I'll watch it just for the cast. Stephen Root as Fred is excellent.

Yes, there's actually a number of call backs and continued plots, but they're easy to ignore for random episode syndication. It's interesting watching it serially though as there are some fun progressions and such.

Even if it was "random thing from my list" it would have been a bit better. But I agree having it be within a genre from your list would have been the best option. I used Surprise Me once and its selection was poor enough that I never use it again as well. Seems to be the common experience.

It's been slow and buggy for years. Sometimes I'll tune into a channel and there's no sound. Sometimes they'll go to a commercial and come back to the film and it will play the previous 10 minutes. I still use it and think it's decent, but Pluto definitely has some bugs in it that they don't seem to care to fix.

Yes! I loved that aspect as well. I'm not super well versed in coding or hacking, but hearing that they actually listened to hacking consultants and incorporated a lot of real world stuff into the show was really cool. The interviews with Esmail when he talks about how they really actually cared about getting it as right as they could were always cool to read and listen to. He seems genuinely interested in the culture and work of it. It shows their dedication to character too, hacking is important to Elliot, so getting it right really mattered.

Not OP but I'll give you a break down of my thoughts on what makes it good:

1. Narrative format. Elliot "breaks the fourth wall" by speaking to the audience in voice overs, which results in some interesting dynamics and plays an important part in both the plot and his character development. It's probably one of the most effective uses in voice over narrative in TV since Wonder Years.

2. Direction. The direction of the show is just unique and also very effective. The camera shots, framing, angles, are all used to help influence our views, feelings towards characters, and understanding of what's happening. After season 1 there are some very well done scenes that make use of long shots and revealing of scenes as things unfold on and off camera.

3. Characters. Like Sopranos, these characters are treated very much like real people. They get into crazy situations and it effects them. We see how it effects them over time. They change, their relationships and dynamics to one another change, and all of this effects their choices and the larger plot. It's a psychological show, with a psychologist as an occasional character (like Sopranos), so it takes into consideration how the psyches of people work. And there are some fascinating characters, some who aren't even main characters, and they all have complicated depth.

4. Plot and story. Mr. Robot is a show that moves forward while still returning to past effects. The plot develops with each season, though season 2 is a little more character focused, and it kind of just keeps unfolding. But, essentially, the plot and story is all really about Elliot and Mr. Robot, which is why 1, 2, and 3 of my list here are handled so carefully. It needs those elements to work well for its story to be good. And so there's an attention to all of it that helps it become a well crafted story.

Overall, it's good TV because it's aware of its medium and craft and how to use those effectively. This also makes it a bit too "pretentious" for some, because it very much is trying to make an art out of it, it's aware of what it's doing. That's not for everyone. But I think if you enjoy character driven stories it's still good even if it feels a little too meta or pretentious at times.

It does use similar fantasy scenarios as Sopranos, where it delves into the mind of the protagonist like we do with Tony, but it really pushes on that farther and takes it up several notches. That can be too much for people when it happens, but it's not every episode either.

Anyway, that's what I think makes it good. It's firing on all cylinders and fits the genres I like. But your own tastes may differ.

I thought it was OK overall, but I also understand the criticism. It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember the whole thing of him sneaking aboard that one ship to have issues. It also does feel a bit meandering and slowly paced. The ending too really relies on the audience being OK with the whole thing being a personal journey, which I'm not sure the film sells very well throughout. It feels a bit like a film that wanted to be one thing, but for whatever reason ended up getting pushed towards being another thing, but it never fully got to commit to either. I personally still enjoyed it overall because the visuals and concepts of the world were enough for me. But I definitely felt it a bit lacking in other ways. I do think people really laid the hate on it too thick.

In college my English teacher made us read the book and then watch the movie. I fell asleep in class. It's indeed terrible and boring and not worth anyone's time. The book is also poorly written and I only kept it in case I ever need a book to burn. The movie deserves all of its 0%. If a movie could go into a negative percentage, this would be one of them.

After seeing Wonder Woman (the first one), a woman in the row behind me stood and said to her friends, "This movie can lick my asshole. They keep making the same fucking movie."

I thought it was an apt review after the third act flopped it back to typical superhero territory.

I love Wild Seed. I recently finished Mind of My Mind, the chronologically second book of the series and also loved that one. I'm hoping to read the whole series. It reminds me a lot of X-Men in a way, if X-Men started a lot darker. Doro reminds me of Shadow King in Legion. Would also love to see it adapted, it could make a good TV series.

I feel the same. She was my least favorite part of Season 1 and I was disappointed when I found out she was recurring. I actually fastforwarded through a lot of her scenes. But that's partly my own biases, I've never really been a fan of her work and she frequently plays the exact same character.

"Green Lantern now mostly bikes places and fights only in darkly lit warehouses. His costume is a green shirt and sweat pants. Only he sees the green constructs of his ring. The audience does not see his POV."

Not OP, but I really like the show because it has wonderful fun characters, a narrative structure that works well for the story, does a lot of good work in exploring expectations and stereotypes, has beautiful sets, includes some awesome Spanish covers of 80s songs, and generally has a positive vibe even when dealing with some deep feels. You do have to be willing to read subtitles, but it's not all in Spanish. There are a few tropes, but usually the show is aware of it and plays against them. It's one of those comedies that just has good vibes and a solid creative team.