For the folks that feel this is ‘over-indulgent,’ you can always go back to watching CSI on CBS.
Further weird shit:
In Ep 5 of this season, a strange noise was played that someone on reddit ID’ed as an image file being played as though it were an audio format. Re-encoded, it was a black-and-white rendering of the famous “Hang in There!” cat meme picture. . .
. . . which appeared in the room w/ Angela and White Rose last week.
WTF Showrunners
Well that was messed up. I don’t think I like cliffhangers anymore, I’m too impatient.
Yeah, as intriguing as the series has been it’s starting to feel like the payoff is never going to be there. Season 1 ended climatically with the fruition of all F Society efforts but season 2 didn’t seem to go anywhere. It’s just more complications with no resolution. I’ll probably watch Season 3 but if it’s more of the same cliffhangers-for-the-sake-of-cliffhangers then I’ll probably be done with Mr Robot despite the excellent acting.
Probably fair to note that Esmail’s more or less had the whole thing scripted–aside from small daliances as a particular actor or arc caught the writers’ room’s interest unexpectedly–from day 1. Initially as a movie, then as a 4-5-season show. With that being said, we’re at best halfway through the story. If Esmail settles on a 4-season telling, we might expect to see threads start spinning back together by the end of next one. If not, it might well be a whole bunch more new elements introduced.
Maybe pushing through the Malazan novels has made me unusually accepting of that kind of story structure, and of course, it’s entirely reasonable to be aware of all the above. . . and still be super annoyed by how S2 wrapped, in the end.
But I think I’m onboard, and if Esmail manages to keep a lid on things and stick to his original goals rather than getting strung into a Supernatural-esque never-ending storyline, I’m confident it’s gonna end well.
Still,
A little disappointed by the lack of formal acknowledgement of some weird scifi shit like multiple timelines. Ah well!
Yeah - but I’ve heard that one before. Once bitten, twice shy.
My only real experience with that was trying to polish off Babylon 5 in one big binge session. JMS’s 5-year-plan was a thing of beauty, and watching all the threads slowly coalesce from nothingness over the years was incredible.
Except that he thought they were getting canned after S4, and decided to stuff his entire plot for S5 into the back half of S4, severely compressing his heretofore beautifully paced tale.
And then I accidentally forgot what episode I was on, started one from much later in the season, and spoiled a major event for myself. Between that and learning that S5 was more or less tacked-on, I lost interest and never wound up finishing the series properly.
But, uh, it coulda been awesome!
Breaking Bad had a proper ending, I’m not sure if Gilligan had it setup from day one but it was certainly a satisfying ending. Mad Men was another that properly finished although there was never much story there. These however were two of my favourite recent TV series. I hope Mr. Robot can be a third.
Agreed. I remember the Lost show-runners insisting they knew exactly how the series was going to end. By which they meant it would be a close-up of Jack’s eye (mirroring the start of the first episode). I’ll stay with this series (if only for the awesome music in it) but I’m skeptical the plot payoff will be worth the cryptic slog.
For the most part, the episodes are rewarding enough for me to watch, and I get enough out of each. But in the Angela/White Rose one, that one was a little too Twin Peaksy for me with not enough substance.
I really like the idea of the show and see the intrigue but like others I’m not sure I can continue. They may or may not have something planned out. But even if they do, they may not actually be able to execute their plan as they wish as television shows can and will get cancelled if they don’t bring in enough of an audience. Not saying this is the case for Mr. Robot but too many shows I enjoyed has had this happened to them.
What is happening it’s cliffhangers because cliffhanger’s sake, not for the story’s sake.
So I started watching Season 1 pretty late – not to long before Season 2 started, and so avoided this thread (and indeed any spoilers on the internet) like the plague.
And then when Season 2 started we moved house etc and lost track, so we had from episode 3 - 12 to catch up on in the last few days.
Firstly: It’s a fab show and I’m enjoying watching it, and it’s a shame I’ve just binged it and can’t binge any more.
Secondly: Avoided this thread turned out to be entirely useless, because you’re all so vague about what particular scene, or even episode, you’re watching/commenting on! :P
What do you mean, multiple timelines? Can you give an example?
Sure. It’s long enough out now that I’m gonna opt against blurring cuz I’m on my phone and lazy :-)
There are some light references to some oddball shit going on with time in this series, sprinkled throughout. Given just how deliberate, careful, and exacting the showrunners have been about everything else, it seems unlikely these just showed up accidentally, so ending the season without further comment or confirmation (either as real or a red herring) was a little frustrating to some of us.
For instance: the time/date shown on Elliott’s phone in the first episode doesn’t sync up with the probable year in question or the supposed timeline of the show. Three missing days is a constant plot point. White Rose–whose fanatical awareness of time is, of course, related–mentions the possibility of distinct timeliness with different lives directly, and in that same scene, a fairly unusual antique clock bearing a strong resemblance to one featured heavily in a popular time travel Anime that ALSO features multiple divergent timelines is shown. Later, White Rose will speak about the almost guided series of events that have shaped Angela’s life, and that she was “supposed” to die sometime before. After their conversation, when Angela goes to see her lawyer and the conversation takes a turn, the power blinks, and the TV broadcast in the background rolls back and replays several seconds, as though time had reversed (this is not normal TV behavior in a brownout). And we know that White Rose is heavily invested, personally, in a project going on at the infamous Washington Township plant, and that whatever it is, it has leaked deadly radiation at least at one point, and that it’s vital that it remain secret and safe.
None of it is definitive, and it could easily be a mix of coincidence and misdirection, but a lot of folks felt like a decidedly sci-fi turn was coming in the finale and are now left wondering for another year.
This is genius:
This is back on. I haven’t had a chance to watch yet. Is anyone caught up? I need more days in the week.
I’m in the same boat. I still like all my dumb CW superhero shows, but man, when they all come back at once they knock out a huge chunk of my TV time every week.
Being a comic TV guy like yourself, I’ve also go The Gifted recording weekly as well as The Inhumans (I know… I know…) so the DVR is working hard. I’ve got high school football to attend tonight so I have to record the Sixers basketball game at 7 which directly conflicts and dammit, I love Beat Bobby Flay too and I have at least three of those to watch too!
I like the CW superhero shows too, but I’m bailing on them this year because there are so many other good things on TV to watch - like Mr. Robot, which continues to be quite amazingly directed at times. The training montage in episode 2 sets to an 80s tune was expertly done.
(No really, there is one, and it really is quite good.)
Funny you should ask about Mr. Robot, because just last night I was watching the second episode and I conked out about ten minutes in and woke up an hour and a half later! (middle age sucks)
The first episode was pretty good, though.