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Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer

Antti posted:

The big question or plot-driver in S1 was "Will f-society hack Evil Corp and put the financial system in meltdown?"

They answered it within S1, which itself came as a surprise to me because I was worried they'd try to drag that plot on to the second season.

Second season is about the fallout and the repercussions of the culmination of S1, which again is something I haven't seen done like this before - a world-changing event happened in the end of season 1 and they are picking up exactly where that left off. E.g. that guy running the convenience store is going out of business because there's only cash and the government is rationing cash.

I'm just trying to explain why I'm not frustrated at all by the pacing of season 2, because to me pacing is not just about things happening to the world of the show.

This is also why the comparisons to Lost fall apart to me in every way: there's clearly more thought put behind the story here, the characters are a mile deep and an inch wide instead of the other way around, and the show isn't crapping out new mysteries to solve without dealing with earlier plot threads. The equivalent of Mr. Robot would've been for everyone to get off the drat island at the end of the first season.

I agree with pretty much all of this.

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Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep

Antti posted:

The big question or plot-driver in S1 was "Will f-society hack Evil Corp and put the financial system in meltdown?"

They answered it within S1, which itself came as a surprise to me because I was worried they'd try to drag that plot on to the second season.

Second season is about the fallout and the repercussions of the culmination of S1, which again is something I haven't seen done like this before - a world-changing event happened in the end of season 1 and they are picking up exactly where that left off. E.g. that guy running the convenience store is going out of business because there's only cash and the government is rationing cash.

I'm just trying to explain why I'm not frustrated at all by the pacing of season 2, because to me pacing is not just about things happening to the world of the show.

This is also why the comparisons to Lost fall apart to me in every way: there's clearly more thought put behind the story here, the characters are a mile deep and an inch wide instead of the other way around, and the show isn't crapping out new mysteries to solve without dealing with earlier plot threads. The equivalent of Mr. Robot would've been for everyone to get off the drat island at the end of the first season.

This exactly

Kawasaki Nun
Jul 16, 2001

by Reene
Lol where's tyrell? He dead.

HorseRenoir
Dec 25, 2011



Pillbug
Mr Robot is a slow character drama that tricked people into thinking it was a twist-heavy thriller, which is probably why Season 2 has been so polarizing

Poppyseed Poundcake
Feb 23, 2007
What was the symbolism of the ALF driving a car? In the original ALF show he wasn't able to do things like drive. I think him learning to drive was a foreshadowing of Angela learning to hack.

geeves
Sep 16, 2004

Dr. Josef Mengele posted:

What was the symbolism of the ALF driving a car? In the original ALF show he wasn't able to do things like drive. I think him learning to drive was a foreshadowing of Angela learning to hack.

Who cares? It was loving ALF!

avoid doorways
Jun 6, 2010

'twas brillig
Gun Saliva
That can't be it. All the subtle metaphors and symbolism have to relate to the Elliot Is Jesus theory somehow.

Ellie Crabcakes
Feb 1, 2008

Stop emailing my boyfriend Gay Crungus

Dr. Josef Mengele posted:

What was the symbolism of the ALF driving a car? In the original ALF show he wasn't able to do things like drive.
He piloted a loving space ship. I don't think driving stick is going to be that far out of his wheelhouse.

Snak
Oct 10, 2005

I myself will carry you to the Gates of Valhalla...
You will ride eternal,
shiny and chrome.
Grimey Drawer
Also it's not like he did a good job driving.

Jst0rm
Sep 16, 2012
Grimey Drawer
just caught up with the thread. :) Everyone is doing great in here.

sticklefifer
Nov 11, 2003

by VideoGames
I don't think Tyrell is the central question of S2 at all. I think it's "What the hell happens when Mr. Robot takes over?" and they're gradually meting out the answers to that throughout the season. We've seen bits and pieces of that in flashbacks through each episode so far, we've seen Elliot conflict with his other half in a struggle to prevent him from having his way again, and now Elliot's in a life-threatening situation where it would be to his advantage to let Mr. Robot take over.

Beefed Owl
Sep 13, 2007

Come at me scrub-lord I'm ripped!
Maybe it's because I watch this show high as balls, but I am really enjoying the slow-burn.

gently caress the haters, plot development can wait, let's dig into these characters a bit.

DaveKap
Feb 5, 2006

Pickle: Inspected.



Here's my current interpretation of how the show-runners are handling this season.
Knowing full well that they got to keep a couple of great twists with season 1 - with Darlene the sister, Mr. Robot being Elliot's dad, and Elliot being Mr. Robot - they knew they'd need a new twist for this season. Wellick being dead is the obvious twist that is meant to throw off your usual brain dead viewer. "Oh, I bet because of this, that, and the other, Wellick is dead. It's taking so long to get to that point, it must be the twist." Meanwhile, Elliot "living with his mom" is the not-so-obvious twist that everyone in here already gets but the typical viewer doesn't come close to knowing. I know this because everyone I've talked to who isn't in this thread has no idea what I'm talking about but when I show them some evidence, they agree it's a viable twist. This is exactly like Season 1 when everyone was making the assumption that Mr. Robot was in his head vs Mr. Robot is Elliot's dad. The brain dead audience was guessing Mr. Robot was Elliot's dad (though the Darlene twist caught everyone off guard and I hope Season 2 manages to have a similar substantial twist that we haven't guessed) but they weren't thinking that he was in Elliot's head, yet in this thread everyone was guessing Fight Club Syndrome very quickly.

That's just one angle on the season but it makes the most sense to me. I just wish Esmail wasn't so intensely married to having the characters looking the wrong way off-screen during dialog scenes. It works great when used sparingly but this season has been overkill with it. Outside of that, the use of space and size of frame is still rather good.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
All Angela's scenes are shot incredibly.

Binary Logic
Dec 28, 2000

Fun Shoe

Dr. Josef Mengele posted:

What was the symbolism of the ALF driving a car? In the original ALF show he wasn't able to do things like drive. I think him learning to drive was a foreshadowing of Angela learning to hack.

ALF (Alien Life Form) represent both the happier time period for Elliott, and also the alien or outside forces which affect his life and the lives of people around him (Gideon), that he has no control over.
Another nice touch was when Elliott was in the hospital and ALF was on the tv (the source of ALF being in his dreams), ALF says "Call the newspapers - Democracy is dead".

And ALF could drive. In S1E10 Baby You Can Drive My Car, he buys a Ferrari for Lynn and drives it home.

Jst0rm posted:

just caught up with the thread. :) Everyone is doing great in here.

TurboFlamingChicken posted:

Maybe it's because I watch this show high as balls, but I am really enjoying the slow-burn.

gently caress the haters, plot development can wait, let's dig into these characters a bit.

Yes! Gimme 4!




<Laugh track> <Audience Applause> /cut to E Corp commerical #3, We're Still Working For You.


Binary Logic fucked around with this message at 12:16 on Aug 14, 2016

CloFan
Nov 6, 2004

Finally caught up, that was a great episode! I'm a fan of the slow-burn. You don't have to have a ton of action and plot development in every episode to have a good show.

I did want to point out that the 'rubber ducky' that the one hacker gave angela is a real exploit. He says it kinda fast but I love that the writers get things like this right-- Mimikatz Exploit on Github. Between that and them using Signal to communicate, this show has not lost it's real-tech edge. Besides them not using a script for Angela, but w/e

Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep
I was thinking yesterday: is kinda missing that the show never mentions bitcoins. After they deleted all the regular digital money, would not make sense that bitcoins would became very very important?


edit: vvvvv humm no, I didnt. But now that you mentioned, I do remember the IT guy saying something about bitcoins wallet being emptied or something

Elias_Maluco fucked around with this message at 16:29 on Aug 14, 2016

JazzFlight
Apr 29, 2006

Oooooooooooh!

Elias_Maluco posted:

I was thinking yesterday: is kinda missing that the show never mentions bitcoins. After they deleted all the regular digital money, would not make sense that bitcoins would became very very important?
Didn't you see the signs on the wall of the deli that Dom was in last ep? They were for Bitcoin and like, E-Coin for Evil Corp.

Also, the whole job that Ray needs done is something to do with Bitcoins. I remember they mentioned that when the rat-tail IT guy was being interrogated in his house.

ricro
Dec 22, 2008
Bitcoins would never become important no matter what global crisis happened

They are only important if you want drugs

Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep

SlipkPIe posted:

Bitcoins would never become important no matter what global crisis happened

They are only important if you want drugs

I dont think so. In a world where all the money left is cash and there's being controlled because there's not enough for everyone, bitcoins would certainly have its moment

Bape Culture
Sep 13, 2006

How would it? It's still tied to real money in that generally people cash out bitcoins for real goods and services??

Poppyseed Poundcake
Feb 23, 2007
In a world where you can hack a computer with a CD off the street or with wifi from a bathroom your bitscoin would be stolen almost instantly

CloFan
Nov 6, 2004

There was a line between Price and [someone] about how he was thinking of pushing E-Coin if the bailout didn't happen. That's one of the most interesting aspects for me, to see E-Corp push their own currency as a means of economic recovery. But, there's already a sign at the deli that says they accept E-Coin, so maybe it's already in play?

Grinning Goblin
Oct 11, 2004

Well, considering bitcoin hacks still happen and can cause hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoins to just go missing overnight, I feel like switching to bitcoins in the post hack world would be like trying to make a sand hut for shelter during a hurricane when your real home was just destroyed minutes before. People would probably go back to using gold and silver as a temporary measure before resorting to bitcoin since they actually have real value you can physically hold in your hand that can't hacked away.

Elias_Maluco
Aug 23, 2007
I need to sleep

Bape Culture posted:

How would it? It's still tied to real money in that generally people cash out bitcoins for real goods and services??

Im no specialist, I never even used bitcoins. But In a world where most money is gone, I would think that this already established alternative money would became very valuable

Poppyseed Poundcake
Feb 23, 2007
I work in the black market organ trade so I actually use them regularly, but it's really not something a laymen could reliably use. You need a decent amount of computer and security literacy if you want to use them. Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/sorryforyourloss

Toplowtech
Aug 31, 2004

Dr. Josef Mengele posted:

I work in the black market organ trade so I actually use them regularly, but it's really not something a laymen could reliably use. You need a decent amount of computer and security literacy if you want to use them. Check out https://www.reddit.com/r/sorryforyourloss
Great name/post combo.

ijyt
Apr 10, 2012

HorseRenoir posted:

Mr Robot is a slow character drama that tricked people into thinking it was a twist-heavy thriller, which is probably why Season 2 has been so polarizing

A genre I didn't know I liked but here I am, enjoying getting stressed out every Thursday.

Super Slash
Feb 20, 2006

You rang ?

Antti posted:

That's what I was thinking, or "Why can't they just create a macro she can run with one command?" because aside from needing an in-flesh person connecting cables and hardware, why did she need to "learn to hack?" That implies there would be some improvisation or information she needed to enter quickly that only she could see while in the building. Like if the whole floor was in a Faraday cage and they had no way to talk to her or remotely control any devices, and they needed her to first go check some readouts and then use that to pick the correct commands to use.

I managed to let my suspension of disbelief take over while watching, fortunately.

I thought they did give her a script?

I'm kinda tired but the way I saw things its was basically teaching a project manager how to rig up hardware and learn how to use Linux, not exactly "hacking" but it's pretty easy to understand how daunting that would be to most people; especially when you have to infiltrate your own company and look suspicious as all hell with the FBI nosing around.

nickmeister posted:

The FBI lady is awkward as gently caress.
She's a redhead nerdy coffee addict who;
- Flicked the bean shortly after introduction
- Capped a terrorist in the leg

Double thumbs up

td4guy
Jun 13, 2005

I always hated that guy.

Rocksicles posted:

All Angela's scenes are shot incredibly.
On re-watch, I noticed that her hacking scene was one continuous 4-minute-long shot, until they had to zoom in on her installing the femtocell. Fantastic.

HorseRenoir
Dec 25, 2011



Pillbug

td4guy posted:

On re-watch, I noticed that her hacking scene was one continuous 4-minute-long shot, until they had to zoom in on her installing the femtocell. Fantastic.

It's a testament to the show's ability to create tension that I didn't even realize that sequence was only 4 minutes long. It feels much longer than that.

avoid doorways
Jun 6, 2010

'twas brillig
Gun Saliva

Super Slash posted:

I thought they did give her a script?

I'm kinda tired but the way I saw things its was basically teaching a project manager how to rig up hardware and learn how to use Linux, not exactly "hacking" but it's pretty easy to understand how daunting that would be to most people; especially when you have to infiltrate your own company and look suspicious as all hell with the FBI nosing around.

They were getting her to manually invoke the command with all the parameters. They could have created a shell script (or alias) with what she needed to type and just got her to run ./hack or whatever.

Granted if they had done it that way they'd have been (more?) screwed when they needed her to manually bring the interfaces back up.

carticket
Jun 28, 2005

white and gold.

Elias_Maluco posted:

Im no specialist, I never even used bitcoins. But In a world where most money is gone, I would think that this already established alternative money would became very valuable

It's not already established, it's held by very few people, concentrated in wealth inequality several orders of magnitude worse than anything existing right now with fiat currency. Your account balances were wiped, and there's cash rationing: how are you going to acquire bitcoin.

I'm sure it's been useful for the few thousand people that hold usable amounts to buy goods and services from the people interested in selling/working for a currency that has value to not that many people. I'm sure E-corp's competitors have done well, why not use shares of those companies as a replacement currency? The same things apply: held by very few, and not much larger of a population willing to accept them.

Shoren
Apr 6, 2011

victoria concordia crescit

Licarn posted:

They were getting her to manually invoke the command with all the parameters. They could have created a shell script (or alias) with what she needed to type and just got her to run ./hack or whatever.

Granted if they had done it that way they'd have been (more?) screwed when they needed her to manually bring the interfaces back up.

They ended up walking her through the whole thing over the phone anyhow so what was the point? I guess having a script or even a text document with all the commands would make her actions indefensible if she got caught, but the whole learning to code in a day thing kinda flopped for me.

GutBomb
Jun 15, 2005

Dude?
She didn't learn to code in a day. She memorized some command lines to type into a terminal in a day. I think instead of giving her a script they had her enter the individual commands from memory so if there was a problem they could fix it quickly and know exactly what step she was on. Also if she had a script and was caught before she executed it there is evidence that she was there to gently caress poo poo up. Without the script she's simply someone that wanted to go to a mostly abandoned floor in the office building to take a dump in peace who brought their laptop along in a bag.

Entering commands into a terminal and writing code are two very different things.

GutBomb fucked around with this message at 15:11 on Aug 15, 2016

avoid doorways
Jun 6, 2010

'twas brillig
Gun Saliva

Shoren posted:

They ended up walking her through the whole thing over the phone anyhow so what was the point? I guess having a script or even a text document with all the commands would make her actions indefensible if she got caught, but the whole learning to code in a day thing kinda flopped for me.

When Mobley was teaching her by telling her what to type she was messing it up. They were really just teaching her how to type commands.

Shoren
Apr 6, 2011

victoria concordia crescit
I know she didn't really learn to code in any meaningful way, but they set it up as such with Mobley saying exasperatedly "You can't learn to code in a day!"

GutBomb
Jun 15, 2005

Dude?

Shoren posted:

I know she didn't really learn to code in any meaningful way, but they set it up as such with Mobley saying exasperatedly "You can't learn to code in a day!"

He said hack, not code.

SurgicalOntologist
Jun 17, 2004

Yeah I rolled my eyes hard at "click the icon for terminal like we practiced." I mean, surely she's mastered the concept of opening applications. And wasn't there a point where she mistyped something and instead of being like "you forgot a space" or whatever Mobley went straight to plan B.

SurgicalOntologist fucked around with this message at 16:33 on Aug 15, 2016

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Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


SurgicalOntologist posted:

Yeah I rolled my eyes hard at "click the icon for terminal like we practiced." I mean, surely she's mastered the concept of opening applications. And wasn't their a point where she mistyped something and instead of being like "you forgot a space" or whatever Mobley went straight to plan B.

I thought he was just doing a really bad job of showing her what to do because he assumed she wouldn't be able to do it.

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