MrX

Elliot throwing up the pills, then picking them up out of the vomit and swallowing them again has to be one of the most fucked up things I've seen on a show.

philo

The pills scene reminded me of Trainspotting though fortunately no diving into "the worst toilet in Scotland."

Sucks about Romero. I liked that character. The way he could express the reality of a situation in jaded blunt terms will be missed. I'd rather see more of him than annoying Meryl Streep spawn FBI lady. I guess the whole Alexa thing is another Kubrick HAL reference but I wonder how dated it will seem in 10 years.

The opening scene with the history of the arcade conjured images of the Overlook Hotel & Scatman. Also Elliott's Adderall freakout had a similar creepy twins image but with 3 girls wearing the mask.

The line from Price about one man changing the world with a bullet in the right place comes straight from Lindsay Anderson's "If..." Fitting since it was spoken by Malcolm McDowell star of A Clockwork Orange.

Ready for Elliot to get back into the hacking though it sure looks like Ray is not just some big jolly guy but a dangerous nutjob with a dark side.

OldBoy

Really? You must not watch a lot of fucked up shows...

OldBoy

Not really digging this 3rd ep. I dunno what it is, but I seem to be losing interest...

PhantomStranger

All three episodes this season have been a real grind to watch for me. This is not the Mr. Robot I knew and loved in season one. Way too much focus on Elliot's drug problems trying to suppress his dark side and characters which I don't think are anything but figments of his imagination.

One or two more episodes like these and I will probably stop watching.

DWilson

Yeah, this last episode was pure hell to get through, and it's got me wondering if I can put up with much more. I even gave five minutes to their digital after-show (which was available "On Demand"), but found it and complete drag and checked out.

starseed1981

I have a very very very very very very bad feeling that Sam Ismael has gone all Kurt Sutter on us here making this show a self indulgent, unedited and bloated mess. This last episode was hard to get through. Angela's heel turn still isn't working and the Elliot paranoia thing is just as bad. I'm still on this ride but two more episodes this bad and I'll cut my losses.

slop101

Agreed. What happened to this show? It got self-indulgent and boring, but worse of all, it's gotten annoying to watch.

PhantomStranger

The showrunner Sam Esmail decided to direct every single episode this season, which is practically unprecedented on television. That seems to have washed out several fun elements from season one, including any humor or sexual tension.

The episodes would be easier to take if we were getting more of Mr. Robot as a character. Instead we are drowning in Elliot's mindset.

Rex Fenestrarum

On top of that, networks like USA spent decades airing re-runs of network shows and "edited for TV" movies. Since there wasn't swearing in Law & Order on NBC, there wouldn't be any on USA, either. I guess people got used to that, even though USA and FX have never had any restrictions on language.

Yeah... look at It's Always Sunny. The first few seasons didn't have much foul language at all, and whatever there was beeped. The last 2-3 seasons, it seems like every other word out of their mouths is "goddammit", "asshole" or "bullshit".

RichC2

It is odd for the Showrunner to do that, but Cary Fukunaga directed all of Season 1 of True Detective, I think that's where Esmail got the idea.

I honestly think he just stressed out and it's showing in the form of lesser screenplay material.

Raul3

I don't agree completely with all the bad reviews here, but yeah, the quality is down so far.

I still see LOL moments in the show. Maybe it's just me.

They did the big hack the last season, what else can they hack now?

mcnabb

This is the problem with so many shows today on TV in that the premise is written for one season, and then they are just winging it from there. As much as people say were are in 'the golden age of TV' alot of these shows sputter after the first few seasons.

I think that Esmail understands that so he is sort of taking the show in a somewhat left turn to give it more longevity. I like the character development on the show (something that is sorely lacking with 90% of the shows on TV), so I'm sticking with it.

Raul3

So?

The show is so in love with itself.

There were some interesting scenes, the FBI is going really hard now. Angela thought she had a bigger hand, maybe she does.
I think I have a lot of questions after watching this episode, and that they will be answered in future episodes.
I'm OK with that.

wirefan

I thought the latest episode was good, as they finally seemed to really kick start the plot.

Still way too much Elliot wrestling with himself and too much early season filler to set things up. Seems like the show could have been where it is now in 1-2 episodes instead of 4.

philo

The opening scene using Holst's The Planets and the closing with Elliot back at the terminal deciding to hack the FBI is why I continue to enjoy the hell out of this show.

There's still plenty of details to like, the weird passengers wearing gas masks & VR goggles on the subway or Elliot's vision of a bright future with us having a seat at the table and Christian Slater doing us all a solid and delivering the great line "You want to unburden yourself, go jerk off!"

slop101

The show's still up it's own ass. It wouldn't be so bad if the episodes were a tighter 45 minutes instead of a bloated 65. And the cinematography is pretty annoying, drawing attention to itself instead of the characters/setting/story.

And what's with the random censoring? All F-words were prevalent last week, but they were muted out this episode, but they still had the word "****y". Doesn't make sense.

mphtrilogy

I have no clue what is happening in this show.

mdc3000

Not feeling this season - the pacing of the episodes is horrible. Having too many subplots with characters I don't care about (and not being tied to Elliott) is hurting it and the style is becoming a parody of itself. Very indulgent. The framing might have been fine if every scene wasn't filmed in the same way - two people in a room having a conversation, well let's frame one in the lower third, right hand corner, face them talking to the right....now let's put a person in the bottom left third and have them facing LEFT... can't stand it.

Having Sam Esmail write/direct all these episodes was a mistake - having other directors interpret his work and rein in the style and pace was much more cohesive than this shit. There are still 15-20 really well done minutes per episode but that is not a great ratio.

bunkaroo

I had to stop about 1/2 way through this latest episode. It's full on late series Sons of Anarchy bloat and indulgence.

Agreed on the annoying cinematography. When Angela and the lawyer are meeting it's like they're looking past each other. Very distracting.

I'll let it pile up on the DVR in case I hear it turns around.

mcnabb

Neither do I, but I still enjoy it. I'm pretty computer illiterate so most of this stuff goes right over my head.

For anyone who wants to bail on this season, I think this was the episode that sort of set the season in motion as I think it will pick up.

dex14

I haven't read many postings about this season in the thread, but it is pretty clear to me, or at least strongly hinted, that Elliot is Right?

hdnmickey

Thrush

I agree with the sentiment thus far. They waited till the end of the 4th episode before Elliot even touches a computer. There is nothing that happened in the previous episodes that couldn't have been said in like 30 minutes. Thats a 3rd of the season that was completely superfluous.

But it does look like things will hopefully pick up next ep.

mcnabb

I had read that on social media after the first episode.