Topic For Discussion: is MR ROBOT the most cyberpunk thing that has ever been on television?

[xiphias]

MR ROBOT is about a not-completely-sane hacker who is part of a team trying to take down a megacorp. And amoral corporate suits who are backstabbing each other and society as a whole for their own benefit.

There's no science-fictional component to it, but so what? I think MR ROBOT points out that we are fundamentally already living in a cyberpunk world, and therefore realistic modern-day fiction can be cyberpunk.

Comments

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of MR ROBOT, but I'm very interested!
Also, I agree with your position.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

The first season just finished airing a couple weeks ago. It follows Eliot, who works for a computer security firm by day, and against computer security at night. "Mr Robot", a guy played by Christian Slater wearing a beat up jacket that says "MR ROBOT" on it, recruits him for a big job.

Or something.

See, Eliot is ALSO delusional -- and aware of it. So he doesn't know how much he already knows about the plan -- he may have been part of it BEFORE Mr Robot recruited him. Or something.

Also, all the hacking is basically accurate. Friends of mine in the infosec community have been enjoying it.

[ellettra.livejournal.com]

It sounds like it might be right up my alley! I'm going to check it out, so thanks for the heads up.

[jazzfish]

I'd tend to agree. (And William Gibson more or less came to your conclusion in 2001, with Pattern Recognition et seq.)

[cheshyre]

Max Headroom.