With all the advances in technology over the past decade, our society has shifted its power over to those who are better versed in programming and understanding these new machines than it ever has before.
When we think of what drives our country, we used to think of businesspeople in conference rooms, making decisions and trying to figure out how to make people’s lives easier. Now that image can be replaced by someone sitting in front of a computer, typing out a code that will revolutionize our future.
Regardless if you love or hate how things are done now, you have to admit that it’s at least interesting to think about. Combine that new image with a complex and fascinating character and what do you get? You get Mr. Robot.
Created by Sam Esmail, and now two seasons into its run, Mr. Robot centers on a cybersecurity engineer named “Elliot,” a man suffering from severe depression and social anxiety, as he is persuaded to join a secret group of hackers that want to bring down “E Corp.,” an evil company with its hands in shadier areas than the general public knows.
Rami Malek stars as Elliot, with Christian Slater and Portia Doubleday playing the leaders of the hacker group “F Society” and Elliot’s best friend respectively.
The show begins and ends with Elliot, and the relatively unknown Malek plays him brilliantly. Elliot is fascinating even while not being tremendously original. He’s a savant with an addiction and a dark side like “Sherlock Holmes”or “Dr. House” from House. This idea actually sums up the majority of the show, as it’s engrossing but an educated audience can probably guess some of the bigger reveals. But, the journey to those reveals is well worth traveling, with enough side plots and twists to keep you on your toes.
But back to Malek, who won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in 2016, as he is the key to the entire show. There’s something about Malek’s understanding of Elliot as an outcast that makes him immensely watchable, and he even has a somewhat off look to his appearance that only enhances his appeal. Slater, Doubleday and the rest of the supporting cast are good as well, but pale in comparison to the show’s main character.
If Malek’s Elliot is half of the show’s appeal, then the direction is the other. Like Elliot, the scenes are filmed a little bit off-kilter, enough so that you’ll notice. The writing isn’t bad, but if you wanted to mute the audio and just watch the visuals, the show would be just as good. Spoiler alert, the writing can seem a little too familiar especially if you’ve seen Fight Club.
The computer talk can get a little too monotonous, but even if the plot winds up exactly where you thought it would, the journey of how Elliot gets there is well worth watching.
The first season of Mr. Robot is free to stream with an Amazon Prime subscription, but be warned in advance that you’ll need to look elsewhere to pick up the show in season two.
Fortunately though, it’s worth the trouble.
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