Movies & TV

It's funny you mention the bread & lottery scene because I disliked it initially, but have come to enjoy it as a nice piece of characterisation. I think I was apprehensive about the show, so anything that could be read negatively was.
But another reading is that the recruiter guy is copying his masters to validate himself. He needs to feel that he is in control and above "the trash". The bread & lottery was just something he did, it was unrelated to his job. Of course most people would pick a lottery ticket unless you're literally starving you're not gonna go for a cheap, shitty, potentially poisonous (too old or other stuff) snack, you're gonna go for something that has a pretty decent chance of being worth 5$. But the recruiter feels like his half-assed copy of the games proves something, makes him less alienated. That's why the "dog" comment gets to him.

I didn't mind that the recruiter shot himself, but I really minded that the show felt the need to establish the protagonist as being "special". I feel like him struggling with the fact that he just got lucky was a large part of the ending of the original.