b!X Frankonis
Hello, I am The One True b!X. Accept no substitutes. Urban goatherd, social medium, pop culturist. Portland, OR. http://theonetruebix.com/
As the Wikipedia article suggests, Brecht wanted the audience to be “empowered on an intellectual level both to analyze and perhaps even to try to change the world, which was Brecht’s social and political goal as a playwright and the driving force behind his dramaturgy”. Establishing its protagonist’s acute awareness of the viewer and framing its shots in ways the viewer can’t help but accept as an artifice, Mr. Robot underscores and highlights both its narrative argument over the degree to which our own lives might not be authentic, might in fact themselves be an artifice, and its desire to make us wonder just who out there might be responsible for constructing it.
The Brechtian Alienation of ‘Mr. Robot’
b!X Frankonis
1
You Are Watching a Television Show
And ‘Mr. Robot’ Wants You To Know It
After last night’s episode, which opened with Eliot trapped, with full awareness, in a 90s sitcom complete with 90s advertisements, tell me the Brechtian analysis doesn’t hold. The word “Brechtian” even showed up in The Verge recap.
The Mr. Robot Hack Report: Cantennas and dirty USB drives
Mr. Robot is a show built on hacks. The mother of all hacks serves as the big cliffhanger at the end of the show's…www.theverge.com
Mr. Robot is a show built on hacks. The mother of all hacks serves as the big cliffhanger at the end of the show's…www.theverge.com
Mr. Robot builds Elliot a sort of psychological panic room where he can be safe during his physical assault in the outside world, another reality authored for him by someone else. In the end, even Angela’s story in this episode is about one’s life being written by another, as she’s beholden to fsociety’s crash-course hacker training and Darlene’s instructions whispered in her ear.
I’m only surprised Elliot never once bothered to ask us if we heard the laugh track, too.
