I listed both: "Season One of Mr. Robot takes heavily from Fight Club, American Psycho, The Sixth Sense, The Matrix and even American Beauty."
There are two iconic moments (as well as lots of character traits) that Esmail ripped from Annette Benning's character in American Beauty and gave to Tyrell Wellick. One is when she is rehearsing her pitch out loud to herself and the second is when she slaps herself hard, in the face, out of dissatisfaction with herself. Yes, Tyrell Wellick is two parts Patrick Bateman, but he is also one part Carolyn Burnham. It's weak, this sort of thievery. And what you're saying about "The true list of projects that inspired Mr. Robot is much longer," just confirms how bad it is. Esmail can't mitigate being an uninspired plagiarist by releasing a long list of all the projects he ripped off.
Like I said: There's inspiration and then there's just plain taking.
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steffeeric
8 years ago
Carolyn Burnham certainly didn't invent rehearsing your pitch out loud...I remember Molly Ringwald's character in Sixteen candles doing that back in 1983 before she was going to introduce herself to Jake.
As for slapping yourself in the face in dissatisfaction...I'd imagine that had been done before too...and continues to be.
Apparently American Beauty ripped off Sixteen Candles.
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