Thursday, September 3, 2015

"Mr. Robot" Is Really Not That Much Like "Fight Club"

Finally a suspense thriller that’s not preoccupied with male genitalia! (No spoilers for the Mr. Robot finale; some for the 16-year-old movie.)

20th Century Fox / Via bustle.com

Many parallels have been drawn between the USA series Mr. Robot and the movie Fight Club — by critics and the show's creator himself — but few have noted that the former loves women while the latter hates them. It's repeated several times in the film that the first rule of Fight Club is that you do not talk about Fight Club, but the first rule of Fight Club is probably more like "no bitches" — such an obvious rule that it doesn't even need to be stated.

Mr. Robot, on the contrary, is replete with female characters. It is true that the series, which had its first season finale on Sept. 2, has a number of similarities to Fight Club: A male main character who has a Hollywood version of dissociative identity disorder and a heroic image of himself; a scheme to erase debt; that Pixies song. But the show is fundamentally smarter than the 1999 David Fincher film: Elliot (Rami Malek) is a man, yes, but his problem is not rooted in being feminized. Elliot doesn't complain about knowing what a duvet is; he doesn't bemoan being part of "a generation of men raised by women" like Tyler (Brad Pitt) does; it is impossible to imagine Elliot saying that a brutal fistfight allows him to know himself.

There are a lot of bad things that could happen in Mr. Robot's world, but the worst might be "a deep and profound alienation from everyone around you."

There are a lot of bad things that could happen in Mr. Robot's world, but the worst might be "a deep and profound alienation from everyone around you."

USA

There are a lot of bad things that could happen in Fight Club's world, but the worst is definitely "getting your penis or testicles cut off."

There are a lot of bad things that could happen in Fight Club's world, but the worst is definitely "getting your penis or testicles cut off."

20th Century Fox


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