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

Also, not something I expected them to pick up on, but pacemakers have a tendency to explode when thrown into incinerators, which is a cool real-life detail they missed out on incorporating!

The attention to detail died with Gideon imo

the dom-darlene conversational faceoff was fantastic

― if young slothrop don't trust ya i'm gon' rhyme ya (slothroprhymes), Thursday, September 22, 2016 3:53 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

seriously baffled by this. came here to complain about how that dialogue is everything wrong with the writing in this show. just lazy, cliche ridden, try-hard, emotionally empty etc. and delivered with such conviction.

agreed

xp fwiw i was referring to how carly chaikin and grace gummer (gummer's body language is particularly notable imo) acted in that scene rather than the dialogue - which was, like, fine, nothing to write home about - but if the words killed it for you i can get that

esmail has said that he plans to continue directing every episode and leave more of the writing to his staff, which could v well help address the reasonable complaints about the plotting

then again, i really do not - and never have - watch this show for plot. it makes me feel stuff other shows, aside from the leftovers, do not. which is v specific to me, of course. it also prob means that next season this'll become my stan-ery thread no one else posts in, but, jordan shrug

still wondering what hoos thought about this season lol

That's good news about Esmail relinquishing the writing reins somewhat. It seems like he could very easily wind up following in Nolan's footsteps if he doesn't focus on his obvious strengths rather than trying to do everything himself.

xp fwiw i was referring to how carly chaikin and grace gummer (gummer's body language is particularly notable imo) acted in that scene rather than the dialogue - which was, like, fine, nothing to write home about - but if the words killed it for you i can get that

― if young slothrop don't trust ya i'm gon' rhyme ya (slothroprhymes), Wednesday, September 28, 2016 1:19 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, i'm consistently impressed how the acting and direction can salvage such terrible writing. and the music cue and direction after the faceoff for the big reveal was excellent, i'll grant.

idk i didn't think s2 was as bad as everyone itt but it did drag. New one was a good start I thought.

they gave bobby cannavale a slightly different role than he plays in everything else!

It took me a minute to recognize him.

I watched the s3 premiere despite feeling like s2 strayed very quickly into the kind of flounder-y, shaggy dog territory that's a huge red flag wrt high-concept shows like this. It was okay, but this is starting to feel a bit like Homeland to me (a show with good enough acting that I could ignore the declining quality, until the point where I could no longer ignore the declining quality).

no way am I getting suckered back into this

I couldn't get past the fourth or fifth episode of Season 2. I waited too long to return to it, so I'd forgotten a lot. Every episode I had to go to Wikipedia to read the episode summary and try to figure out what I'd just seen. Finally gave up.

They're no longer bleeping the 'fuck's (while absurdly allowing every other swear ever invented). It's edgier than ever.

I'm getting annoyed all over again just thinking about how insulting the s2 finale was

anyone watching this that can vouch for it being worth it? couldn't get through much of the s3 premiere

Second episode was very good I thought. It could all turn to shit of course but so far this season seems to be a return to form.

The second episode montage framework kinda redeemed the show for me, it's overall pacing since the middle of the second season has been much too slow

those montages are what the show does best, they should have one in every episode

bobby cannavale is fantastic in this

Wellick in the woods!

damn this week's episode was impressive. I'm glad tha the shows have finally found a handle on Angela's motivations, last year her character made no sense. One of the big reasons why this season has been so much stronger

i enjoyed it but I'm starting to wonder if I'm missing the point or some important angle. I especially liked the way they cut it to Einstein On The Beach but I realised halfway through that it's been flipping back and forth so much with Elliot/Mr Robot that I no longer care about whether Evil Corp gets blown up or not and what the dark army are actually up to, it's all getting a bit opaque.

I just read a recap of the last episode and wow, the nosedive continues!

I disagree, the action has picked up and all the bits that have been percolating are now getting blasted in the face of all the characters who thought they were in control and working toward a better world

The revelations were a little more catastrophic for a couple characters, unfortunately

rewatched the 1st episode & i feel like they dropped certain threads that made it super interesting ... his depression/addiction hasn't really reared its head as much, now feels much more paranoiac than depressive. 1st ep they show him sobbing in a corner from loneliness, kind of let that go

Yeah now his loneliness has been cured thanks to all of his “friends” being murdered except the white ones

the two characters who have been offscreen for most of a full season were scapegoated, yeah

I liked those two but more BD Wong + Joey Bada$$ is fine for me

feel really bad for his therapist finally getting the point

Agree this season is way better than s2 although still as deeply flawed as it’s been all along

at this point I'm grateful for more shows that try things and have some foundational flaws after watching too many boilerplate genre exercises

yeah i can roll with that. the last few eps have been very uniquely compelling

it is frustrating to see a show that's, to paraphrase a review, about how the world is bullshit that seems to not quite have a handle on its own bullshit, but it does seem to have a lot of new ideas about what tv can do that i appreciate

lots of otm ideas about Frasier

This week's episode made me tear up a few times.

this episode was really good, it really makes me question whether they have control of what they're doing at the same time that they do it with confidence which is kind of a rare feeling, the uncertainty/amateur elements contrasted w the crafted certainty... the unnatural dialogue that is maybe actually natural ... i dont know, it's very interesting even if i'm left wondering if i think its working or not. 'am i falling for sentimentalism, or is this real?' They do a great job of staying unpredictable which maybe is all i need it to be

anyway, at least its not boring like season 2

people keep telling me to watch this season but I'm gonna wait for the finale to see if it makes people angry all over again

I knew what the kid was going to say when asked where in Jersey he was born but it still made my heart sink

the worst parts of this show are the lazy catcher in the rye-like lampooning of Types of people which has been present from the first episode (Can you believe Angela's boyfriend likes mainstreamer culture??) bc even though hes a 'character' expressing these kinds of feelings it feels like the show shares those attitudes in i.e. the characterization of tyrell wellick & his wife

that stuff feels so jarringly naive but i also cant anticipate where any individual episode is headed & he's going after stuff no one else really addresses in television & its tonal shifts are really disorienting in a way that feels reflective of modern life

I think the conceit's barely used but there's the unreliable narrator framing where we're being told the story through Elliot's eyes and the early attitudes toward some of the characters seemed like we're getting his view of them, not necessarily a well-rounded view

true though the tyrell wellick stuff seemed fairly well grounded (him murdering that woman felt like the main off-note for me in the first season, it was like we shifted suddenly to a schlocky american psycho knock off)

I think I'm with Simon H. Rami Malek's acting is fucking incredible but the show slid into a confused clusterfuck in a bad way throughout season 2 and I'm still burnt out on the characters

This last episode was incoherent. What a weird show

It's going in circles and making me crazy.

Yeah this one felt like it was written last minute at the tail end of a cocaine bender

Posts I intended to write a week ago: I finally watched all of season three, and while I'm happy to report that it's a marked improvement over the previous season, I still don't know that I'd recommend it to anyone who was on the fence.

Esmail (not unlike Christopher Nolan and M. Night Shyamalan) needs to be disabused of the notion that he's Orson Welles. His talents lend themselves to a number of indelible moments and images that make for great additions to his highlight reel but which don't cohere as well as a discrete narrative work.

still wondering what hoos thought about this season lol

― if young slothrop don't trust ya i'm gon' rhyme ya (slothroprhymes), Wednesday, September 28, 2016 5:32 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Watching the S2 finale now

This whole seasons been weird as fuck and I have really mixed feelings about it

Still gonna watch 3

Lmao "this isn't Burn Notice. Characters like you *aren't* welcome here."

tyvm for the update! looking forward to your takes

Back for season 4. Everyone’s in a dark place.

halfway through this first episode and it's off to a good start. jake busey cameo! violence! a fully in control mr robot binary!