The basic commands appear real. The dramatized GUIs and dramatic dashboard displays are fake (yellow line map going to a compromised server). Prying the chips off your motherboard and microwaving them is extra fake (drilling into your hard drive is real). A lot of the web pages and monitor screens have fake gibberish filler text if you can read it fast enough (especially the website about plant control/HVAC stuff).
Those details bug me but that's just me. If you are going to put something on screen, why not put some effort into it?
Almost every hack so far (but I am only in episode 2) has been a password guess based on social engineering but I'm a little tired of the every password is a pet, birthday, favorite artist, etc. trope of movies/television. In reality, it's much more likely those are your secret questions on a password reset form which would them be exploited first. Those are the weakest link for anyone unless you have two-step authentication.
I'm looking forward to episode 3 and more of the drama though. Glad to see Christian Slater back on his feet!
It does become less about hacking per se (ish, hard to explain) and more about the drama so I think you're in for a treat.
I'm not against the hacking, just some of the cheesy hacking, tropes, and cliches I am still seeing. I would like the show to be about the technical aspects as well. The drama part is a slippery slope as a lot of television quickly falls completely over to the other side (ie: House, Suits, etc.) and loses sight of the premise and turns into soap opera.
The basic commands appear real. The dramatized GUIs and dramatic dashboard displays are fake (yellow line map going to a compromised server). Prying the chips off your motherboard and microwaving them is extra fake (drilling into your hard drive is real). A lot of the web pages and monitor screens have fake gibberish filler text if you can read it fast enough (especially the website about plant control/HVAC stuff).
Those details bug me but that's just me. If you are going to put something on screen, why not put some effort into it?
Almost every hack so far (but I am only in episode 2) has been a password guess based on social engineering but I'm a little tired of the every password is a pet, birthday, favorite artist, etc. trope of movies/television. In reality, it's much more likely those are your secret questions on a password reset form which would them be exploited first. Those are the weakest link for anyone unless you have two-step authentication.
Have you ever actually supported users in an IT environment? That's exactly how 90% of them make their passwords. And Elliott is actually still using a brute force program with keywords to focus on, so it's far more realistic than most other shows
I don't care if the text on screen is 100% accurate, I just care that he's actually typing real commands into a terminal and not diving into some 3D matrix land looking for a literal back door
I'm not against the hacking, just some of the cheesy hacking, tropes, and cliches I am still seeing. I would like the show to be about the technical aspects as well. The drama part is a slippery slope as a lot of television quickly falls completely over to the other side (ie: House, Suits, etc.) and loses sight of the premise and turns into soap opera.
Yup. I used to be as hyped about Suits as I am about Mr. Robot but then it turned in to a soap opera and I gave up at season 4 (How many times can people at a law firm say "You bet your ass"). So far Mr. Robot is not going down that direction.
Have you ever actually supported users in an IT environment? That's exactly how 90% of them make their passwords. And Elliott is actually still using a brute force program with keywords to focus on, so it's far more realistic than most other shows
I don't care if the text on screen is 100% accurate, I just care that he's actually typing real commands into a terminal and not diving into some 3D matrix land looking for a literal back door
Corporate is different. Most people probably have Fall2015 as their password as their passwords expire every few months.
I eagerly await the show with realistic hackers stuck in LA traffic. It will be the best show its core demographic of 17 viewers has ever seen.
"10/10! Finally a hacking show without fake gibberish text on the screen for the 26 seconds the screen is highlighted in a 50 minute episode! Take your tropes and stick 'em!" - Hack&Lube
"I'm glad the hack failed because the last three episodes the hackers were stuck in a wifi deadzone while crawling along in a traffic snarl on the 405. 5 stars!" - Strange Brew
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I really hope they don't ride this skitzo thing too hard. It's really good when you and the narrator can't figure out what is and isn't real and it helps the story. Now that the cat is out of the bag it's hard to see them continue that without ruining the show.
I really like them showing what other people see when he has his delusions though.
Casting of the main character is really good. I really like this actor so far.
I like how the parts of the story that involve actual hacking and computers are believable instead of the usual handling of "hacking" by the entertainment industry which is completely brain dead. Clearly they have some advisers on the show to make the dialogue and plot believable from a hacking perspective. That's refreshing.
Really like the handling of drug use in this show. I can't really put my finger on it but they don't trivialize, romanticize or criticize drug use in the way most TV shows do. It seems generally real and handled maturely but is still a key component of the plot that drives the story. Deft touch.
What I don't like is the device of the Evil Corp. For all the realism the show has on hacking it's pretty naive and ignorant view of finance. But I'm giving that a pass because it appears that you kind of need it for the story to have weight and drama. But no institution or corporation like that actually exists. And the show opens with the most tired of tired tropes that the world is being controlled by a secretive cabal of global elites. Yawn.
Casting of the main character is really good. I really like this actor so far.
I like how the parts of the story that involve actual hacking and computers are believable instead of the usual handling of "hacking" by the entertainment industry which is completely brain dead. Clearly they have some advisers on the show to make the dialogue and plot believable from a hacking perspective. That's refreshing.
Really like the handling of drug use in this show. I can't really put my finger on it but they don't trivialize, romanticize or criticize drug use in the way most TV shows do. It seems generally real and handled maturely but is still a key component of the plot that drives the story. Deft touch.
What I don't like is the device of the Evil Corp. For all the realism the show has on hacking it's pretty naive and ignorant view of finance. But I'm giving that a pass because it appears that you kind of need it for the story to have weight and drama. But no institution or corporation like that actually exists. And the show opens with the most tired of tired tropes that the world is being controlled by a secretive cabal of global elites. Yawn.
In the show's defence, it's hard to tell how much of Evil Corp is real and how much is meant to be Eliot's fantasy.
But yeah, if the company is actually meant to control all debt, food, etc... as a plot device, it's a pretty tired cliché. To accomplish mr. Robot's goal in reality, you'd have to take out hundreds of thousands of companies.
However, the company could just as easily be a company like MasterCard that has become the focus of Eliot's pamachine Everytime he sees an interact machine, he assumes Evil Corp is in control.
Think of an Enron, but bigger. Maybe it acquired a MasterCard. VISA, or AMEX type company. Maybe it bought a Wells Fargo or Citigroup during the last downturn. It doesn't control all debt, it's just bigger than the biggest "too big to fail" company that really exists. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine such a company, is it?
Obviously there are probably more redundancies in their records than this show could believably explain defeating, but if you took out all of Amex, Visa and Mastercard then I think you're pretty close to an Evil Corp equivalent. All debt might be a stretch but personal debt?
It is still a tv show guys, gotta give it some slack and use some imagination. In Mr. Robots world, a company like that exists. That's the point
Obviously there are probably more redundancies in their records than this show could believably explain defeating, but if you took out all of Amex, Visa and Mastercard then I think you're pretty close to an Evil Corp equivalent. All debt might be a stretch but personal debt?
It is still a tv show guys, gotta give it some slack and use some imagination. In Mr. Robots world, a company like that exists. That's the point
I see it as a warning that if the unrestrained capitalism that we see now continues we will get a company like Evil Corp in the near future