Mr. Robot Review

You have turned into Remote Control's latest

episode. Listen in as the GCRN crew talks TV

from 2000 to now. With pilot and season premiere

episodes, finishing finales and season passes

as well. Now get ready to change the channel

with your remote control as we bring you the

latest and greatest in the world of television.

All from the Gatecast Radio Network. We are all

remote controlled. Hello, friend. That's lame.

Maybe I should give you a name. But that's a

slippery slope. You're only in my head. We have

to remember that. Shit. This actually happened.

I'm talking to an imaginary person. What I'm

about to tell you is top secret. A conspiracy

bigger than all of us. There's a powerful group

of people out there that are secretly running

the world. I'm talking about the guys no one

knows about, the guys that are invisible. The

top 1 % of the top 1%, the guys that play God

without permission. And now I think they're following

me. Grab that remote control because the GCRN's

brand new TV podcast is here. We are calling

it Remote Control. I am your host, TF2, and Mike.

And joining me for the first time here on the

GCRN and Remote Control is... The kitchen couch

potato herself, Jennifer Rag. Hello. Hello. How

are you? I'm great. That's good. You might know

her from the televixen .com or potentially TV

POV. She also works in factual TV industry, which

spends her evenings consuming and commenting

on fictional TV. So remote control. We are here

people. It is the 2015 -2016 season. We are starting

a little early. Most of our pilot premieres from

last season were broadcast network only. None

of the cable networks had any shows last year

in, you know, September, October, whatever the

fall season usually is. That really piqued my

interest enough to do a podcast on any of them.

It just wasn't my thing So I stuck with the broadcasts

Broadcast networks, but we're kind of branching

out this year because USA Network has started

a summer series now Technically, we're not into

the full fall TV season yet because well, let's

face it. It's still June here. We just fit actually

We just finished up our finishing finale from

last So For Jennifer who may or may not know

pilot premieres and finishing finales are my

way of pilot premieres We sit there. We talk

about the new show. We talk about the pilot episode

finishing finales We talk about the overall show

and then we spoil the hell out of the season

or series finale depending on if the show got

cancelled or not and some of the fit, you know

I think we had seven to nine different pilot

premieres last year and I think only four of

them made it to finishing Stuff like yeah, yeah,

it's like you know if we're not gonna sit there

and stick with the show Then there's no sense

in doing a podcast on it stuff like forever Yes,

I'll have to send you the link We did pilot premieres

last year for Gotham scorpion stalker And poor

stalker So stalker flash red band society another

show that sadly did not last too long forever

And then we went into a few season passes in

art this kind of a new info for Jen folks so

excuse me here we also do season passes where

you know I'll say to somebody okay if you want

to be on this show this show or this show watch

the first season of this or watch the second

season of this so we did season passes for Arrow

we did because the show got cancelled we did

all three season passes for Dallas 2012 we did

a season pass for Marvel's Daredevil So yeah,

that's been the tale of the tape for remote control

and like I said, we're here now to Start the

2015 2016 season a little bit early with mr.

Robot from USA Network I just started seeing

ads for this thing and I like I actually watched

it on demand before it actually premiered June

24th Because I guess they leaked it a week early

to get buzz kind of like that whole Supergirl

stuff You know leaking it four or five months

early or something People were really afraid

to do that before because the idea of leaking

anything was scared major networks But they're

realizing now that it it's just one episode and

and it really builds that buzz unless it's terrible

and I suppose Don't don't tune in Yeah, we're

gonna eventually have an episode on remote control

where we talk about why Any television network

doesn't matter if it's the big four or five broadcasts

or if it's any cake why these Networks put so

much money and so much time and effort behind

the show when they don't even end up Keeping

it for one full season, right? If the ratings

are so badly think about this though, and we

are gonna talk about this later in another episode

But if you really think about it They put all

this stuff all this promotion to Twitter Facebook

Pinterest all this stuff all these Twitter handles

and whatever else and it gets Well NBC's Playboy

Club is a perfect example. I love that show and

it had three episodes I didn't get around to

watching it before it got canceled. And then

I thought, well, why bother now? I mean, that's

a very interesting point. Although I think that

they do it, actually, they cancel things less

quickly now because ratings are, they're so,

I wouldn't say low, but they're much lower across

the board than they were say 10 years ago. So

networks will give things actually more time.

There's a couple of like, you know, early. where

they put the axe down and it's done. But it's

interesting to see them kind of stick with things

that don't have the ratings. And I think in certain

cases, it's more expensive for them to keep it

on the air if the... If the ratings are so bad

and they know that they're not going to be able

to get advertisers they'd rather pull it and

put in a repeat of like say it's CVCBS who's

the one that really does it the most because

they They'd rather just repeat the Big Bang Theory

and that's gonna get them more at revenue than

some of the shows that they do But very true.

That's because it's a ratings giant at this point

Alright, so mr. Robot debuted June 24th 2015

on the USA Network the show length is Roughly

around one hour with ads. It's probably anywhere

between 40 and 46 minutes without ads if you

watch it on demand or whatever There is gonna

be one season of ten episodes so far. So that's

really all I know I haven't It's that's the other

thing that's strange is if you get a pilot And

you, you know, the pilot does well automatically.

Hey, before we even air the other nine episodes,

you get a season two or whatever. And that's

a whole other strange thing to me. Well, that's

what they did with this one. They've already

given it the season two before the pilot even

aired. Yeah. And I guess that must have been

some buzz from the preview, right? Yeah, it had

to have been. But this show I mean there hasn't

been a USA show since white collar that I've

been really this excited about I mean I was never

a burn notice fan as much as I love As much as

I love Bruce Campbell, I'm sorry. I hate the

character of Michael Weston. I just can't stand

that guy So, but mr. Robot the overall premise

series follows Elliot Alderson, a young cybersecurity

engineer who assumes the role of a vigilante

hacker by night, Elliot meets a mysterious anarchist

known as Mr. Robot who recruits Elliot to join

his team of hackers, F Society. Elliot, who has

a social anxiety disorder but connects to people

by hacking them, is intrigued but uncertain he

wants to be a part of the group. What was your

first initial impression? Did you see a promo

for this? How did you find out about this show?

No, I didn't. I rarely see promos for things.

The weirdest thing is the promos that I always

see are literally driving by billboards in the

subway because I guess I try to avoid commercials

so much that Those are the ones that I actually

end up catching is just literally drive -bying,

oh, that looks interesting. What's that about?

But this was all word of mouth. People have just

been telling me, oh, this is one of the best

pilots I've seen in years. You've got to check

this out. And USA, honestly, for myself, it's

not really on my radar that much. I've started

to get into it more. I've been back watching

suits, which I enjoy. I enjoy that. But yeah,

it hasn't been on my radar really. For me, like

I said earlier, I might have said this off air

to you, but here I'll say it again. I honestly,

no, I know what it was. I saw an ad, because

I'm always watching TV. Between TV and the internet,

that's how I live my life at this point. I'm

always watching stuff, and because I watch Monday

Night Raw on USA, They ran an ad for this and

I'm like wait, what what was that? I had actually

rewind my my DVR and I'm like, oh that looks

really really cool and then I Found out that

it was on demand early and I'm like, oh, I'll

watch it and it blew me away Yeah, it really

did. Yeah, I Mean There are two shows currently

that are all about tech and in, you know, cyberspace

and the internet. And that's CBS's CSI Cyber.

Say what you want about the CSI brand, but cyber

was pretty good. And I think they are getting

a second season as well. And this, Mr. Robot,

it's all about, you know, computers and all this

stuff and hacking. And honestly, there hasn't

been anything about hacking this good since 1995's

Hackers. A lot of that stuff goes right over

my head because I'm not a techie. I like computers,

but more in a creative sense. Half the stuff

that people talk about on these shows is just

whoosh. The other stuff has to draw me in, which

it really did. I think you probably get a little

extra out of it if you are hack savvy, I guess.

But I am not. I'm not either. I enjoy learning

about this stuff, like how he's explaining how

he's... How the main character Elliot is interacting

with people But he's not interacting with people

the way he has already said the way he interacts

with people as he hacks their lives Yeah, and

he learns about them and gets attachments that

way which that's a little creepy and weird and

whatever But it's the way the you know, it's

the way his character works My one fear about

this show because there's been There's been one

other show that has had this actor in it that

just completely failed. And I don't know if it

was the show's fault or his fault. Christian

Slater. Oh, there's been more than one. No, no,

no. Well, the one that I really, really enjoyed

was NBC's My Own Worst Enemy, where he played

that double life kind of thing. And what's his

name? From Yes Dear was his best friend or buddy

or whatever. Yeah. You know, I really liked that

show and NBC just pulled the plug on that and

then NBC I don't want to turn this into an NBC

bashing but NBC then three or four years later

did the exact same premise called do no harm

One guy two different personalities same damn

thing I didn't really realize that. I didn't

think it was the same premise, but now that you're

saying that, it does make sense. I mean, because

only one of them was deliberately compared to

the Jekyll and Hyde, and that was Do No Harm,

and the other one was more of, yeah, they didn't

really make that reference. So I actually watched

Do No Harm. I did watch My Own Worst Enemy, and

I liked it. I didn't love it. But he's had, you

know, he was on... The Forgotten, which lasted

one season, and I cannot remember which network

that was, and then Breaking In on Fox, which

lasted two seasons, but kind of like two and

a half, sorry, one and a half. It barely got

renewed, it was a mid -season, and then kind

of they switched up the premise a little, and

I thought that was his strongest to date. It

was a comedy, and he really shied in that, but

he's had just the worst TV luck. You almost worry

he's TV -crypted at this point. Kind of is I

mean, it's not like they're gonna you know, make

a prince of thieves to or anything. So I didn't

know it's true. But I think it helps that he's

not the main character in this show. It's not

that I don't think that Christian Slater can

carry a show. I think breaking in was kind of

the closest. And he wasn't technically the main

character. He was, you know, it was an ensemble.

But I think that him as a side character who's

kind of like this mysterious figure, that is

the perfect place to put him because he is such

an odd. Like, I think as a hero, it's hard to

root for him. He's got that very sort of anarchist

look, that shit -disturber kind of thing going

on, and in a more devious, non -likable way than

the main character does. So I think it's a really

good space to put him, where he's kind of, you

know, in the shadows a little bit, coming in

and out, and it's not, you know, the likability

of the show isn't necessarily on his shoulders.

I think. Yeah, absolutely. The crazy thing about

this show is there's all kinds of product placement

all over this thing. I did not even notice that.

I guess I was... You really didn't notice? All

safe? Come on, all safe is just, you know, another

word for all state. I mean, it's an insurance

show. I didn't even expect it when I heard you,

but I don't think... Yeah, no. I mean, which

is interesting because the show itself... I mean,

they're saying a lot of, I was surprised at how

bold, I mean, it shouldn't be surprised, but

I guess USA is not really known as like, you

know, it's not HBO, right? But some of the stuff

they were saying about society in general was

pretty bold. It was sort of an attack on consumerism.

So it's interesting that now you're saying that

there was all this product placement to have

that kind of within a show that pretty blatantly

suggests that the world is a messed up place

full of evil corporations. That's kind of ironic,

I guess. Yeah, I mean, like I said, by day, Elliot

is a cybersecurity engineer, and he works at

a company called All Safe. Now, are you seriously

not going to sit there and think, hey, when's

David Haysbert, or when's, Christ, I almost called

him President Palmer, when's Dennis Haysbert

going to show up and do his All State slogan?

It didn't even make the connection. I really

do like the show though. I like the overall pilot

so far. The pilot episode was really really good.

I love how in one episode we've already got so

much character buildup for the main character.

Yeah. And we've got so much mysterious behind

all these other evil corporations and everything

else. The one thing I'll say I don't think the

pilot did too well is and I guess maybe it's

because the main focus was supposed to be on

Elliot which is fine. It didn't really flush

out a lot of the other characters in his life

and everything maybe we're supposed to feel the

same way he does but everything in the show when

he's interacting with other characters is so

awkward. He even points it out to his best friend's

date or boyfriend or whatever else, he's like,

I don't mind it being awkward between us. He

just doesn't care. No, you're right. And it really

was all, this was a one -man show, this pilot.

It was a one -man show. I mean, which is interesting

because you've got a big name like Christian

Slater and really he had maybe three, four scenes

in the entire thing. And it all rested on Elliot's

shoulders on that character. You know, I wouldn't

say likability because you're drawn to him, but

he's not exactly an outright likable character

in many ways. So that was a risk to take. Okay.

Maybe I'll say identifiable character because

a lot of geeks nowadays do have somewhat antisocial

behavior. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's funny because

when I was watching it with my boyfriend, he

compared him to Dexter right off the bat, which

I went, wow, that's a little harsh. but it's

interesting because it does there is a bit of

a tie -in in the way that you know Elliot ends

up hacking people and and and sometimes bettering

society by doing it but i don't think that that's

his real goal i think you know like when he hacked

the guy in the very the very beginning of the

pilot the um the coffee shop and ron the child

pedophilia peddler um I don't think he did that

out of necessarily a sense to make the world

a better place. He didn't really want money,

but I think he does it because he has to hack

people. He has this insane desire to get inside

their heads, which is kind of similar, I guess,

to the way that Dexter ends up making the world

a better place by murdering bad guys. But it's

more because Dexter needs to kill people, not

because he's like a do -gooder. And I wouldn't

say that Elliot is that bad, but he has some

of that disconnect, that weird... way that it's

hard for him to connect to people. And there's

just more, there's definitely more of a glimmer

of hope there that he has a heart, I would say.

But I thought that was an interesting comparison

for sure. Absolutely. What else did you notice

or like or dislike about the show? Well, the

first thing that I noticed was the narration,

which, you know, for a while, their narration

was this thing that you'd kind of roll your eyes

and, oh, God, someone's going to narrate a show

again. It's getting so trite. But this year,

this is the second example, I think, of a show

that's turned narration on its head and made

it a really integral, interesting part of the

show. The first would be Jane the Virgin, which,

I don't know if that's That's too girly for you

or whatnot, but that definitely took. It's too

CW for me, if that makes any sense. He just talked

about arrow and the flash, and that's quintessential

CW. Well, yeah, but that's superhero stuff, though.

But the CW needs to diversify more, and that

to me is like old school. Anyway, they had this

fantastic narration that was tongue -in -cheek.

It was like a running color commentary that was

all full of jokes. And he was a character himself,

this guy. He was like someone reading a story.

This took narration and it made it as though,

and he says that, right, he's talking to almost

an imaginary person that he's invented in his

mind because it's so difficult for him to talk

to anyone in the real world. And the narration

took on a whole other level. I like that kind

of creativity because sometimes narration helps

a story, but it was getting very, very old and

this reinvents that. So what you're saying essentially

is this is a really, really young Tony Stark

talking to Bruce Banner. Iron Man 3 Oh Man um

yeah, I you know the pilot basically what happens

folks to kind of spoil it just a little bit here

Elliot is recruited by this group And it's all

this can you know this all this computer code

and whatever else and it's all this mysterious

so kind of stuff and You know we get to another

scene in Christians You know I think it was a

sub the subway scene where Christian Slater says

if you didn't delete the file follow me and blah

blah blah And he's like what what are you talking

about? It's kind of like It's kind of like social

network meets the matrix I was gonna say, are

we getting colored pills now too? And it ends

on a really cool cliffhanger. I won't spoil that,

but it just, I just, I am so in with this show.

I will so be watching every episode of the 10.

Jumping on our casting couch here, other than

Christian Slater, I've never heard of any of

these people. You hadn't really either even the

main guy he looks familiar I'm sure I've seen

him somewhere But I I wouldn't be able to tell

you where it was unless IMD beat him, which I

think I did and it didn't help He was He was

in two of the two or three he was in no all three

Night at the Museum movies King Ackerman Ra,

or whatever. Yeah, that probably wasn't it. It's

not your thing, huh? Yeah. Alright, he was Benjamin

in Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn Part II. Of course.

I'm not in Twilight Saga. Watching some of those

Twilight movies was pure fun. I would go to the

theatre and just laugh out loud. But I don't

think I ever saw the final one, because by that

point I just owe them. He was in need for speed

from two years or from last year That's probably

where I remember from he was Andy and the Gilmore

girls 2010 he was Marcos Al Azar in 24. I don't

know if that's Live Another Day or what it is?

2010. No, I thought Live Another Day was more

recent. Yeah, that was last year. I wonder if

that was the final season before the reboot.

Might have been. He was also in the short -lived

Fox series Alcatraz. He was in one episode as

Webb Porter. He was in Believe as Dr. Adam Terry

from last year. He was a voice in The Legend

of Korra as Tano. I don't watch that show, so.

But I mean, no, I think his, you know, I think

his performance was really interesting. You know,

I'm ready to see more of his character and see

what he can do. I really, really enjoyed his

casting. And again, he had to carry that whole

pilot really on the strength of a very specific

kind of charm. And I thought it was just perfect

casting. You know, he's attractive. Let's face

it. This is USA. They do deal in pretty people

for the most part. But he's attractive in a way

that is a little... quirky which is perfect because

he's got the social anxiety he has these big

eyes that they do almost cut you kind of you

kind of get that like wide -eyed bug -eyed effect

sometimes when he's staring at people so it's

believable that he's this socially awkward guy

so I thought yeah it was a yeah very interesting

very interesting choice and one that I think

paid off very well. Portia Doubleday who plays

Angela in Mr. Robot. She was Isabella in 2013's

Her. That's probably the only thing I recognize

on Her. Yeah, I know. From Her is the computer.

I don't remember a lot of supporting characters,

but it was a great movie. It's really interesting

because, I mean, again, yeah, a lot of them got

short -shifted, I guess, a little bit because

they focused so much on him. But I kind of like

that because you don't really know what you're

going to get with these people moving forward.

And their relationship is interesting because

they don't really make a big deal about how these

two have remained friends, and yet he has this

childhood friend, and this is a guy you would

assume wouldn't have any childhood friends. And,

you know, does he have a crush on her? That's

not really quite clear, but... you know he certainly

hates her boyfriend and he was there was a whole

awkward scene between the two of them when um

she found that naked drug dealer that was fun

is that a potential romance maybe but i kind

of um i like that dynamic i think it'd be interesting

to see where that goes yeah um Christian Slater,

you know, we've kind of talked about him a little

bit already He's had a huge film career He was

just in Hot Tub Time Machine 2. I don't know

why maybe he needed a paycheck So not into those

movies I watched the first one the second one

doesn't have John Cusack and I'm out For his

TV career recently good See recently in the last

three or four years you already mentioned breaking

and he was on entourage for an episode He was

the voice of Paul the delivery guy on Phineas

and Ferb. So that was kind of cool He was also

a laser lord in Stanley's mighty seven from 2014

He did nine episodes of Archer And I believe

he was in the series finale of two and a half

men and now he's in this The only film he's got

coming up, according to this, is The Adderall

Diaries. I've never heard of it. That sounds

very weird. Yeah. And like Slater, I do. It's

gonna, because we didn't see so much of his character

here, I'm gonna be really interested in paying

attention to see what he does and how he and

Elliot interact as the show goes on. Yeah. Let's

see here. We got... Carly taken She in the show

is Darlene one of the F society hackers She has

done some stuff It's not her debut was the consultants

in 2009 so she hasn't done a lot of stuff she

was on she was in that Crazy Miley Cyrus film

the last song Yeah, let's not go Yeah, she was

only this darling was only in one scene in this

wasn't she Yeah, yeah, so it was kind of like

I guess we know she's gonna become a bigger part

But we have no idea what that is yet. I mean

she came across as that very stereotypical tough

ballsy chick who's, you know, the unexpected

hot hacker, right, I guess? Um... Maybe that'll

be some sort of relationship thing for Elliot,

who knows. Well, yeah, it was kind of... I mean,

that one scene I did like how, you know, she

just called him a dickhead outright, and he was

kind of really confused by it. Which I like because

I feel like he's trained himself to imagine how

people are gonna react. it like as you how people

normally interact because he doesn't do it so

well and and she kind of didn't interact that

way at all she was just sort of right out there

calling people dickhead and walking off and he

was like but that's not how people right so i

thought that was kind of interesting but we'll

have to see yeah we'll have to see i people if

you want to go check this show out um it it's

just Even only after the pilot I am just so interested

to see where this goes and to see on you know

Even though this is a pretty light cast outside

of you know, well scarlet I'm interested to see

how the story progresses and who they eventually

bring in because USA shows that like this that

start with a pretty much unknown cast If they

get two three four five seasons down the road

They usually end up bringing in bigger names

like if they like say the second season ends

and by season three They're like well. We need

to shake something up. They'll bring in somebody

like Gina Torres or you know who knows who else

you know I mean They'll bring in some big name

and That really sometimes isn't a bad thing I

think where TV sometimes fails is if you start

with a big name and The pilot or the first season

doesn't really capture the audience Then you're

kind of screwed I really like newbies. I like

that fresh start. I like that the main guy on

this is someone that I don't really have a preconceived

notion about, and I like that there's a couple

of newbies around. That's something I enjoy watching

as a viewer. I mean, that's what Lost was, and

that was one of the most successful cast. From

a casting perspective, it was a brilliant cast,

and really, there weren't a lot of people that

you knew in that cast, other than from this thing

here and there. So, you never know. taking a

chance on the newbies and seeing how they grow.

Absolutely. I don't know, Lost didn't really,

when it started it had two big stars. Well, at

least in the first season it did. It had... It

had mr. Party of five himself Little bit but

he was making you know, he was making the same

rate as everybody else and it's like, you know,

we everybody knows about Charlie and Kirsten

Honestly, I turned into loss for Dominic Monahan,

but I don't think Like, he was in Lord of the

Rings, but if you weren't a huge Lord of the

Rings fan, you really didn't think about the

people in it other than some of the Ming. You

weren't like, oh, that Hobbit, I'd watch a show

for him. No, I was obsessed with Lord of the

Rings, so I was like, I'm there. But I think,

you know, you wouldn't have had to, you wouldn't,

you wasn't making the big bucks for that either.

Yeah. The other big one I was thinking of was

Terry O 'Quinn for Lost, because once Terry O

'Quinn shows up in something, you're going to

remember a show that he's been in. I did not

even know Terry O 'Quinn until lost. No, I think

I must have, you know what I did? He was like

a jerk coach on the cutting edge or something.

I think that might have been my only, I mean,

his face looked familiar, but it wasn't somebody

that I had a strong association with for sure.

So, before we kind of rate this and get out of

here, exit stage left and all that, one thing

that's interesting to me is how they are labeling

the episodes. Have you seen this on Wikipedia?

I have. If you look at Wikipedia in the episode

list... And I noticed this in iTunes, and I'm

like, wait a minute, what's going on here? Because

once I saw it was on demand for the pilot, I'm

like, oh, then it's probably free on iTunes,

because usually they'll do that kind of thing

to promote the show. And they are doing it in

kind of computer speak, like episode one, it's

EPS. One dot zero underscore hello friend dot

M O V. Oh yeah. The second episode is EPS one

dot one underscore ones and zeros dot M peg and

they're doing all this text stuff with this is

going to be one of the most original shows of

the twenty fifteen twenty sixteen season. Yeah

it's that's the one lasting impression that I

think. I took away from the show was I really

hadn't seen anything like it at least and in

a very long time and especially for a USA show

I think it's particularly surprising because

they don't always start off with very inventive

concepts sometimes they grow into something that's

a little more inventive but it's kind of a little

bit play it safe for them fun enjoyable shows

that that uh yeah this one was very very unexpected

It really really was alright folks. We're gonna

take a quick ad break We'll be back in a moment

with our final rating and close out the show

after this with new reviews new up to the minute

news all new interviews and don't forget new

co -hosts bringing you the latest through the

hooniverse and beyond join us at the new mark

who 42 on the geekcast radio network mark who

42 the meaning of life Your real name's Rohit

Mehta. You changed it to Ron when you bought

your first Ron's coffee shop six years ago. Now

you got 17 of them, with eight more coming next

quarter. May I help you with something? I like

coming here, because your Wi -Fi was fast. I

mean, you're one of the few spots that has a

fiber connection with gigabit speed. It's good.

It's so good, it scratched that part of my mind.

The part that... Doesn't allow good to exist

without condition. So I started intercepting

all the traffic on your network That's when I

noticed something strange It's when I decided

to hack you All right, we are back and it is

time to head to the GCRN review Section where

we review and give a rating on the overall episode

so far for the pilot specifically Jen, what are

you going to rate Mr. Robot season one, episode

one? I think I'm going to go with the four star

really liked it because it was an incredible

experience, you know, but there's so much we

don't know yet about how the show will evolve

and how the other characters will evolve that

it can't go beyond a four star for me just yet.

But I think I think it was definitely solid enough

for You know, it was one of those things I had

to watch again because I was too involved while

watching it to really even rate it. So that says

something. It says it really sucked me into that

world and made me not really think about ratings

until I could watch it a second time, which is

excellent. So I'd say, yeah, four stars. Yeah.

And honestly with this show, I watched it two

times as well because Wanted to make sure I saw

every little aspect of the show and notice things

that You know, I might not have noticed on the

first watch through But it's pretty clear the

all safe. I mean that's that that's like and

it's actually in big blue letters. I mean come

on For me, I'm also gonna give it a four out

of five which is really liked it Like like Jen

said we don't know enough yet about the show.

We learned a lot about the main character and

about the potential You know plot that he's gonna

have to get into you know evil court versus F

society and all this and all that and whatever

else but a solid for it I had obviously worse,

you know, we're not even out of the summer season

yet We're not into the full -on fall TV season,

but I'm just gonna say it right now This is at

least in my top five for best new show Just saying

yeah, you don't know but I mean, this is a show

that I will probably watch until they eventually

either cancel it or end it or whatever, you know.

Unless it goes really downhill a la Heroes, I

think. Well, you know, they had to steal a Marvel

or a DC thing. Heroes Reborn. Talk about a show

that had no reason to be bad. Talk about a show

that had no reason to be back is really what

yeah, but I mean in the first place How does

the show about a bunch of superheroes that has

a great first season go so wrong? It's You know,

I honestly think it's network and how they I

really think that this about any part of television

at this point is when network decides to put

the show on break like if The perfect example

is you know white -collar. Let's say they had

their their full -on fifth season What was it

16 episodes? Let's say they had 10 out of the

16 done They'll air the first seven go on a three

-month break and then air the other you know

whatever That's really what I think kills shows

is the networks needing to put them on hiatus

or break I don't think it has anything to do

with the show unless the show like you said unless

it actually turns out to be bad, but With the

successful shows I think it comes down to network

brass and that sucks I mean I would have said

I didn't like I mean things are different a little

bit now because they're they're always used to

be you know the it's September to May and there's

Repeats here and there and there's a longer break

over Christmas and that's sometimes true for

us still a lot of the shows Sometimes they'll

choose to air a bunch in a row like they did

with 24 Which I like I agree that long breaks

in between aren't always good, but then you have

the AMC model, which works so well and it shouldn't

work so well, you know? It works with The Walking

Dead. It worked with Breaking Bad. And I think

it depends on the expectation of the audience

as well. It depends on they get used to knowing

that, hey, I'm going to watch seven episodes

of Mad Men and then I'm going to come back a

year later and watch seven more episodes, which

is crazy, but somehow it works. I don't know

how, but it does. I think part of that is if

if you can if if it's good enough that people

don't forget about it. Yo, buddy Missed you last

night. Where were you had to go a big meeting

today? Did you find out what happened? Yeah,

he said he was working Come on. You gotta talk

to him. We're gonna be like this afternoon He

can't stand me and you know why Angela I can't

have that kind of negativity in my life First

time you came to me I Didn't exactly come to

Krista. I was forced here, but I do like her

hacking her was simple her password Dylan 2791

Favorite artist in the year in which she was

born backwards Though she's a psychologist. She's

really bad at reading people, but I'm good at

reading people My secret I look for the worst

in them I know she went through a divorce four

years ago, I know she was devastated by it and

has been dating losers on eHarmony ever since.

Her most recent foray, Michael Hanson. I searched

for him online but nothing came up, no LinkedIn,

no Facebook, nothing. Something about him bugs

me, scratching that part of my mind again. But

I'll hack him soon enough, I always do. I know

you're not yelling like before, which is good.

But I can tell you're still holding on to it.

And we need to work on your anger issues, Elliot.

You're angry at everyone. At society. Society.

I know you have a lot to be angry about, but

keeping it to yourself and staying quiet like

you're doing, it's not going to help. People

get accustomed to the culture of certain networks

and certain types of shows. And so when you do

well on break, they accept that and it becomes

an anticipation thing. And then in other cases,

in a lot of broadcast shows, it's just sort of

people forget. They just forget they exist. Yeah,

it's it's crazy It is really crazy. Do you want

to? You want to do lunch today? Yeah, I got other

plans right that's what you said the last three

times I asked you look but you and Angela have

been close for a long time and that's even more

reason why I want us to be on good terms I Just

I feel like things have been awkward between

us Don't you? I'm okay with it being awkward

between us. Yeah, I'm not okay with that. Look,

man, I love Angela and I want us to get along

for her sake. That's what I'm here for. I don't

normally do stuff like this. Am I crazy not to

like this guy? Among some of his Facebook likes

are George W. Bush's decision points, Transformers

2, Revenge of the Fallen, and the music of Josh

Groban. Must I really justify myself any further?

So folks, coming up here on Remote Control for

the month of August, we just started, as you

heard in this episode, Jan and I talk about Mr.

Robot from USA Network. And coming up, because

this pilot premiere episode came ahead of time,

since the regular broadcast network stuff doesn't

start until September, October, potentially even

November. Through the end of July to the end

of August, we're going to be running our broadcast

network spotlight. What this is going to be is

one episode each, five episodes, the regular

numbered episodes of remote control, episode

one, two, three, four, and five. Each episode

is going to be dedicated to talking about the

history of each of the networks. So, ABC, CBS,

NBC, Fox, WB, UPN, CW, whatever they're calling

that network these days. You know, who knows?

That's an idea. Yeah, WB and UPN got together,

had a baby, and there you go, there's the CW.

That's basically what happened. Yeah. pretty

much um so in those episodes uh what we're going

to do is we are going to pretty much um we're

gonna go like we're gonna give you a history

lesson but it's not going to be a history lesson

where oh my god in 1967 this happened or 1975

this happened what it's gonna be is it's we'll

have five different topics i believe if i can

okay yeah We will have five total different topics

topics. We'll talk about the beginnings Topics

not toppings No, you can't have any ice cream.

It's too late. Yeah The first one will be beginnings

of each network so we will talk about how each

of them came about you know the and how i've

done this is uh, we're gonna start with abc cbs

nbc fox and the cw how i've done this with the

air date order of the podcast is ABC was the

first network in 1948 and then came CBS and NBC

and Fox and so on and so forth. The next topic

we'll talk about is what made the networks famous.

So was it news broadcasts? Was it a certain show?

Whatever. We'll also talk about the biggest successes

and failures of each network because none of

these five have had all successes. They've all

had Failures that we can talk about sure more

than the successes, I guess Yeah Good thing that

that that show about nothing didn't really go

away. I'm sorry And then we're going to this

is gonna be Difficult for some of the hosts.

We're gonna talk about we're gonna list our top

five favorite shows of each network. So each

host will come up with their own top five favorite

list. And I know that's hard to do considering

a lot of these networks have been around for

decades and decades. And then to kind of wrap

up each of these episodes, we'll talk about the

future of the network, where we see each one

going, where we hope to see it going, that kind

of thing. So that's what's coming up here in

remote control. Jen, you got anything you want

to pimp out before we get out of here? No, not

at this point. I do not. Yeah. No. Got no pimping

to do, unfortunately. Wasted opportunity. Where

can the good people interact with you if they

would like to? It's the best place, as always,

Twitter. I'm a super Twitter, Uber -obsessed

person, so at Kit Couch Potato on Twitter is

where you'll find me. All right, folks. So coming

up next is Remote Control Episode 1, where we

will be talking about the American Broadcasting

Company. We will catch you then. Remember, keep

fighting over that remote control. Thank you

for tuning into Remote Control. There are several

ways to get in contact with us and leave feedback

for the show. You can visit the website GeekCastRadio

.com. You can email us feedback at GeekCastRadio

.com. You can leave us feedback in iTunes. Follow

us on Twitter at GeekCastRadio. You can become

a fan of us on Facebook by searching GeekCastRadio

Network. Call the voicemail line. Tell us the

show you're leaving the message for and your

name. 502 -526 -5821. We hope you enjoyed the

latest episode of Remote Control in which...

that you'll tune in next time to hear what TV

topic we'll be talking about. Get those remotes

ready because we are all remote controlled. As

you are, Elliot.