Mr. Robot: eps1.1_one-and-zer0es.mpeg
July 1, 2015 11:12 PM - Season 1, Episode 2 - Subscribe
Elliot doesn't like Shayla's boyfriend. Elliot isn't sure about doing what Mr. Robot wants. Elliot may be losing his mind.
anyone else reminded of Aranofsky's Pi during the scene where Elliot is destroying all of his hardware?
The fun part of this show so far is trying to figure out how much of it is happening only in his head.
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:25 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
The fun part of this show so far is trying to figure out how much of it is happening only in his head.
posted by OHenryPacey at 12:25 AM on July 2, 2015 [1 favorite]
Man do I like this show but at the same time I can't take it seriously at all. It's just so sincere about something I'm familiar with and cynical about.
I also don't like how all of Elliot's freelance vigilantism exclusively targets men who exploit women: the pedophile, his therapist's cheating boyfriend, Angela's cheating boyfriend, his dealer's rapist. It's IRL whiteknighting, except for the fact that he actually has power to improve the victims' lives. I realize this is Elliot's Bildungsroman and the show is basically The Hacker in the Rye, where he can't connnect with other people and only treats them as plot devices in order to feel better about himself, but it's still frustrating.
Also if you're a cybersecurity worker like the first thing you should know is not to play any unknown media on anything important or connected to anything important.
posted by Small Dollar at 11:17 AM on July 2, 2015 [8 favorites]
I also don't like how all of Elliot's freelance vigilantism exclusively targets men who exploit women: the pedophile, his therapist's cheating boyfriend, Angela's cheating boyfriend, his dealer's rapist. It's IRL whiteknighting, except for the fact that he actually has power to improve the victims' lives. I realize this is Elliot's Bildungsroman and the show is basically The Hacker in the Rye, where he can't connnect with other people and only treats them as plot devices in order to feel better about himself, but it's still frustrating.
Also if you're a cybersecurity worker like the first thing you should know is not to play any unknown media on anything important or connected to anything important.
posted by Small Dollar at 11:17 AM on July 2, 2015 [8 favorites]
I dislike Darlene so intensely that I don't know if I can continue to watch this. She just pushes all of my buttons. Gah. UGH.
We saw Darlene look towards Mr. Robot while talking but they did not interact and she was really talking to Elliot. Is this blatantly obvious and I'm being obtuse? Fsociety is not real, right? And no one else is saying fsociety and evil corp out loud, it's all in his head?
I agree about the problematic White Knight vigilantism.
posted by the webmistress at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2015
We saw Darlene look towards Mr. Robot while talking but they did not interact and she was really talking to Elliot. Is this blatantly obvious and I'm being obtuse? Fsociety is not real, right? And no one else is saying fsociety and evil corp out loud, it's all in his head?
I agree about the problematic White Knight vigilantism.
posted by the webmistress at 11:29 AM on July 2, 2015
Also if you're a cybersecurity worker like the first thing you should know is not to play any unknown media on anything important or connected to anything important.
Is Douchey McBoyfriend actually a cybersecurity tech, or just an accountant or something? Either way, he's an idiot, so I didn't have trouble swallowing that move on his part, but it was also obvious that was what was going to happen from the moment they included a street "rapper" handing out free CDs. That's actually a pretty ineffective way to mount an attack; what if he'd put the CD in a regular old CD player instead?
They'd better start dropping better hints about what's real and what's imagined. The problem with an unreliable narrator is that if you literally can't trust that anything depicted is "really" happening, then why am I even bothering to watch the show at all?
posted by axiom at 6:22 PM on July 2, 2015
Is Douchey McBoyfriend actually a cybersecurity tech, or just an accountant or something? Either way, he's an idiot, so I didn't have trouble swallowing that move on his part, but it was also obvious that was what was going to happen from the moment they included a street "rapper" handing out free CDs. That's actually a pretty ineffective way to mount an attack; what if he'd put the CD in a regular old CD player instead?
They'd better start dropping better hints about what's real and what's imagined. The problem with an unreliable narrator is that if you literally can't trust that anything depicted is "really" happening, then why am I even bothering to watch the show at all?
posted by axiom at 6:22 PM on July 2, 2015
what if he'd put the CD in a regular old CD player instead?
It would play music. Multi formatted CD's arepretty common were a thing and the amount of code needed to initiate an attack is tiny compared to the size of media files.
The first rant at the coffee baron/pedophile was just surprisingly accurate but the rate that the tech details are "devoloving" is disillusioning.
posted by sammyo at 5:03 AM on July 3, 2015
It would play music. Multi formatted CD's are
The first rant at the coffee baron/pedophile was just surprisingly accurate but the rate that the tech details are "devoloving" is disillusioning.
posted by sammyo at 5:03 AM on July 3, 2015
>And no one else is saying fsociety and evil corp out loud, it's all in his head?
All explicit references to "Evil Corp" are the result of Elliot's "self-hack" last episode. He mentioned choosing to "hack" his perceptions so that all references to E Corp would turn into Evil Corp. Weird, but given his schizophrenia, seems consistent with his other delusions. No idea about F.Society.
It is fun wondering how much of what we see is real vs. part of his hallucinations--especially since we, the viewers, are effectively intentionally created hallucinations too. It seems clear that the men in black are hallucinations, and Elliott is aware of that, even if he can't help but respond to them. But is Mr. Robot and the F.Society? Mr. Robot was panhandling and interacting with the Men in Black at the cafe table, but the MiB hallucinations could be overlays on actual people that draw Elliott's attention.
posted by insert.witticism.here at 6:47 PM on July 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
All explicit references to "Evil Corp" are the result of Elliot's "self-hack" last episode. He mentioned choosing to "hack" his perceptions so that all references to E Corp would turn into Evil Corp. Weird, but given his schizophrenia, seems consistent with his other delusions. No idea about F.Society.
It is fun wondering how much of what we see is real vs. part of his hallucinations--especially since we, the viewers, are effectively intentionally created hallucinations too. It seems clear that the men in black are hallucinations, and Elliott is aware of that, even if he can't help but respond to them. But is Mr. Robot and the F.Society? Mr. Robot was panhandling and interacting with the Men in Black at the cafe table, but the MiB hallucinations could be overlays on actual people that draw Elliott's attention.
posted by insert.witticism.here at 6:47 PM on July 3, 2015 [3 favorites]
I like this show a lot. I'm so glad it already got renewed.
posted by cashman at 7:41 PM on July 5, 2015
posted by cashman at 7:41 PM on July 5, 2015
Another problem with using a CD as an attack vector is that you've just handed somebody a read-only copy of your attack software for him or his buddies at a top-echelon security company to analyze. Still enjoying the show, though.
posted by whir at 9:27 PM on July 6, 2015
posted by whir at 9:27 PM on July 6, 2015
Yeah, I was into the first episode, less so this one. I feel like I'm not supposed to like the problematic White Knight-ing but part of me wants to be a vigilante hacker. My stupid theory - Darlene is somehow secretly working for Evil Corp. I'm probably wrong but there you go.
posted by kat518 at 10:48 AM on July 7, 2015
posted by kat518 at 10:48 AM on July 7, 2015
"I also don't like how all of Elliot's freelance vigilantism exclusively targets men who exploit women: the pedophile, his therapist's cheating boyfriend, Angela's cheating boyfriend, his dealer's rapist."
I'm not seeing this the same way at all. The pedophile "targets women"? No, he doesn't. He's a pedophile. He's sharing tons of child porn. Not sure how that's targeting women. Also, the dealer's rapist is also a murderer and runs a drug ring that's responsible for a lot of bad stuff. The dealer's rape and the whole notion of rising past either/or let's Elliot realize that the reason he didn't put the guy away earlier was because he needed him to get his withdrawal meds. So when he found out that the guy killed somebody and then drugged and raped his dealer he decided that he's been waay too easy on the guy.
"Another problem with using a CD as an attack vector is that you've just handed somebody a read-only copy of your attack software for him or his buddies at a top-echelon security company to analyze."
No reason it can't be a CD-RW.
posted by I-baLL at 12:25 AM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm not seeing this the same way at all. The pedophile "targets women"? No, he doesn't. He's a pedophile. He's sharing tons of child porn. Not sure how that's targeting women. Also, the dealer's rapist is also a murderer and runs a drug ring that's responsible for a lot of bad stuff. The dealer's rape and the whole notion of rising past either/or let's Elliot realize that the reason he didn't put the guy away earlier was because he needed him to get his withdrawal meds. So when he found out that the guy killed somebody and then drugged and raped his dealer he decided that he's been waay too easy on the guy.
"Another problem with using a CD as an attack vector is that you've just handed somebody a read-only copy of your attack software for him or his buddies at a top-echelon security company to analyze."
No reason it can't be a CD-RW.
posted by I-baLL at 12:25 AM on July 10, 2015 [1 favorite]
The pedo's site was called "Plato's Boys," which implies a focus on young boys. And by sending the dealer's info to the cops, he's also disrupting Shayla's life, and his own (which was the first thing he identified - "get rid of the dealer, get rid of my drugs" - no thought to "cut off Shayla's drug source" until she said he gave her the best cut on drugs - probably for the chance to claim her as his own).
Johnny Slickback (Tyrell Wellick) is the worst at playing a foreigner. "What's that word in English?" And when he talked about internalizing the cyber security efforts, he sad "AllSafe will be fini" but it sounded like "finny."
And speaking of the worsts: C. Slate's vocal masking as the mustachioed face of FSociety was terrible - there wasn't enough vocal masking to hide his vocal characteristics. And in their Racially Diverse Hackers Club lair, after he talked about airing all of Evil Corp's "-isms," he describes the woman in the headscarf says "she may look innocent, but she has some Allahu Akbar in her." WTF, writers. And "We will not stop until every tentacle of your evil monstrosity is sliced off at the nerve." Sliced off at the nerve? Where is that, exactly?
Beyond the bad writing and questionable acting, here's a lot of interesting things packed into these episodes. It's not super deep or convoluted, but fun to unpack the imagery and messages all the same, such as control and natural settings - trying to get his (liberated) dog to poop on the smallest patch of open earth in a sea of hardscape as repeated images of people trying to control nature to varying degrees of success; emphasis on promises said and kept; binary options in life (which is bullshit - his list of options, "Coke or Pepsi, McDonalds or Burger King," all and a myriad of viable alternatives, including DIY); unintended consequences; the power of self-hatred (!); virtual social networks and the currency therein ("Yo, please buy my CD. Only cost you 20 likes.")
axiom: Is Douchey McBoyfriend actually a cybersecurity tech, or just an accountant or something? Either way, he's an idiot, so I didn't have trouble swallowing that move on his part, but it was also obvious that was what was going to happen from the moment they included a street "rapper" handing out free CDs. That's actually a pretty ineffective way to mount an attack; what if he'd put the CD in a regular old CD player instead?
CDs are the easiest and least expensive way to get your music (and viral payload) into the hands of a random stranger (or a specific target), and in this part of town, it's not likely many have stand-alone CD players but digital "media libraries" on their computers and/or smart devices, so it makes sense Douchey McBoyfriend would try to rip it. And I'm pretty sure Ollie is a security guy, but he's also an idiot (password: 123456Seven).
Another problem with using a CD as an attack vector is that you've just handed somebody a read-only copy of your attack software for him or his buddies at a top-echelon security company to analyze.
And if the CD is part of something bigger (which it likely is), then the hacking group behind it might also brag about how easy it was to pwn someone from a security firm through their virus. Some hackers are all about publicity and bragging, while staying anonymous behind handles and slang.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:25 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Johnny Slickback (Tyrell Wellick) is the worst at playing a foreigner. "What's that word in English?" And when he talked about internalizing the cyber security efforts, he sad "AllSafe will be fini" but it sounded like "finny."
And speaking of the worsts: C. Slate's vocal masking as the mustachioed face of FSociety was terrible - there wasn't enough vocal masking to hide his vocal characteristics. And in their Racially Diverse Hackers Club lair, after he talked about airing all of Evil Corp's "-isms," he describes the woman in the headscarf says "she may look innocent, but she has some Allahu Akbar in her." WTF, writers. And "We will not stop until every tentacle of your evil monstrosity is sliced off at the nerve." Sliced off at the nerve? Where is that, exactly?
Beyond the bad writing and questionable acting, here's a lot of interesting things packed into these episodes. It's not super deep or convoluted, but fun to unpack the imagery and messages all the same, such as control and natural settings - trying to get his (liberated) dog to poop on the smallest patch of open earth in a sea of hardscape as repeated images of people trying to control nature to varying degrees of success; emphasis on promises said and kept; binary options in life (which is bullshit - his list of options, "Coke or Pepsi, McDonalds or Burger King," all and a myriad of viable alternatives, including DIY); unintended consequences; the power of self-hatred (!); virtual social networks and the currency therein ("Yo, please buy my CD. Only cost you 20 likes.")
axiom: Is Douchey McBoyfriend actually a cybersecurity tech, or just an accountant or something? Either way, he's an idiot, so I didn't have trouble swallowing that move on his part, but it was also obvious that was what was going to happen from the moment they included a street "rapper" handing out free CDs. That's actually a pretty ineffective way to mount an attack; what if he'd put the CD in a regular old CD player instead?
CDs are the easiest and least expensive way to get your music (and viral payload) into the hands of a random stranger (or a specific target), and in this part of town, it's not likely many have stand-alone CD players but digital "media libraries" on their computers and/or smart devices, so it makes sense Douchey McBoyfriend would try to rip it. And I'm pretty sure Ollie is a security guy, but he's also an idiot (password: 123456Seven).
Another problem with using a CD as an attack vector is that you've just handed somebody a read-only copy of your attack software for him or his buddies at a top-echelon security company to analyze.
And if the CD is part of something bigger (which it likely is), then the hacking group behind it might also brag about how easy it was to pwn someone from a security firm through their virus. Some hackers are all about publicity and bragging, while staying anonymous behind handles and slang.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:25 AM on July 17, 2015 [1 favorite]
Johnny Slickback (Tyrell Wellick) is the worst at playing a foreigner.
I found the dialogue with him weird too, but the actor is Swedish, so he IS a foreigner. His pronunciation of "finis" sounded Swedish to me (a Swede).
Still enjoying this. So many things that I should probably look up if I wasn't lazy: The IP address shown in the first ep. Translating the Chinese text in the Dark Army scene, figuring out how many mentions of "13" there have been so far... Loving the little details like that.
posted by gemmy at 7:10 PM on July 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
I found the dialogue with him weird too, but the actor is Swedish, so he IS a foreigner. His pronunciation of "finis" sounded Swedish to me (a Swede).
Still enjoying this. So many things that I should probably look up if I wasn't lazy: The IP address shown in the first ep. Translating the Chinese text in the Dark Army scene, figuring out how many mentions of "13" there have been so far... Loving the little details like that.
posted by gemmy at 7:10 PM on July 17, 2015 [4 favorites]
" he describes the woman in the headscarf says "she may look innocent, but she has some Allahu Akbar in her." WTF, writers."
This seems intentional actually since Mr. Robot doesn't seem to be the nicest person in the world.
posted by I-baLL at 10:44 PM on July 17, 2015
This seems intentional actually since Mr. Robot doesn't seem to be the nicest person in the world.
posted by I-baLL at 10:44 PM on July 17, 2015
Really? No one wants to talk about the ending of this ep? Really?
posted by Faintdreams at 4:24 PM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Faintdreams at 4:24 PM on July 20, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yeah, that ending sure was a cliffhanger...
posted by Pendragon at 1:21 PM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Pendragon at 1:21 PM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]
And speaking of the worsts: C. Slate's vocal masking as the mustachioed face of FSociety was terrible - there wasn't enough vocal masking to hide his vocal characteristics
It's just a plot device. We (the audience) are supposed to know it's Slater, while the characters in the show do not. It's not like they needed to mask it so well that the people in the show don't figure it out and yell: "Hey! That's the guy from True Romance!!".
posted by sideshow at 1:17 AM on August 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
It's just a plot device. We (the audience) are supposed to know it's Slater, while the characters in the show do not. It's not like they needed to mask it so well that the people in the show don't figure it out and yell: "Hey! That's the guy from True Romance!!".
posted by sideshow at 1:17 AM on August 23, 2015 [6 favorites]
the show is basically The Hacker in the Rye,
Ooh, yes. I've been trying to describe the show as a mix of Dexter and Fight Club, but with hacking in place of killing or underground punching rings, but this is perfect.
posted by meese at 8:52 AM on August 28, 2015
Ooh, yes. I've been trying to describe the show as a mix of Dexter and Fight Club, but with hacking in place of killing or underground punching rings, but this is perfect.
posted by meese at 8:52 AM on August 28, 2015
I don't read KDU-dude as a foreigner, just face-punchingly pretentious; like the kids I meet here who say "let's speak English, I express myself better" (spoiler, u don't).
posted by Iteki at 4:23 AM on October 17, 2015
posted by Iteki at 4:23 AM on October 17, 2015
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posted by the bird at the bottom of the tree at 11:16 PM on July 1, 2015