think they probably mesh with or contribute to our general magnetic draw toward the space he's in.

the voiceovers are desperately needed as a glimmer of humanity in its unrelentingly nasty gallery of heels (also the drug dealer turned cowgirl waitress is U&K to this) (fsociety is too boring to even talk about) but too often for me they'll veer into portentous watchmen territory. it's major turn-off, but like i say, i can't stop watching. i guess it's rami malek? slater's not in it that much. pretty sweet gig for the ol' dog, he turns up to set, slaters it up for a while and peaces out. at this point he's like a cross between owen wilson and william shatner.

I do think there is some wry humor to the show, especially in its soundtrack and shot choices / technical details here and there. I don't think it's 100% self-serious. I am hoping that s2 is a little less insular, though. I liked the middle stretch of the show best because it mad ebetter use of the ensemble.

also let's not forget the Keith David vocal cameo

yeah, I don't see how anyone thinks of this as humorless unless literally any sign of serious earnest characterization or thematic focus turns on a viewer's "jaded" goggles, which is a pretty bad way to live tbh

like it literally trolled the entirety of the audience portion who were gonna be like "SEE TOLD YOU IT WAS JUST LIKE FIGHT CLUB" once that development arrived, by stealing the most recognizable part of its soundtrack. that requires a sense of humor. the humor is usually via sarcasm or black comedy, but it's there.

sure there are some jokes - i mean the balloon of self-importance inflated near to bursting by pretty much everybody is never punctured, and nobody teases anyone else because nobody loves anyone (except maybe shayla loving elliot)

oh poor shayla :( and still we're stuck with drippy angela. some of the, i don't know what you call them, compositions? are so pointlessly weird, like people's heads at the extreme bottom of the frame

echoes of "the room" at times if i'm being honest

oh come the hell on man, the room?? that's a take of considerable heat

I also don't understand why earnestness is continually assumed to be self-importance almost by default in current pop culture. I'm not criticizing you solely of this by any means, tracer, but it's almost like the newsroom happened - which was earnest but absurdly self-important in the most obvious way - and everyone is paranoid at all times that the newsroom is gonna come back now

(figuratively come back in the form of shows with somethin to say was my primary intended meaning but I'd assume we're also all literally afraid the newsroom might come back, which is understandable)

I want to defend the extreme framing a) because it's one of the only bits of visual flair that doesn't feel ripped off from kubrick or fincher and b) it can reasonably be interpreted as a visual manifestation of Elliot's inability to engage with people earnestly

that's true, and i like them. like i said i'm a sucker for that yes earnest 90s indie vibe.

slothrop i don't have any problem with characters being earnest with each other. but the show is pretty short on the sort of humor i like, which i've described upthread - teasing, basically, taking down a peg - either by the characters, or the script, or the director. but i get that it's sort of an adolescent angsty comic book and have made my peace with that. i'm over it! i like the show! i just get frustrated with it, like i would with some sullen teen.

i find the show quite funny sometimes.

i was kinda wondering if anyone's brought up the likelihood that the unlikely saga of shayla and the drug dealer and his treacherous brother are ALSO all in Elliott's head? Like if we're gonna get a number of B/C plots with a more than passing resemblance to remakes of 90's film that may or may not actually be real but are meant to enact elliott's internal psychodrama? to trump the prior week's revelation with the bombshell that tyrell and his 50 shades of american psycho story are further fever dream would take massive cojones.

someone mentioned that possibility on a grantland podcast - 90s movies he saw w his dad that are manifesting themselves in his head. I do think shayla and the dealer were real tho, same with tyrell

xps tracer I do see where you're coming from more or less, I may legit be slightly too sympathetic to attitudes typically held by sullen teens (I was one/kinda am one at heart still in my late 20s lol)

xp, they certainly baited the hook for that theory with dad taking him to see pulp fiction, yes.

that would be extra super dumb/annoying esp since we've had scenes of his co-workers consoling him for his loss etc

well is the sequence of dad and sis talking at the bar meant to be in elliott's head? or was he acting the role of mr. robot then? I don't really wanna go back and second guess this show too much as it might not take scrutiny well and i'm enjoying it as is.

Mr. Robot ‏@whoismrrobot 42s42 seconds ago
The previously filmed season finale of Mr. Robot contains a graphic scene similar in nature to today’s tragic events in Virginia.

Mr. Robot ‏@whoismrrobot 1m1 minute ago
Out of respect to the victims, their families and colleagues, and our viewers, we are postponing tonight’s episode.

Mr. Robot ‏@whoismrrobot 51s52 seconds ago
Our thoughts go out to all those affected during this difficult time.

critics who've seen it all say it's the right call to delay it a week, i will take their word for it

whoa that's fucked up

Ouch.

yeah if they think its best to delay it then i'm glad they're delaying it

That's a shame tragedy becomes an unintentional plot spoiler?
&just when I got my full size tv back.
Well, will look forward to next week.

Ppl on my FB feed complaining as if the murder of 2 people is such an inconvenience. It'll be on next week ffs.

the principal actor played PSH's son-in-law in The Master, right?

Started watching this show last nite. The missus read some blog saying it was like a mash-up of Fight Club, Matrix, Taxi Driver and American Psycho. Having watched the first episode, would have to add Peep Show to that list - couldn't help hearing the internal monologue in the voice of Mark Corrigan, cf the episode where Mark hacks into Sophie's email.

the principal actor played PSH's son-in-law in The Master, right?

That's him. Mostly people seem to know him from The Pacific (still unseen by me)

No comments on the finale?

Much of it was kinda meh and wheel-spinny compared to much of what came before. That one scene, though. Jesus. Totally understand why they pushed it back a week. Not to spoilerize, but that was maybe the most graphic depiction of that particular act I've ever seen outside of the infamously-filmed real-life version of same.

i dropped this after the roof murder. nothing anybody did was making sense anymore. i feel like the writers were just like "oh this would be crazy" and wrote it.

this season is basically the first act of the original script sam esmail wrote for mr. robot when he wanted to do it as a movie, just with a lot of additions. the general skeleton of the whole overarching story was and is planned - like it or not, these arent seat-of-pants writing decisions a la the latter seasons of LOST

finale was fucking great precisely because it wasnt a big-bang thing full of more #tweests and watercooler shock moments, it centers around how these earth-shaking events are dealt with as traumatic bruises on the main characters, which has been the point of the series all along imo

just started watching
have to say, the music choice is still lovable. "world destruction"!

I feel like I JUST heard "World Destruction" on another series this year?

Anyway I liked how truly disorienting and weirdly paced the finale was, skipping over the actual hack the whole season was theoretically building towards, never showing us Wellick, completely stranding Angela at Ecorp. Loved the scene w/ Elliot and Wellick's wife and baby.

Yeah! "I feel like she can hear us?"

B.D. Wong is the best

for a moment there the times square set looked kinda hokey and when slater started in with "well whats REAL" i worried for half a second they were gonna go with 'actually this is all a tv show'