
Ask HN: What happened to Mr. Robot? - chirau
The show&#x27;s first season looked very promising but now I feel it has swirled into a chaotic and confusing show
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blackflame7000
It seems to be suffering a bit from the Matrix Effect: The first installment
promised far more than the sequels could possible provide.

Stories involving a protagonist with seemingly otherworldly gifts tend to
craft a narrative where the possibilities and potentials are limitless. While
this form of storytelling is very good at garnishing attention, it’s mainly
capitalizing on the mystery surrounding the main character. People tend to
fill in those unknown personality traits by projecting themselves onto the
character.

The problem arises when the Author attempts to choose a reality for their
character to follow. No matter what reality you pick, the story will never
live up to the quintessential version everyone has uniquely envisioned. The
more we learn about the character, the less we feel a sense of awe and
wonderment. This transforms something that once held so much promise into
something that seems mundane. It’s not because the story is bad, it’s just
that it could never live up to its own open-endedness.

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nathanlied
I've seen that sentiment in a couple of places, and the answer is fairly
simple: The first season gave us a show about a heterogeneous team of hackers
(plenty of ages, both males and females, different personalities, etc.) trying
to "fight the man", so to speak.

The hacking, portrayed as fairly realistic, especially for people used to
Hollywood craziness, and the fight (against financial institutions) pulled
quite a lot of people.

Then, fairly suddenly, you get hit with a mental illness angle. A lot of
people didn't ask for it, and don't really welcome it. It's not just a show
about hacking now. It's a show about a very mentally ill man with a particular
set of baggage trying to cope with it, while being part/the leader of a very
notorious hack team.

So yeah, if you really like the first season, you might not like the second
one much. At least so far.

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l33tfr4gg3r
I heard a lot about Mr. Robot so decided to check out the hype. Started
watching with interest - the first episode really blew my mind when they
started discussing GNOME and KDE, I was like wow I love this show already.
Like you said the mental illness took over and I'm like this is going into la
la land now - there's less hacking and more of a human angle, which is great
and all, until you realize the human angle is superseding the hacking and
computers, which is what drew me in in the first place. There's some real
"holes in this firewall" if you get my meaning, and not in a good way. I guess
part of me wanted it to be this really geeky show, but I suppose they might
have gone too far already for the (comparatively) 'technologically challenged'
populace already. I guess I will save my dime and wait to spend on Season 2
until after reviews are out. I hope they fix it.

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runesoerensen
The show is heavily inspired by Fight Club and season 2 essentially picks up
where Fight Club (and season 1) ends. As someone who is both a "hacker" and a
huge fan of Fight Club this makes season 2 even more interesting to me.

I remember reading the foreword to Fight Club where the author stress that the
"Fight" in Fight Club is not what the book is about. He even considered other
types of clubs/themes to convey the ideas in the book.

So perhaps that's a way to look at it: Mr Robot is Hacker Club and hacking
play the same role as fighting does in Fight Club.

~~~
mockturtle
I was hoping the show would be more like the third act of Fight Club, where
the protagonist's struggle with his alternative personality really drives the
plot. Instead, the season doesn't appear to have any direction and the fight
is between the protagonist's two personalities is one of the most boring
parts.

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xAcidxWaTeRx
I need more hacking

