Pointy Vee Cast 006 - Why Phasma Wasn't a Wasted Character

Deep dives into television and movies

Episode Notes

Excerpt:There is this popular belief that somehow Captain Phasma was "wasted" as a character in the Last Jedi. The truth is that she was never a unique character to begin with, even in the Force Awakens. In fact, I would further that argument and even go as far as to say that the Last Jedi redeemed her role in the new trilogy. Now before the internet gets their pitchforks and torches ready, hopefully people will hear me out and end up with a greater appreciation for the more human elements that the new trilogy barely managed to portray.

Let's start by observing carefully how Phasma is actually portrayed in the Force Awakens. Phasma first appears in the movie around eight minutes in and her first lines are, "Sir, the villagers." To which Kylo replies, "Kill them all" in a rather dramatic fashion. "On my command. Fire." Phasma replies. This is same introductory scene for the character of Finn (FN2187) as well, where he chooses not to fire upon the civilians.

This is the entirety of Phasma's introduction as a character. All we can glean from what the movie actually shows us is that she has shiny armor, and therefore must be a Storm Trooper of some standing. Movies typically give masked characters of some importance in the script a distinguishing mark so they are easily identifiable, such as the blood on Finn's helmet, or in Phasma's case, an entire suit of shiny armor.

Full Writeup: https://pointyhatcast.com/2020/03/05/captain-phasmas-wasnt-a-wasted-character/

Pointy Vee Cast 005 - Mr Robot S01E04 - Exorcising Daemons

Deep dives into television

Episode Notes

Excerpt:I'm going to do something a little different than usual from summarizing the entire episode and adding some commentary. I would like to shift the entire focus of this post to the hallucination Elliot has while suffering from withdrawal from his morphine addiction. There will be spoilers, including events leading up to the end of season four, so be forewarned. Also I would like to credit redditors here for some of the more obscure information, including users bwandering and one user that was deleted.

Before we start, here is a brief synopsis of what happens in this episode. Elliot and crew start their heist to break into Steel Mountain in order to hack their climate control system. Once hacked, they can remotely raise the temperature on the storage facilities containing Evil Corp's physical tape backups. The tapes will be rendered useless in higher temperatures. Evil Corp, however, has put into motion their own plan to make backups of their tapes and ship them to four new locations in the matter of just a few days. Knowing they don't have time to spare, Elliot moves up the execution of the plan to that day. On their way to Steel Mountain, Elliot suffers severe withdrawal symptoms and the team is forced to stop and help Elliot recover. He goes through a very surreal series of hallucinations but recovers at the end. The episode ends with Angela inserting the CD from the Dark Army into Ollie's computer, unbeknownst to him.

I really appreciate the amount of effort and artistry put into the script of Mr. Robot because upon rewatching the show, I notice how neatly each episode fits within the other, and how every episode seems to have something to offer on multiple levels. Episode four stuck out to me in that there seemed to be no real theme or emotional thread that seemed obvious. What did stand out to me was the hallucination scene because of how strange and surreal it was. It seemed a little out of place and almost a little out of character.

Full Write Up: https://pointyhatcast.com/?p=117

Pointy Vee Cast 004 - Mr. Robot S01E03 - Debug

Deep dives into television

Episode Notes

  • Created by Sam Esmail. Season 1, Episode 3 released on July 8, 2015 (USA)
  • Written by Sam Esmail, Directed by Jim Mckay
  • Starring Rami Malek, Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallstrom, Christian Slater, Gloria Reuben and many more.
  • Full Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4730002/fullcredits/

Excerpt: At first glance, Mr. Robot may seem to be your typical drama-thriller about hackers with elements of mystery, intrigue, thrills, and drama surrounding it's cast of broken characters. It is, however, first and foremost a story about the human condition as explored through Elliot. The reason why I appreciate and love the first season of Mr. Robot is that every episode gives more insight into the character of Elliot upon repeated viewings. There is an incredible level of depth in seemingly inconsequential lines of dialogue and scenes. Once you know the entirety of Elliot's story and character, the story opens up and lets the viewer take an introspective and retrospective glance at Elliot's life through his perspective.

I'm going to try and keep this episode as spoiler free as possible but I would like to go over some of the insights this episode gives us into the character of Elliot and his raison d'etre.

Episode three is titled "Debug" and rightfully so. It may appear to be a seemingly insignificant episode with not much happening besides setting up plot elements for later development as the season progresses. However, this episode gives us a greater look into the character of Elliot and the reason for his existence, as well as that of Mr. Robot's.

Full Write Up: https://pointyhatcast.com/?p=87

Pointy Vee Cast 003 - Mr. Robot S01E02 - Ones and Zeroes

Deep dives into television

Episode Notes

Excerpt: Episode two starts off where episode one left off, with Elliot meeting Tyrell Wellick and his team of corporate lawyers sitting at a round table. It is kind of humorous to note here the extravagantly bloated and inefficient corporate structure of Evil Corp. One man needed eleven lawyers to make sure that Mister Wellick did not do anything that would make him liable for any potential lawsuits.

Tyrell makes a dramatic introduction with a foreboding quote, "Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. But give a man a bank and he can rob the world." He continues the theatrics as he explains his line of reasoning reflected by the quote; the will to take is the only thing that guarantees power and success regardless of hard work or skill.

Here he offers Elliot (unofficially) a very lucrative position at Evil Corp's cyber security division. What Elliot assumed to be a kidnapping was in fact a secretive job offer. The secrecy was necessary as what Tyrell was doing was technically illegal due to previous arrangements with Allsafe.

Pointy Vee Cast 002 - Star Wars IX: Rise of Skywalker Review

Deep dives into television and movies

Episode Notes

Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker

-Released on December 20, 2019 (USA) -Directed by J. J. Abrams -Written by Chris Terrio, J. J. Abrams -Starring Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Domhnall Gleeson, and many more

Review Link: https://pointyhatcast.com/?p=57

Excerpt

Star Wars IX: Rise of Skywalker is emblematic of why poor movies are produced when the wrong directors are hired and more focus testing than necessary is conducted. Rise of Skywalker contains nothing that made the Star Wars universe, and the characters living in it, so beloved and treasured throughout the world.

As a movie watched solely for entertainment and watched only once, it is fairly serviceable, but that is as far as it goes as a work of cinema. It is jammed pack with beautifully shot and edited action sequences that don't show any sign of slowing. One action sequence leads to another with only small breaks in between to introduce new characters. Sometimes a character may tell the audience what is happening. While entertaining, there is nothing of weight in these scenes. A lot of action is happening on screen but in reality none of it is actually important nor does it lead to anything important.

Pointy Vee Cast 001 - Mr. Robot S01E01 - Hello Friend

Deep dives into television

Episode Notes

Created by Sam Esmail. Season 1, Episode 1 released on June 24, 2015 (USA) Written by Sam Esmail, Directed by Niels Arden Oplev Starring Rami Malek, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallstrom, Christian Slater, and more. Full Credits: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4652838/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

Mr. Robot is a drama/thriller about a young hacker named Elliot Anderson, played by Rami Malek, who is deeply disillusioned with how people are being enslaved by debt. To compound the issue, people are choosing to run away instead of face the problem cementing the cycle of enslavement to the economy.