S01.E01: EPS1.0_HELLOFRIEND.MOV

[edhopper]

Angela was certainly not incompetent. She did everything right, including calling in the Asian Tech guy ASAP because they had to use the secure lines in the office and then calling in Elliot for help. It was the asshole E corp VP that belittled her and the Allsafe boss who didn't back her up.

[formerlyfreedom]

It's okay to disagree here at PTV. Let's remember to be respectful of the opinions of others, please.

[formerlyfreedom]

Elliot is a cyber-security engineer by day and vigilante hacker by night, is recruited by a mysterious underground group to destroy the firm he's paid to protect. Elliot must decide how far he'll go to expose the forces he believes are running (and ruining) the world.

[meep.meep]

Angela was certainly not incompetent. She did everything right, including calling in the Asian Tech guy ASAP because they had to use the secure lines in the office and then calling in Elliot for help. It was the asshole E corp VP that belittled her and the Allsafe boss who didn't back her up.

And Elliott didn't belittle her, Gideon and the E corp head honcho did.  Elliott stuck up for her.

 

I don't think Elliott is belittling anyone - he just can't resist peeking into everyone's background, just because he can.

 

I liked this a lot but having watched in real time, I wish they'd run a notice that it would be limited commercials!

[CaughtOnTape]

Rami Malek does not disappoint.  I watched this solely upon his suggestion on Twitter and damn.....

[SimoneS]

I enjoyed this a lot. Rami Malek is very compelling as Elliot. I like the actress playing Angela a lot also. They have nice chemistry together. I am glad that Gloria Reuben is working. She is a talented actress although her face looks a bit odd.

 

I have no idea if the Evil Corp and Society/Slater are real or not, but they have been entertaining so far. 

Edited June 25, 2015 by SimoneS

[tennisgurl]

Rami Malek sold the hell out of this this. Their casting agent should get a pay raise or something. He basically carries the whole show, and he does it admirably. Not that the rest is bad, mind you, but his voice over is almost constant, he`s in every scene, its very much HIS show. He makes that work. 

 

I didn't think much about this show when I first heard about it, until I heard all the good buzz. Glad I decided to give it a look. I`ll be sticking around. 

[alias1]

I loved it.  The voiceover technique is perfect for this show because Elliot is so internal.  I thought it was riveting.  I was surprised at the limited commercials.  That was probably just for the first episode.  I loved that he rescued the dog.  

[Zoe]

Of course during this attack the female PROFESSIONAL IT SECURITY employee asked what a rootkit was as if she had never heard of one before. *headdesk*

This part didn't really bother me.  It's all too common for project managers/account managers to not be anywhere near as tech savvy as the actual people on the project.  Hell, we saw that with the CTO.

[benteen]

I really enjoyed it.  Rami Malek knocked it out of the part and Elliot is an utterly fascinating character.  I really liked the way he was presented.  Definitely like the Fight Club narration and the look into his mind.  Elliot can be ridiculously judgmental on society and the way he handles some of his personal relationships (and the show itself is definitely heavy-handed) but he's a unique character.

 

Don't know about Christian Slater in the "Morpheus" mentor role.

 

This show feels like the stepbrother of Person of Interest.  I'd LOVE to see Elliot interact with Finch, Reese and Root.  That would be fascinating.

 

I'm definitely watching this show this summer!

[ToastnBacon]

This part didn't really bother me.  It's all too common for project managers/account managers to not be anywhere near as tech savvy as the actual people on the project.  Hell, we saw that with the CTO.

Not only that, but the writers had to use some type of dialog to explain what a root-kit is to the audience. Otherwise, the nontechie mouth breathers like me would be complaining.

[shapeshifter]

I liked it.

The narration reminded me of Fight Club for several reasons. The monotone style of the voice, plus the disillusionment with society. I think it also drew from the philosophy of True Detective' s Rust Cohle...

It does. Now I want someone to ask Rami Malek and/or Sam Esmail in interviews if that was an inspiration.

[Chicago Redshirt]

Seems like the show blends a few elements from The Matrix (boring computer guy by day with secret super-hacker life) with Fight Club (protagonist with mental issues and anti-social attitude) with Dexter (vigilante who doesn't understand normal people and keeps trophies of his vigilante activities hidden in plain sight as CDs/blood slides).

 

It mostly worked. 

 

I'm assuming Elliott used to date Deb-- I mean, Angela, but then who knows, maybe they had more of a brother/sister thing. 

 

Seems to me like F Society was a little too pat. If someone traces a hack back to the amusement park, I don't see how the individuals are any more protected than if they'd been meeting virtually. 

[GaT]

Well, this was different. I don't know if I'll be watching any more episodes or not. I'm just glad he got the dog.

[ToastnBacon]

Seems like the show blends a few elements from The Matrix (boring computer guy by day with secret super-hacker life) with Fight Club (protagonist with mental issues and anti-social attitude) with Dexter (vigilante who doesn't understand normal people and keeps trophies of his vigilante activities hidden in plain sight as CDs/blood slides).

 

It mostly worked. 

 

I'm assuming Elliott used to date Deb-- I mean, Angela, but then who knows, maybe they had more of a brother/sister thing. 

 

Seems to me like F Society was a little too pat. If someone traces a hack back to the amusement park, I don't see how the individuals are any more protected than if they'd been meeting virtually.

You aren't supposed to question what they are feeding us in the wrong way. Especially if you want to keep eating steak. You'd better suspend disbelief or that juicy and delicious steak will turn into a bowl of pasty cream of wheat goo.

[Whitley Trillbert]

This was a very ambitious, well-executed pilot. I have a feeling the script was originally written for a theatrical feature and then re-purposed into this series. The only questionable part is Christian Slater. I have no idea why network executives keep giving him work as a series lead.

 

This is the baby of Fight Club and The Social Network.

[Gwen-Stacys]

It didn't help both women were shown as professionally incompetent and the only other women on screen was the lead male's fuck toy.

 

And? She seemed more than a little bit okay with their arangement. Elliott came off as the less than willing participant in that scenario to me. But YMMV

Edited June 26, 2015 by Gwen-Stacys

[Glory]

Seems to me like F Society was a little too pat. If someone traces a hack back to the amusement park, I don't see how the individuals are any more protected than if they'd been meeting virtually. 

This might have been implied, but I think that we were supposed to believe that these people only communicate in person. So that even if the amusement park location was disturbed, if that lady hacker had gotten caught she'd have no way to compromise the rest of the team. And vice versa. So she couldn't even rat on them because there was no way to prove she knew any of them since they never communicated digitally. 

 

I bet Christian Slater is the only guy who knows everyone's real names/details about their life. 

 

Speaking of Christian Slater, I love him. No shame. I've loved him since Heathers and Pump Up the Volume and I'll keep loving him. I'm very pleased to see that whatever he did to his face around the time of My Own Worst Enemy (another show of his I watched and enjoyed)  has been fixed. Either he got a better plastic surgeon or he stopped messing with his face. Man, looks good now. 

 

I'm totally in on this show. 

 

Also - I JUST saw Angela in the movie Her the other day so it was nice to see here here. I thought she was great in the small role she had with Joaquin Phoenix. 

[SimoneS]

I liked that Elliot saved the dog also. That guy was a real asshole.

[Chicago Redshirt]

This might have been implied, but I think that we were supposed to believe that these people only communicate in person. So that even if the amusement park location was disturbed, if that lady hacker had gotten caught she'd have no way to compromise the rest of the team. And vice versa. So she couldn't even rat on them because there was no way to prove she knew any of them since they never communicated digitally. 

If the authorities are able to track a hack back to the F Society arcade, they can just set up a surveillance and eventually get info as to all the people who were there. Or they can get forensic evidence that might lead to the hackers.

 

Or if, say, Hackerchick gets caught, there is nothing to stop her from flipping on the others and going undercover for the government.

 

One of the things that was said was that the owner of the Fun Society arcade died. But someone has to own it. And someone has to be supplying it with electricity and what not. 

[cardigirl]

One scene that upset me terribly (and again with the rewatch) was when Elliot was telling us about how empty he was and he was crying.  He was remembering or envisioning a scene from his childhood, I think, because there was a young boy, and a woman with a cigarette in her mouth, holding his hands down on the table and she looked damn scary, as in, abusive.  It looked he was remembering something pretty bad.  Broke my heart a little.

Or maybe I misinterpreted that scene altogether. 

I like the fish QWERTY and Flipper the dog.  I’m sentimental that way.

[seamusk]

Yes, realism wise they would have issues with the ownership and everyone being in one spot.

Edited June 27, 2015 by stacey

[formerlyfreedom]

A reminder; please see this note.

[Rick Kitchen]

Man, I loved this show.  Rami Malek was perfect in the role,  Can't wait to see where it goes.

[miracole]

The problem is that the show only has him belittling and fixing women. Belittling women to a point where you control their lives because you think you know better is misogyny,

 

I think that if there had been a guy he cared about as much as either of them he'd be doing the same thing to that guy.  It's a total invasion of privacy and completely unethical but for Elliot I get why he does it. It's how he connects with someone. He's not going to be the shoulder they cry on or the one they come to for advice this is how he "helps" and shows he cares.  It's totally messed up but have you seen the character,  he's a mess.

 

Rami Malek  was so compelling.  He carried the whole show and knocked it out of the park. I didn't know what this show was going to be be about, saw them advertising it on IMDB and decided to check it out. Awesome, awesome pilot. May have been the best pilot I've ever seen. It got me completely hooked.

Edited June 27, 2015 by miracole

[jaytee1812]

I think that if there had been a guy he cared about as much as either of them he'd be doing the same thing to that guy.  It's a total invasion of privacy and completely unethical but for Elliot I get why he does it. It's how he connects with someone. He's not going to be the shoulder they cry on or the one they come to for advice this is how he "helps" and shows he cares.  It's totally messed up but have you seen the character,  he's a mess.

 

But the writers chose not to show him doing that to men, just women. They chose not to give either women their own agency, they chose to give the male characters their own agency.

 

Unlike someone said earlier in this thread I don't want flawless women, I want women making their own decisions, for good or bad. like the thing with the therapist might have work if he'd gone to the therapist and said 'this is who you're shitty boyfriend is' giving her the choice to bin him, or keep him, but knowing the truth. But Elliot makes the decision, he shown thinking neither woman is capable of making her own decisions.  That's where the misogyny really shows.

[cardigirl]

Nope. Agree to disagree, as I don't see misogyny but Elliot's inability to connect with the world in the usual way. He's aware that what he is doing is wrong, but I think he knows that warning people about the dangers of social media would do less than what he's doing now. He's a hacker, he's good at it and he thinks he is choosing to do good with it.

Really looking forward to the next episode.

[jaytee1812]

Nope. Agree to disagree, as I don't see misogyny but Elliot's inability to connect with the world in the usual way. He's aware that what he is doing is wrong, but I think he knows that warning people about the dangers of social media would do less than what he's doing now. He's a hacker, he's good at it and he thinks he is choosing to do good with it..

I don't see what good he did with his therapist. He barged into her life without her consent, ended her relationship without her consent. She gets to decide about her boyfriends, she gets to decide if she wants to end the relationship. He doesn't care about her or Angela, he's controlling them, that's what he wants. I imagine he'll be incredibly surprised when they're not grateful.

If this is the way he relates to the world, why isn't he doing it to men?

[cardigirl]

Well, he did a pretty good job of hacking the coffee shop/kid porno web owner guy, and the cheater, and Angela's boyfriend.

[BooBear]

Nope. Agree to disagree, as I don't see misogyny but Elliot's inability to connect with the world in the usual way. He's aware that what he is doing is wrong, but I think he knows that warning people about the dangers of social media would do less than what he's doing now. He's a hacker, he's good at it and he thinks he is choosing to do good with it.

Yeh I am not seeing the misogyny either.  What would you call if if Elliot was Ella? I think he is just trying to help in the way he knows how.  He isn't effective in real life as was witnessed when he tried to stick up for Angela was dismissed by both Angela and the E corp douche. I think he does care about his therapist and Angela.  I think more people should care and get involved when they see people they like being hurt by jerks.

[ToastnBacon]

Yeh I am not seeing the misogyny either.  What would you call if if Elliot was Ella? I think he is just trying to help in the way he knows how.  He isn't effective in real life as was witnessed when he tried to stick up for Angela was dismissed by both Angela and the E corp douche. I think he does care about his therapist and Angela.  I think more people should care and get involved when they see people they like being hurt by jerks.

I don't see this show as worthy of being branded misogynistic either. One could certainly fault the Elliot character as being unethical, socially awkward, suffering from paranoia, and possibly a split personality disorder.

Elliot's crimes and intrusions into the privacy of others don't appear to be driven out of disrespect or hatred.

[scrb]

Thought it was funny that he hacked into Angela's boyfriend's FB and found that he like George W. Bush's Decision Points and concluded he's a moron.

[Cardie]

I think the term for what some object to would be "sexist" not "misogynist." And if anyone is guilty, I'd lay that on Mr. Esmail, who is thus far only showing us Elliot "fixing" problems that victimize women.

[jaytee1812]

Elliot's crimes and intrusions into the privacy of others don't appear to be driven out of disrespect or hatred.

What part of the spying, hacking and controlling is not disrespectful?

It sounds like most people think these women should be grateful they have a creepy hacker going through their business, making decisions for them because he knows better.

[Former Nun]

Elliot's crimes and intrusions into the privacy of others don't appear to be driven out of disrespect or hatred.

 

 

I agree, ToastnBacon...I think they're driven to entertain me.  I really enjoyed the first episode (pilot) and am looking forward to more.  The writing is good.

She is a talented actress although her face looks a bit odd.

 

 

Yeah, what happened?

[slothgirl]

If this is the way he relates to the world, why isn't he doing it to men?

Well, we've only had one episode. We have no idea what they may show us as the show progresses.

 

I don't think we are supposed to agree with or condone his behavior. But I also think it's a bit of a stretch to call it mysogynistic.

 

From Google dictionary: "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women"

 

He certainly doesn't dislike the women he "helps". Quite the opposite. He has a certain amount of contempt for ALL people and I don't see that it is aimed specifically at women although you might call it misanthropic. Any prejudice he has against women is patronizing to be sure, but it's not against women; it's in service to what he considers to be helping them. It's the only way he has to act on caring. Of course, it's the wrong way to show caring, but it isn't born of a dislike, hatred, or fear of women. My feeling at this point in the show is that he has far more hatred and dislike of men.

 

We'll see what the show demonstrates about all this after a few more episodes. I am loving the show so far and thought it was the best pilot I've seen in years.

Edited June 27, 2015 by slothgirl

[jaytee1812]

I think it's ingrained prejudice to assume these women need his help. 

[slothgirl]

It sounds like most people think these women should be grateful they have a creepy hacker going through their business, making decisions for them because he knows better.

I don't think anyone here is saying that (at least that isn't how I read anyone's posts) I believe most everyone feels that what he is doing is wrong but that he is not doing it because he dislikes or hates women, but rather because he cares about them. As a poster upthread said, I think a better term is sexist.

 

So far we have seen him "protect" the women in his life the same way he is protecting other victims that he sees as helpless, such as the children affected by the pornographer. His methods are wrong in both cases, because even with the pornagrapher, he has done nothing to prevent those children being victimized by other producers and consumers of child porn. Turning the guy in to authorities, or hacking far enough to discover the origins of the porn, would have been far more effective.

 

So even as we like to see bad guys get some comeupance, I doubt we are supposed to actually feel that Elliot is heroic

 

I think the show is giving us a complex and interesting flawed character. Since this alone is far too rare in TV today, I'm not going to dismiss the show based on the fact that the character HAS a flaw. (I also love Jamal and Laila on Tyrant for the same reason... I don't want them in my life, but they are fabulous characters to watch on a show!)

Edited June 27, 2015 by slothgirl

[Irlandesa]

But the writers chose not to show him doing that to men, just women. They chose not to give either women their own agency, they chose to give the male characters their own agency.

Exactly.  That's one problem I had with the show as well.  And the fact that it was the women whose lives he was invading stood out to me when he and his boss were on the private jet.  The boss tells him he's gay.  It was the perfect opportunity for the Elliot to go to an inner monologue and let the audience know that of course he already knew this because he had investigated his boss's life as he had his crush's life and his therapist's life.  But he didn't so we're left to assume that this bit of info was new to Elliot. 

 

Well, he did a pretty good job of hacking the coffee shop/kid porno web owner guy, and the cheater, and Angela's boyfriend.

The kiddie porn is a completely different scenario than what he did with Angela and his therapist.  And the only reason he investigated Angela's boyfriend and the cheater is because of their connection to the two women.

 

I don't think the character is inherently misogynistic but it does feel a little icky that the vulnerable people he ended up seeking to "protect" in this pilot were either women or children.  That's more of a problem with the writing than the character.

 

Sure, it's only episode one but isn't that what this thread about?  Our impressions of the first episode both good and bad.  It was compelling enough with a great lead character for me to give it a few episodes to see if some of the negative tropes I saw from the pilot even out.  It deserves that.  But I will say that I don't think I'm being too quick to judge after a pilot.  I've seen enough shows where the problems in the pilot, like how the female characters are presented/treated, never get fixed.

 

Thought it was funny that he hacked into Angela's boyfriend's FB and found that he like George W. Bush's Decision Points and concluded he's a moron.

Yeah.  But I will defend his Josh Groban love. 

[cardigirl]

I think we're supposed to feel uncomfortable with how much information Elliot can find out online about people. We're all very vulnerable.

Elliot had a lot if discs in his files, I suspect he's hacked both men and women.

I must be really old because I was not offended at all by the way women were portrayed in this episode, we'll see if I'm offended as the series goes on. Now a show like The Newsroom, I had a lot of trouble with the way those women were written.

[Potanical Pardon]

Just when I thought I ran out of shows, three out of nowhere that I'm suddenly really psyched about - this, Humans, and From Dusk Till Dawn (though, I'm late to this party).

 

Really surprised this is USA, but I'm in. I can see it going the way of FSociety being all in his head.  

 

The techy-speak is hit or miss, though for the most part much better than any other hacker lingo in other shows/movies. All the terminal stuff seemed correct as did half of the dialogue.

 

I'm a sucker for characters that are perceived sociopathic and anti-social who actually are the furthest thing from it...they just sacrifice their own happiness so that others can be - which is sufficiently fulfilling.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Tandaemonium

[Netfoot]

Elliot is really a head case.  I won't be expecting anything like reasonable behaviour from him.  I won't list misogyny amongst his flaws based solely on this pilot episode.  But even if he does turn out to be flawed in this way, would I have to immediately stop watching?  I don't think so.  I expect him to have anti-social issues beyond what we've already seen, and these to manifest in the fullness of time.

 

Christian Slater is the least believable uber-h4x0r I've ever seen.  I very much doubt he can withdraw cash from an ATM without an assist from... an Assistant.  I hope they don't often ask me to 'suspend disbelief'  to such a major degree.

[shapeshifter]

I must be really old because I was not offended at all by the way women were portrayed in this episode, we'll see if I'm offended as the series goes on. Now a show like The Newsroom, I had a lot of trouble with the way those women were written.

Me too, but then I still have memories of what were not too healthy fantasies as a little girl in the late 50s of a man riding up on a white horse to rescue me. Anyway, maybe it will turn out that Elliot had a sister who he was unable to rescue/save, so now he's still trying to fix it. IDK. Was the dog he saved female or male? Maybe next week he'll be saving an elderly man. I thought he was just trying to help the powerless, and women do still have less power than men, so there would likely be more women to rescue. But POC, the elderly, the disabled, and other groups would fall into the powerless category too (statistically speaking). Maybe each COW will focus on a different group.

[Happytobehere]

It was okay. I am willing to give it my three-episode watch rule. Three points do not work for me and it will prove difficult to get past them: 1) The monotone narration; 2) Christian Slater,who will alway be a how foes he keep getting employed question for me; 3) The lack of an even friend chemistry between the lead and the blonde girl.

While I have no use for Slater, I hope the show doesn't go the Fight Vlub route and make him a figment of the lead's mind, but I suspect this will indeed be the case.

[walnutqueen]

So far, so good.  I am hooked for now.  But I have been burned by other promising new shows, so ...

[Captanne]

I'm in for my three episode rule as long as the female leads get better treatment.  Was there a single one who wasn't either humiliated, naked, or duped -- or all three at once?

 

The target audience appears to be 15 year old boys -- as in, "Women are only there to fulfill my 1) sex fantasy, 2) drug fantasy, 3) knight in shining armor fantasy, and/or 4) wallpaper fantasy."

 

ETA:  Actually, the more I think about it -- the more I may be right out.  Elliot is a classic Mary-Sue.

Edited June 28, 2015 by Captanne

[BindsTheTuna]

I watched USA's later viewing and -- of course, damnit -- it cut off with about 30 seconds to go. What happened after Elliott was abducted?

[Cardie]

I watched USA's later viewing and -- of course, damnit -- it cut off with about 30 seconds to go. What happened after Elliott was abducted?

He is ushered into an office where the IT exec from E Corp welcomes him and asks him to join a group of other corporate types. What they're up to not revealed.

[BindsTheTuna]

Thank you, Cardie!

[CofCinci]

I watched this pilot tonight because I saw a comment about the clinician-client relationship on a psychotherapist subreddit I frequent. As a therapist, I made the decision to delete my Facebook a while ago. This episode cemented my deletion.

Poor clinical boundaries aside, I really enjoyed this pilot and will tune in for another. What I gather so far is that the Christian Slater character is not only Elliot's delusion but he's also representative of his father.

One thing the series could have done without -- the (controlled) morphine addiction. It doesn't seem needed.