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I love that the show not only seems to anticipate that the viewer's reaction will be "Oh, he's going Tyler Durden," but pretty much responds by saying "Yeah, what if he is?" They're not trying to snow you in some effort to build to a "shocking" "reveal". It's got enough swagger to let you make up your own mind, and enough confidence to think you'll be invested either way. And it earns every last ounce.
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# ¿ Jun 21, 2015 19:08 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:19 |
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Y-Hat posted:I'm glad that this sounds pretty good, because holy hell do I hate the ads for it. It seems like subway stop here has a bunch of them, so I'm usually seeing the main character's stern, disapproving expression with phrases like "OUR DEMOCRACY HAS BEEN HACKED," "BANKS CONTROL YOUR MONEY," "SOCIAL MEDIA OWNS YOUR RELATIONSHIPS," and other things that Holden Caulfield might say if he binge-listened Bill Hicks standup. That's because that's exactly who the main character is. What the ads don't get across is how the show is smart enough to know that a Holden Caulfield-type is supposed to be kind of a dipshit who isn't as smart as he thinks he is, and plots itself accordingly. You're not supposed to hate him like you hate Holden, but the show is, at best, cautiously on his side.
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# ¿ Jun 25, 2015 06:06 |
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So is it just me, or was that F Society video REALLY well done?
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# ¿ Jul 2, 2015 03:18 |
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Well, poo poo.
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# ¿ Jul 2, 2015 04:09 |
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adrenaline_junket posted:Well they could have left the rape part for another episode in the future. Perhaps just had her touched up for money or something. Just seemed like they closed a good opportunity for character interaction off too quickly. He's in prison, not dead.
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# ¿ Jul 3, 2015 07:40 |
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I gotta admit, this was a really good episode. But unless this show can prove by next week that Sam Esmail has a truly satisfying ending in mind and it'll never spin its wheels on the way to that ending then I'm gonna have to drop it
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# ¿ Jul 23, 2015 04:50 |
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Wax Lion posted:I know everyone is saying the show intends to play with the idea that Mr. Robot isn't real but what if it doesn't? That's my big worry. Like what if the creator thinks he's got this twist locked and loaded and he thinks he's going to blow our minds? Because the show calls out, right from the beginning, the possibility that Mr. Robot isn't real. Elliot says it, out loud, episode 1: "Wait, I'm a paranoid schizophrenic. What if he's a delusion?" The fact that his concern ultimately falls to the wayside doesn't matter: he put it out there for the audience to remember. Here's the thing about "Twists," and I'm speaking as a writer who is working on a story with a Twist: If you're looking to shock your audience, you're not going to put The Twist out in the open for everyone to see. This is especially true if you're looking to be perceived as the cleverest motherfucker in all the land, because the joy of The Twist for a writer is catching everyone off guard and forcing them to go back and reexamine everything that may have hinted at The Twist. "I saw that coming" is the last thing a Twist writer wants to hear. That's why no story that emphasizes The Twist tells you The Twist in its first two acts. (Especially in the post Fight Club / Sixth Sense / Beautiful Mind era, where audiences started actively trying to stay one step ahead of their storytellers.) Once the possibility enters your mind, there's no getting it out, and you lose the element of surprise. Sam Esmail dispensed with that element the moment Mr. Robot entered the picture. He acknowledges, through Elliot (in a way that makes perfect sense for his character), the elephant in the room, and goes forward in the story, business as usual. He drops obvious hints about Mr. Robot's Durden-esque nature in the first few episodes. But then he doubles back and offers clues that suggest he's NOT necessarily a figment of Elliot's imagination in the latest episode, almost as if he knew you'd be looking for those initial clues. This is all a part of making the question of Mr. Robot's existence an unspoken part of the series (for now at least), as opposed to a boring old Twist that everyone knows is coming: if this was just about shock, I promise, absolutely none of this poo poo would be in play.
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# ¿ Jul 24, 2015 08:31 |
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Sophia posted:This is a really great show, and I can't believe that some people are spending so much energy worrying about if they're going to stick the landing when watching them fly through the air is so drat gorgeous. I love a lot of things about this show, but I can't lie, I love that it brought you out of your highly reasonable self-imposed exile, if only for a moment. God drat that was intense.
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# ¿ Jul 30, 2015 22:06 |
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Nice "Hack the Gibson" reference.
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# ¿ Jul 14, 2016 03:40 |
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# ¿ May 10, 2024 00:19 |
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Round of applause for Michael Cristofer being Michael Cristofer, and for Craig Robinson playing one of the most interesting characters on TV right now.
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# ¿ Jul 21, 2016 04:48 |