Wisdom Of The Crowd - General Discussion

[Loves2Dance]

I really don't like the evolving story line about the battling companies, but I do like Sophe and the story she generates. 

[janeta]

I .like it. :-)  Just didn’t have anything particular to say about this ep.

[Guest]

I don't like the subplot of his former company trying to put his current company out of business.  It just makes me roll my eyes. 

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, deaja said:

I don't like the subplot of his former company trying to put his current company out of business.  It just makes me roll my eyes. 

It makes me groan. It would be bad enough IRL, but why go there in a story that's trying to attract viewers?

If not for Jeremy Piven and his character's bromance with Detective Cavanaugh, this show would probably have been yanked by now. TPTB are probably crossing their fingers that JP doesn't have any skeletons in his closet, if you know what I mean. The female characters are all poorly drawn, IMO.

Kyra Sedgwick's show has the better overall plot arc of the two freshmen offerings, and it's been sent to a distant Saturday death slot—but then it doesn't have any believeable bromance, romance, or even office relationships.

[jhlipton]

11 hours ago, deaja said:

I don't like the subplot of his former company trying to put his current company out of business.  It just makes me roll my eyes. 

5000 lines of identical code?  LOL  That's funny!  Sophe probably has in the neighbor hood of 5,000,000 lines of code, so you're talking about 1% max.  Second, a lot of code is identical -- importing modules, math functions, etc.  (That's the "public domain" portion they talked about.) But non "public domain" code would be identical -- incrementing an index for example. Then there's "open source" code (similar to public domain.  Both AltSourcer and Sophe probably use a lot of open source code, although AltSourcer has to be more careful about its use, since there are restrictions on profits made through open source.

In short, a whole lot of foofaw over nothing.

8 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

Kyra Sedgwick's show has the better overall plot arc of the two freshmen offerings, and it's been sent to a distant Saturday death slot—but then it doesn't have any believeable bromance, romance, or even office relationships.

Kyra Sedgwick's character was so awful, and the plot likewise, that I bailed after the first episode.  WotC is dumb, but at least it's fun.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Jeremy Piven discusses the show on Build

[LakeGal]

This episode did not keep my attention.

[Jillybean]

This show requires a suspension of disbelief, but having two SOPHE employees talk teenagers out of suicide was a bit too much.

On the plus side, Monica Potter's absence made the episode far more palatable.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Jillybean

[janeta]

Ok, Kavanaugh’s kid is too good to be true but i still like him. 

[LakeGal]

I think I am done.  Second ep in a row where I did not pay attention.

[Guest]

I really liked that this episode showed some additional (and very real) flaws with the Sophe system and how it could almost turn into a vigilante system.  However, I thought the point was weakened by the fact that the one pointing out all the flaws turned out to be a very bad guy.  This show is painting far too many people as bad or good.  I'd like to see some shades of gray.

[notcreative enough]

If I'm honest I don't see this show getting a season 2. So I hope they tell us who killed the daughter instead of leaving a bunch of unanswered questions. 

I'm still not feeling the company SL and now we have 2 of them. One going after Tanner being investigated about something and his girlfriend being "owned" by the original company. It's all coming back to bite you in the ass isn't it Tanner.

[jhlipton]

13 hours ago, deaja said:

I really liked that this episode showed some additional (and very real) flaws with the Sophe system and how it could almost turn into a vigilante system.

They love throw out tech terms without really understanding them.  A lag of more than few seconds is noticeable and will draw flames,  a lag of less than 30 seconds will do nothing to stop the flow of information.  Blech.

6 hours ago, notcreative enough said:

his girlfriend being "owned" by the original company.

They showed a few lines of the "contested code" and it was as stupid as I thought it would be (they used C# or a variant -- I think Sophe would have been coded in python or R).  The lines were fairly generic: deltaSeconds = someSeconds - convertTimeFunction(prevTime, Seconds); and so on.  600 lines of that is a drop in Sophe's bucket.

[janeta]

Well that was a bit shambolic. Too many plots at once.

[NeverLate]

I like this show, but tonight was pretty lame. I can't stand Alex. I wonder if it has enough going for it, so it's not cancelled. I'd like them to find Mia's killer.

[shapeshifter]

The NSA is their new arch enemy? Seriously?!?

Whenever either Jeremy Piven or Richard T. Jones is not on screen, it feels like the energy is drained out of the scene. I appreciated the discussion and plot about women in tech, but it would help if the main female character was more dynamic.

[sweetandsour]

2 hours ago, shapeshifter said:

I appreciated the discussion and plot about women in tech, but it would help if the main female character was more dynamic.

Agree, but it really annoyed me that of the three suspects, the two men quickly rebuffed the prisoner's dilemma while the female immediately crumbled and confessed her understanding of the events. I also found it really bizarre that Josh, or any employee, walks away from his station and doesn't lock the computer? These people work in IT??? Maybe I just don't understand the culture at start-ups or start-up like companies? And on that note, I found it extremely bizarre that Prudence jumped on Josh's station like that's acceptable and then set up a loud, annoying prank in a workplace that isn't her own?? Maybe that's just another thing I don't get about these environments?

And back to the COTW, I didn't really follow (and was not going to spend any time rewinding and rewatching) why the three suspects got their stories straight in terms of the last thing Ron yelled out, but everything leading up to that was recalled differently? That didn't make any sense. I guess they were just trying to establish the same story about Ron telling everyone to go home and create the appearance none of them were there when he died, but telling such different stories otherwise seems suspicious. Sure, they could attribute that to their drunkenness and substance use, but then that just makes the fact that they all, under the influence, recalled Ron saying the exact same thing suspicious. Part of me wants to like that their stories included "Fight for Your Right" but performed by different artists, I guess.

And this constitutes hundreds more words and way more thoughts than this show and Piven's hair plugs deserve.

[Guest]

One thing I'm struggling with this show is I don't like Sara.  She has made some really stupid mistakes that come across arrogant (like not thinking her non-compete would apply to certain codes, etc).  Last night, I totally got that the memo was awful, but she seemed so affected by it during the investigation.

[sweetandsour]

3 hours ago, deaja said:

One thing I'm struggling with this show is I don't like Sara.  She has made some really stupid mistakes that come across arrogant (like not thinking her non-compete would apply to certain codes, etc).  Last night, I totally got that the memo was awful, but she seemed so affected by it during the investigation.

Yes, I felt the same way about what she feels entitled to and the mistakes she's made as a savvy industry veteran and leader. We don't read every bit of contract documentation we sign, and in a way that can bite us in the ass later (like I don't know who reads every word of the stacks of mortgage papers), but the non-compete and ownership of IP is pretty standard stuff. And when someone develops IP as a major part of their activities, there's no way they don't know this. It isn't like a garbageman who suddenly has an idea for an app. (Not picking on garbagemen; just an arbitrary job that doesn't involve exposure to IP.) The way Sara acted so shocked about who owns what she worked on at Stanford while AllSourcer paid for all of her tuition was ? to me. Whether she thinks that's fair is a completely different issue than the fact she took the full tuition payments as compensation. I would be pissed if my company had taken claim to anything I had done outside of my workplace while I was getting my MBA, but that's not what the limited tuition reimbursement terms were and who really wants my barely-real-world papers anyway? IP is different.

She gets so self-righteous about this stuff that at times, I expect her to yell, "But my work helps the children!!  What about the children?? Do you hate the children??"

Edited November 20, 2017 by sweetandsour
lol prior incomplete sentence

[Guest]

35 minutes ago, sweetandsour said:

The way Sara acted so shocked about who owns what she worked on at Stanford while AllSourcer paid for all of her tuition was ? to me.

And the way they dramatically said "And that clause was Jeffrey's idea" about two different fairly standard things annoyed me.  Like..... oh, it was his idea to have you sign a very basic, normal contract?  Tell me more.

[sweetandsour]

19 minutes ago, deaja said:

And the way they dramatically said "And that clause was Jeffrey's idea" about two different fairly standard things annoyed me.  Like..... oh, it was his idea to have you sign a very basic, normal contract?  Tell me more.

LOL *dun dun DUN* "It was Jeffrey's idea!!" Oy. Like it was supposed to be a source of potential conflict between Jeffrey and Sara, or that Jeffrey was the one responsible for such out-of-the-box thinking. Really, it only serves to shine a light on how dumb Jeffrey is, on top of how dumb Sara is. Jeffrey's the one who departed AllSourcer and took certain IP and personnel assets with him + he's the one who put in the (standard) clauses, but he thought it was a-ok to operate Sophe with assets that he can't fully utilize? Because he didn't know that? And this guy was CEO of a highly successful company? Uh-huh. But this is also a man who didn't think through at all how Sophe was going to operate with constant expenses yet no revenue coming in.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

20 hours ago, sweetandsour said:

Agree, but it really annoyed me that of the three suspects, the two men quickly rebuffed the prisoner's dilemma while the female immediately crumbled and confessed her understanding of the events. I also found it really bizarre that Josh, or any employee, walks away from his station and doesn't lock the computer? These people work in IT??? Maybe I just don't understand the culture at start-ups or start-up like companies? And on that note, I found it extremely bizarre that Prudence jumped on Josh's station like that's acceptable and then set up a loud, annoying prank in a workplace that isn't her own?? Maybe that's just another thing I don't get about these environments?

And back to the COTW, I didn't really follow (and was not going to spend any time rewinding and rewatching) why the three suspects got their stories straight in terms of the last thing Ron yelled out, but everything leading up to that was recalled differently? That didn't make any sense. I guess they were just trying to establish the same story about Ron telling everyone to go home and create the appearance none of them were there when he died, but telling such different stories otherwise seems suspicious. Sure, they could attribute that to their drunkenness and substance use, but then that just makes the fact that they all, under the influence, recalled Ron saying the exact same thing suspicious. Part of me wants to like that their stories included "Fight for Your Right" but performed by different artists, I guess.

And this constitutes hundreds more words and way more thoughts than this show and Piven's hair plugs deserve.

In a show that is supposedly standing up for women in tech, they certainly did have it play out poorly in the CoTW.  The woman can't control her emotions and gets physical.  The woman falls for the cops ruse, immediately crumbling and confessing.  The woman never shows any real confidence in what she knows and does.

As to a tech person walking away from the terminal and leaving it unlocked, it happens on this show all the time.  I'm not sure I've ever seen them lock a screen.  Also, in one episode, Tanner walks away from a live video call without hanging up; his camera and microphone are still live.  I work in tech and, yeah, many people are lazy about locking their terminals, especially since there is a known issue with the docking stations not waking up all of the terminals when you unlock the system (grumble, grumble, grumble). However, we don't just walk away when a visitor is in the office.  If someone does, someone else will lock their system for them.  The prank, however, was not unusual.  It wasn't funny - that's another issue.  If someone walks off and forgets to lock their system, common reactions are to change the settings on their system to flip the screen upside down or the keyboard language.  We also use to make it look like they sent an email telling the boss they quit.  That kind of thing is common. 

[jhlipton]

On 11/20/2017 at 5:33 AM, deaja said:

One thing I'm struggling with this show is I don't like Sara.  She has made some really stupid mistakes that come across arrogant (like not thinking her non-compete would apply to certain codes, etc).  Last night, I totally got that the memo was awful, but she seemed so affected by it during the investigation.

I looked at some of the "non-compete code" they showed and, as I expected, there was nothing proprietary about it (converting a date filed to seconds, and using that tho get a delta time).  If the whole 600+ lines were like that, there's no case at all.   (It wouldn't be decided on a line by line basis anyway but by functional units.)

With the latest nonsense,  DDoS attacks are becoming more an more rare due to intelligent blockers (which would filter out all of the Internet of Things -- like baby monitors -- requests).  No way Sophe wouldn't have some sort of gateway, even more so the NSA (and "Ratchet" has more bandwidth than the NSA?  I don't think so!)

[Guest]

The flashbacks did nothing to advance the show.  Suddenly the show is going with the narrative that Sarah is the brains behind everything.  Which, fine. But if Jeffrey was such a visionary and had built most of the system of AllSource without her, it seems like they're just dumbing him down in flashbacks to advance the plot.  I get that the "big idea" person isn't going to be the one doing every detail, but in start-ups, you would think they would have a pretty good grasp on it.  

I didn't really care about the case of the week either. 

[LuvMyShows]

I actually liked the flashbacks, in terms of seeing the incremental stages that Sophe went through before becoming the fully-formed product/endeavor that we see now.  And while I didn't care so much for the specifics of the case of the week (the character and acting for Jamie seemed a bit overboard), I liked the final clue that it all resulted in, with the picture of the supposed lawyer visiting at the jail.

And speaking of lawyers, was the man representing Sarah at the deposition, the same Don King look-alike that we've been seeing for weeks?  If so, wow, does he look better!  But also, what a big change...surprised that there was no mention plot-wise, since the viewers are bound to notice. 

[thewhiteowl]

Same lawyer, without the distracting mass of hair was just as ineffective. Go figure. These Sophe peeps better get behind the ball soon instead of just thinking they are behind it while they keep on getting knocked around with it.  They advocate this premise that the crowd knows all, sees all but try to keep secret their relationship. Makes them look pretty naive. To say it nicely.

[LuvMyShows]

18 minutes ago, thewhiteowl said:

Same lawyer, without the distracting mass of hair was just as ineffective. Go figure. These Sophe peeps better get behind the ball soon instead of just thinking they are behind it while they keep on getting knocked around with it.  They advocate this premise that the crowd knows all, sees all but try to keep secret their relationship. Makes them look pretty naive. To say it nicely.

Yeah, very inconsistent in terms of who these characters would actually be, for them to think that the workers would be surprised to find out about the relationship,  But actually, on the other hand, I could also see them being so egotistical that they think, ooh, we're so good at being secretive.  

[janeta]

Yeah, i was surpised Sara actually thought everybody didn't know about her and Tanner...

[SmithW6079]

‘Wisdom Of the Crowd’ Eyes Cancellation: No Back Order For Jeremy Piven CBS Drama Series

Good riddance. The whole concept of this show was abhorrent -- getting people to inform on strangers about alleged crimes under the guise of "public service."

[Jaded]

I slogged through an entire episode of this show last night after having watched bits and pieces of other ones. It's not that the concept of the show is unbelievable but the tone and the way it's acted out reminds me of those hour long syndicated mystery/crime solving shows of the 90's. 

As I was typing up this reply I was s nobody has posted the news that the show is ending after the 13 episodes that were filmed due to Piven's mounting personal issues. I saw that @SmithW6079 just did in the media thread before submitting this post.

[Jaded]

7 minutes ago, SmithW6079 said:

‘Wisdom Of the Crowd’ Eyes Cancellation: No Back Order For Jeremy Piven CBS Drama Series

Good riddance. The whole concept of this show was abhorrent -- getting people to inform on strangers about alleged crimes under the guise of "public service."

I watched a full episode for the first time last night and wondered how it lasted as long as it had. Then the cancellation news came out this morning.

[Guest]

I was thinking after the most recent episode that it would likely be a one season show.  It just has so many flaws in the show.

[jhlipton]

11 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

‘Wisdom Of the Crowd’ Eyes Cancellation: No Back Order For Jeremy Piven CBS Drama Series

Good riddance. The whole concept of this show was abhorrent -- getting people to inform on strangers about alleged crimes under the guise of "public service."

It could have been done along the lines of Crimestoppers or Amber Alerts.  But they didn't put any restraints into Sophe (including bias detection or DDoS protection).

BTW, anyone who has seen the "Ask the Audience" lifeline on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire knows that there is far too much "noise" to get answers to general questions without filtering from even a quiz-loving audience, much less the general public.

[jhlipton]

12 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

‘Wisdom Of the Crowd’ Eyes Cancellation: No Back Order For Jeremy Piven CBS Drama Series

Good riddance. The whole concept of this show was abhorrent -- getting people to inform on strangers about alleged crimes under the guise of "public service."

Usually, it's not a good idea to read comments, but most of these are fun.  I like this one:
 

Quote

I never understood how someone thought it would be a good idea to make a show that sounds like some glorified version of dipshits on Reddit blaming innocent people for the Boston Marathon Bombing.

[janeta]

Wait— I thought they shut down the guy’s account?

[janeta]

Aww, bummer. Flaws and all I still like it. But, yeah, with the JP issues they wouldn’t be able to keep it up. 

[Guest]

That was a terrible episode. Given the show is being cancelled, I hope they start wrapping plots up soon, so I’m glad the lawsuit is over.

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, janeta said:

Wait— I thought they shut down the guy’s account?

Horrible mistake having him still posting after his account was turned off. It even prominently showed his account name so the show couldn't even pretend he just opened a new account.

[thewhiteowl]

Hair! It was back! If that's a wig, someone really needs to have a chat with lawyer guy. Not a good episode. I usually like JP but he was just Eeyore in this one.

[Cowgirl]

Is this really being cancelled?

[Jillybean]

11 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Horrible mistake having him still posting after his account was turned off. It even prominently showed his account name so the show couldn't even pretend he just opened a new account.

I thought the last digit had been changed from an 8 to a 9, so I assumed he had opened a new account. But I could be mistaken...I was pretty tired while watching.

[sweetandsour]

LOL last night's episode was pretty bad. I loved Tanner's self-righteousness about the other CEO still coming after Sara and her non-compete clause - he had the audacity to say it was a problem she created. Um, no, as was well-established, the non-compete clause in Sara's contract was his idea, and even if it wasn't, non-competes are pretty standard in tech, so it still wouldn't have been the other CEO's doing. Her choosing to enforce it is completely reasonable. It's not because she's a weasel (although she's a weasel).

I also laughed hard when Tariq came in to Tanner's home with his hacking discoveries of the reduced payroll of live reviewers. What was that 5 inch binder!!!  What was in that 5 inch binder!!!  Then Tanner brings said 5 inch binder to the other CEO's office to make a deal, and they flip to a page and it's blank! Was that empty paper in there just to show the absence of payroll?  What even was that!

Highlight of the episode was the same actor who played the Sinnerman in last week's Lucifer popping up here as another gravel-voiced killer.  And also David Hull from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend making an appearance, except that donut employee was written so badly. The entire engagement of the donut employee in stalling the killer was ridiculous. I was second-hand embarrassed for the characters and the writers during that whole scene.

I'll say something nice ... but it can't be about any of the internet celebrities because they were all terrible ... so ... um ... I don't know ... 

[jhlipton]

On 12/11/2017 at 9:22 PM, sweetandsour said:

LOL last night's episode was pretty bad.

I'll say something nice ... but it can't be about any of the internet celebrities because they were all terrible ... so ... um ... I don't know ... 

So, so bad!  Tanner is a major jerk and Sara is good to be rid of him.  If I was her, I would have told him and Sophe to f*** off, and told Weasel that I was ready to re-join AltSourcer.

This week is "Stuff That Makes My Head Hurt":
Monetizing, done right, is not Eeeeeevil.  Patreon, a site for independent artists, allows them to charge for their work.  (They tried changing their fee structure and got told right off.) 

And people making money from the Internet is not Eeeeevil.  People have been making money for silly, useless things from time immemorial (flag-pole sitters, anyone?).  If companies want to have their product endorsed by a YouTuber, it means the YouTuber is doing something right.  This was just "Get Off MY Lawn" by the writers.

[janeta]

oh, and just wanted to add that I didn't miss the pesky hard rock girlfriend at all.

[jhlipton]

6 hours ago, janeta said:

oh, and just wanted to add that I didn't miss the pesky hard rock girlfriend at all.

She was into death metal.  Totally different,

[janeta]

On 12/14/2017 at 5:03 PM, jhlipton said:

She was into death metal.  Totally different,

True.  I was typing in a hurry. :)

[Guest]

So based on the ending when they emphasized someone like Tanner was behind the payment, am I the only one who thinks the new CEO of AllSourcer is going to be behind Mia's death? They've been painting her as such an over the top villain as is that I wouldn't be surprised.

[Free]

14 hours ago, deaja said:

So based on the ending when they emphasized someone like Tanner was behind the payment, am I the only one who thinks the new CEO of AllSourcer is going to be behind Mia's death? They've been painting her as such an over the top villain as is that I wouldn't be surprised.

Possibly, since they haven't really built any other named characters left, otherwise it'll have to be a random new character.

[shapeshifter]

10 minutes ago, Free said:

Possibly, since they haven't really built any other named characters left, otherwise it'll have to be a random new character.

—who, if they do introduce at this point, might as well be named Evil Captain Obvious.

[LuvMyShows]

Quite a few of the posters here have a dislike of Monica Potter, who plays Tanner's ex-wife.  I had never seen her in anything before.  But boy do I have a serious negative impression of her after having watched her in the most recent episode of The Profit on CNBC, http://www.cnbc.com/live-tv/the-profit/full-episode/monica-potter-home/1115218499947?trknav=videodetail:3_fullepisodes:0:100788798.  It is the actual person Monica Potter, not her in an acting role, as she deals with the business that she apparently runs with her family, called Monica Potter Home.  Dumpster fire, is all I can say.