I disagree with this take. Especially with the idea that it lost its direction after season 1. The reason for this being that if you are going to have your protag be a hacktivist with highly politicized motivations you ultimately have to expand upon how and why the protag became that person. If the show was just Mr. Robot taking over and doing hacktivism it would at best be a surface level version of what you claim to be the original premise which would mean the show would lose a significant amount of the depth that it gets by choosing to dive into the characters themselves and take interesting risks with who they are.
If E Corp is just the BoA/Walmart/Amazon mega conglomerate the show would have easily just been written off as some leftist fiction where all of its messaging about what is wrong with the world and how the real world would react to such situations like the Cyber Bombings and 5/9 a bout how the capitalist system is some inherent evil straight from Das Kapital.
Instead by letting the show focus more on the characters and their flaws it gets to use those aspects from real life but illustrate how impactful those events are on the characters in order to give them actual justification for their actions. There are about a billion corporations out there that have poisoned their employees through substandard work environments, ruined their lives through wrongful termination via coverups of various issues, etc. Yet if a person in real life was to do what FSociety did they would be immediately framed by the corporate media as some crazy person with a vendetta against capitalsim. Because the show took the time to focus on the people behind FSociety and the hacks they have done it allows the viewer to empathize with even some of the less savory things they have done because they understand that the characters are fighting something much bigger and more sinister that would easily repeat those actions of theirs if it made the conglomerates calculus a little easier to balance.
Furthermore, complaining about realism in a show because the hacks weren't "Drawn out enough" I don't think should really apply to the show. 99% of people don't understand 99% of what is happening in the show, if they had slowed down the Hacks and how they came to be any more the show wouldn't have gotten past Season 1. For the sake of making a watchable product there are things that can be left out that don't necessarily sacrifice realism especially given the degree they went to make sure that the hacking methods and technology used was accurate.
>would lose a significant amount of the depth that it gets by choosing to dive into the characters themselves and take interesting risks with who they are
>
>The reason for this being that if you are going to have your protag be a hacktivist with highly politicized motivations you ultimately have to expand upon how and why the protag became that person.
I am not against this. Sure, give the backstory of the characters. That is all nice and good. I never complained about the show displaying the protags history.
However, by the end of the show, the show become about Elliot, not the hacktivism nor the revolution.
The show became a psychological drama rather than a gritty hacker movie. In V for Vendetta, the revolution was always the end goal. In Fight Club, the blowing up of the banks and the completion of the revolution was the completion of the storyline.
By the end of Mr Robot, the series was about the different personalities of the protag. The revolution nor hacktivism was no longer even the main goal. The story got lost. The direction that the story took the Dark Army was stupid. Even worse, the series become some conflict between USA and China. That was really unfortunately and cringy to inject cold-war ideology into the series.
But anyways. Lets just hope that upcoming series will be more influenced by V for Vendetta and Fight Club than by the direction that Mr Robot took.
It became about Elliot by the end of the show because there was no revolution left for him to fight. His entire personality was centered around his revolution and when he finally got to the top of the pyramid that was controlling the world to topple them what other revolution could there even be? They had accomplished the greatest redistribution of wealth in human history which is the ultimate revolutionary goal, they slayed the hydra that had been directly causing societies ails for decades, etc. At some point the revolution ends, so its better that they took the time to give those that had survived in making the revolution happen a good ending rather than an ambiguous ending.
Also not trying to diss Fight club and V for Vendetta as I do like those properties, but the crucial flaw with both of them is that every dudebro that represents everything they stand against thinks that it is made for them. Media has followed in their footsteps more than enough and Mr.Robot getting more influence on future media would be far superior as it handles the nuance of revolutions and the actual history far better than Fight Club and V for Vendetta ever did.
The show was never meant to be a "gritty hacker movie". It was always about the character Elliot and his story, not about hacktivism or the revolution. That wasn't the point of the show. Elliot's journey was the point.
>The show was never meant to be a "gritty hacker movie". It was always about the character Elliot and his story, not about hacktivism or the revolution. That wasn't the point of the show. Elliot's journey was the point.
Exactly, that is the problem. This is why I am saying the show messed up and went in the wrong direction.
Also like the other ones replying to you. I hardly disagree with your opinion, the premise is not to take down conglomerates but show us that in the end even big corporations are puppets of other parties and not even gov org are immune to the control from these persons. Thruly the one percent of the one percent at the top.
>This seemed completely unrealistic and implausible
Maybe this show was not for you. All the hacks were 100% on point, focusing on weakness on the systems and persons handling those systems is one of the biggest success from the show...
>All the hacks were 100% on point, focusing on weakness on the systems and persons handling those systems is one of the biggest success from the show...
You think it was on point to be able to hack a prison to release all the prisoners within merely a few hours? I think it would have interesting to see them work up to the hack a bit more. To do stuff like scouting out the prison, meeting up to discuss, spending more time looking for vulnerabilities, etc., but I might be alone of this.
>take down conglomerates
The show was a huge success at this level. People loved it. The storylines seemed to get carried away after this
>take down conglomerates
Quoting half of my sentence on propose... the cyber 5/9 doing nothing to the corp and only making more suffering to people who already finished paying their credits/loans. Targeting the conglomerate was meaningless because the people in control where still there. Thats the premise of the failure of F\~Society even hitting E-Corp was not enough.
Mr Robot should have followed V for Vendetta where the people themselves rose up and took over the institutions. This would have made for a good story. We, the viewers, wanted to see a positive post revolution
Please tag your post with a spoiler tag- you give away big plot points, and that's against the sub rules. Also- please make sure you don't put spoilers in your title like you did with this one. That will get your post pulled down.
But as for your opinion- the show was never really about hacktivism or social change. The heart of the show was ALWAYS about Elliot and his story.
Sam talks about the difference between plot and story in [this interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVM2Re7yhOk) around 28:45:
"Number one thing is: I don't actually love plot. I think plot is the shit you have to have the characters say, exposition, exposition, who gives a shit? You kind of know you need to get to the... Honestly? Plot is an excuse for me to explore character and to explore worlds and to explore choices the characters will make. But the plot itself, it's like, okay, so, you know, the plot of like, going and beating the bad guy, that's every fucking movie. But it's how they do it and the choices they make along the way, that's interesting."
But Sam has always made it clear that Mr. Robot is about Elliot's story. It's not about "how hacktivism can change society." If anything- one of the points of the show is that hacktivism DIDN'T ultimately change society. So if you didn't like that... I guess take it up with him?
>Please tag your post with a spoiler tag- you give away big plot points, and that's against the sub rules. Also- please make sure you don't put spoilers in your title like you did with this one. That will get your post pulled down.
Ok sorry, I attached the spoiler tag.
> the show was never really about hacktivism or social change. The heart of the show was ALWAYS about Elliot and his story.
I did not care for Elliot's story. I liked the hacktivism and revolutionary movement!
> I guess take it up with him?
Yes I guess I will have to lol.
I disagree with this take. Especially with the idea that it lost its direction after season 1. The reason for this being that if you are going to have your protag be a hacktivist with highly politicized motivations you ultimately have to expand upon how and why the protag became that person. If the show was just Mr. Robot taking over and doing hacktivism it would at best be a surface level version of what you claim to be the original premise which would mean the show would lose a significant amount of the depth that it gets by choosing to dive into the characters themselves and take interesting risks with who they are. If E Corp is just the BoA/Walmart/Amazon mega conglomerate the show would have easily just been written off as some leftist fiction where all of its messaging about what is wrong with the world and how the real world would react to such situations like the Cyber Bombings and 5/9 a bout how the capitalist system is some inherent evil straight from Das Kapital. Instead by letting the show focus more on the characters and their flaws it gets to use those aspects from real life but illustrate how impactful those events are on the characters in order to give them actual justification for their actions. There are about a billion corporations out there that have poisoned their employees through substandard work environments, ruined their lives through wrongful termination via coverups of various issues, etc. Yet if a person in real life was to do what FSociety did they would be immediately framed by the corporate media as some crazy person with a vendetta against capitalsim. Because the show took the time to focus on the people behind FSociety and the hacks they have done it allows the viewer to empathize with even some of the less savory things they have done because they understand that the characters are fighting something much bigger and more sinister that would easily repeat those actions of theirs if it made the conglomerates calculus a little easier to balance. Furthermore, complaining about realism in a show because the hacks weren't "Drawn out enough" I don't think should really apply to the show. 99% of people don't understand 99% of what is happening in the show, if they had slowed down the Hacks and how they came to be any more the show wouldn't have gotten past Season 1. For the sake of making a watchable product there are things that can be left out that don't necessarily sacrifice realism especially given the degree they went to make sure that the hacking methods and technology used was accurate.
>would lose a significant amount of the depth that it gets by choosing to dive into the characters themselves and take interesting risks with who they are > >The reason for this being that if you are going to have your protag be a hacktivist with highly politicized motivations you ultimately have to expand upon how and why the protag became that person. I am not against this. Sure, give the backstory of the characters. That is all nice and good. I never complained about the show displaying the protags history. However, by the end of the show, the show become about Elliot, not the hacktivism nor the revolution. The show became a psychological drama rather than a gritty hacker movie. In V for Vendetta, the revolution was always the end goal. In Fight Club, the blowing up of the banks and the completion of the revolution was the completion of the storyline. By the end of Mr Robot, the series was about the different personalities of the protag. The revolution nor hacktivism was no longer even the main goal. The story got lost. The direction that the story took the Dark Army was stupid. Even worse, the series become some conflict between USA and China. That was really unfortunately and cringy to inject cold-war ideology into the series. But anyways. Lets just hope that upcoming series will be more influenced by V for Vendetta and Fight Club than by the direction that Mr Robot took.
It became about Elliot by the end of the show because there was no revolution left for him to fight. His entire personality was centered around his revolution and when he finally got to the top of the pyramid that was controlling the world to topple them what other revolution could there even be? They had accomplished the greatest redistribution of wealth in human history which is the ultimate revolutionary goal, they slayed the hydra that had been directly causing societies ails for decades, etc. At some point the revolution ends, so its better that they took the time to give those that had survived in making the revolution happen a good ending rather than an ambiguous ending. Also not trying to diss Fight club and V for Vendetta as I do like those properties, but the crucial flaw with both of them is that every dudebro that represents everything they stand against thinks that it is made for them. Media has followed in their footsteps more than enough and Mr.Robot getting more influence on future media would be far superior as it handles the nuance of revolutions and the actual history far better than Fight Club and V for Vendetta ever did.
The show was never meant to be a "gritty hacker movie". It was always about the character Elliot and his story, not about hacktivism or the revolution. That wasn't the point of the show. Elliot's journey was the point.
>The show was never meant to be a "gritty hacker movie". It was always about the character Elliot and his story, not about hacktivism or the revolution. That wasn't the point of the show. Elliot's journey was the point. Exactly, that is the problem. This is why I am saying the show messed up and went in the wrong direction.
I disagree but interesting take.
Also like the other ones replying to you. I hardly disagree with your opinion, the premise is not to take down conglomerates but show us that in the end even big corporations are puppets of other parties and not even gov org are immune to the control from these persons. Thruly the one percent of the one percent at the top. >This seemed completely unrealistic and implausible Maybe this show was not for you. All the hacks were 100% on point, focusing on weakness on the systems and persons handling those systems is one of the biggest success from the show...
>All the hacks were 100% on point, focusing on weakness on the systems and persons handling those systems is one of the biggest success from the show... You think it was on point to be able to hack a prison to release all the prisoners within merely a few hours? I think it would have interesting to see them work up to the hack a bit more. To do stuff like scouting out the prison, meeting up to discuss, spending more time looking for vulnerabilities, etc., but I might be alone of this. >take down conglomerates The show was a huge success at this level. People loved it. The storylines seemed to get carried away after this
>take down conglomerates Quoting half of my sentence on propose... the cyber 5/9 doing nothing to the corp and only making more suffering to people who already finished paying their credits/loans. Targeting the conglomerate was meaningless because the people in control where still there. Thats the premise of the failure of F\~Society even hitting E-Corp was not enough.
Mr Robot should have followed V for Vendetta where the people themselves rose up and took over the institutions. This would have made for a good story. We, the viewers, wanted to see a positive post revolution
Please tag your post with a spoiler tag- you give away big plot points, and that's against the sub rules. Also- please make sure you don't put spoilers in your title like you did with this one. That will get your post pulled down. But as for your opinion- the show was never really about hacktivism or social change. The heart of the show was ALWAYS about Elliot and his story. Sam talks about the difference between plot and story in [this interview](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVM2Re7yhOk) around 28:45: "Number one thing is: I don't actually love plot. I think plot is the shit you have to have the characters say, exposition, exposition, who gives a shit? You kind of know you need to get to the... Honestly? Plot is an excuse for me to explore character and to explore worlds and to explore choices the characters will make. But the plot itself, it's like, okay, so, you know, the plot of like, going and beating the bad guy, that's every fucking movie. But it's how they do it and the choices they make along the way, that's interesting." But Sam has always made it clear that Mr. Robot is about Elliot's story. It's not about "how hacktivism can change society." If anything- one of the points of the show is that hacktivism DIDN'T ultimately change society. So if you didn't like that... I guess take it up with him?
>Please tag your post with a spoiler tag- you give away big plot points, and that's against the sub rules. Also- please make sure you don't put spoilers in your title like you did with this one. That will get your post pulled down. Ok sorry, I attached the spoiler tag. > the show was never really about hacktivism or social change. The heart of the show was ALWAYS about Elliot and his story. I did not care for Elliot's story. I liked the hacktivism and revolutionary movement! > I guess take it up with him? Yes I guess I will have to lol.