Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Fnord666 on Friday December 09 2016, @03:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the but-can-he-trace-a-connection-with-a-VB-GUI? dept.

Cory Doctorow has written an article on how the USA Network's show "Mr. Robot" breaks typical Hollywood stereotypes on hackers and their culture.

For decades Hollywood has treated computers as magic boxes from which endless plot points could be conjured, in denial of all common sense. TV and movies depicted data centers accessible only through undersea intake valves, cryptography that can be cracked through a universal key, and e-mails whose text arrives one letter at a time, all in caps. "Hollywood hacker bullshit," as a character named Romero says in an early episode of Mr. Robot, now in its second season on the USA Network. "I've been in this game 27 years. Not once have I come across an animated singing virus."

[...] Following a time line of events from about a year before the air date of each episode, Mr. Robot references real-world hacks, leaks, and information security disasters of recent history. When hackers hack in Mr. Robot, they talk about it in ways that actual hackers talk about hacking. This kind of dialogue should never have been hard to produce: hacker presentations from Black Hat and Def Con are a click away on YouTube. But Mr. Robot marks the first time a major media company has bothered to make verisimilitude in hacker-speak a priority.

Related Articles:
Exploring the Hacker Tools of Mr. Robot
6 Ways Mr. Robot Is Putting Linux in the Public Eye


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by Webweasel on Friday December 09 2016, @08:58AM

    by Webweasel (567) on Friday December 09 2016, @08:58AM (#439081) Homepage Journal

    I think you missed the point that sometimes he's Elliot and sometimes he is Mr Robot.

    If you watch back both series (Especially the first) Look for the scenes where Mr Robot is with Elliot and the crew. Notice who people are looking at when Mr Robot is talking: Elliot.

    Its like fight club. Brad Pitt's character is not real, its always Edward Norton. Same here, when Mr Robot is speaking (Eloquently compared to Elliot), its actually Elliot speaking. This leads to some interesting scenes to rewatch. There's one where the dark army have let them down and Darlene wants to go ahead with the hack. Mr Robot talks her down... only he doesn't, it is of course Elliot speaking as Mr Robot does not exist.

    Though referencing the scene you mentioned... Mr Robot is in the car, shouting at Elliot over the radio. Notice the other two hackers don't react to Mr Robot? He's not there.... Again they show the scene in season 2 with Elliot and Tyrell in the car.

    Mr Robot is the main character, Elliot is just along for the ride.

    --
    Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2