4 out of 5

Created by: Sam Esmail

covers season 1

Here’s something: a show with a ‘thing’ – technology, in this case – and a plot twist that, while heavily invested in its topic, doesn’t exist in service to it, and while the twist is key to going-ons, the series is not ruined if, as many did, you put the pieces together early on.  This sets it apart from another tech-obsessed show, Person of Interest, which, as it has delved more deeply into its dealings with AI its increasingly struggled to remain ‘relevant’ while still developing a show mythology, and from a particular piece of media to which Mr. Robot was compared as soon as people had guesses about its twist (which I’ll leave unnamed as specifying it is essentially a spoiler), as, in that case, the whole production is about the twist and the Wow Factor involved in its reveal.  How does it achieve this?  By being about character.

Elliot (Rami Malek) is a paranoid hacker supreme, working days at a data security company and spending nights filtering through meta-data of the world around him, covering his own tracks, staying high on morphine to combat his overwhelming feelings of isolation from the world.  The show initially tries a bit too hard to flaunt its awareness, speaking loud and clear with Occupy mentalities and spitting Linux terminology at us, and when Elliot gets conscripted by the mysterious Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) to join a ring of like-minded folks called ‘fsociety’ – an obvious Anonymous proxy – to take down the nicknamed their-brand-is-everywhere Evil Corp, the show almost goes too far with its rah-rah down-with-Capitalism theatrics.  Almost.  It toes the line, and Esmail and Malek keeped us confined by the confusion that surrounds our lead, Elliot.  His mission is important, and episode to episode take us step by step through the process and its complications – thankfully growing more relaxed and less forceful with the tech-talk, which makes it seem more natural – from which we derive some thrilling bursts of espionage-action; but it’s Elliot’s mental shattering that occurs during this process that really makes it worthwhile, and valuable television, Malek bringing to life that sensation of being unable to relate to anyone, anything to which, ironically, most of us can probably relate.  Addressing the viewer directly, Elliot continually questions the why behind all of it, completely unsure of his own motivations, and it’s the perfect parallel to what otherwise would have been hipter-baiting sloganism.

The visuals are also astounding.  It’s a very flat look, very ugly – excepting the big money locations, which are purposefully bleep-bloppy and sleek – and very natural.  It’s not sexy stylized.  Elliot’s eyes are always sleep-deprived, the man attired, always, in a simple hoodie and jeans; Mr. Robot in a ratty cap and workman’s uniform; fsociety members similarly ratty and human.  The titles, 80s inspired, creep eerily into each episode.  The music is sudden and stirring and lacking in thematic BOOMs that we’ve used to substitute for drama.  It’s very literally not a look you’ve seen before, and not something you’d expect on television, especially USA.

With the first season bringing a goal of fsociety to a close, similarly bringing us full circle with Elliot’s mental wanderings, the last episode has the chore of putting us somewhere that can go to another season.  Which it does, but in an imbalanced way that echoes a slight imbalance rumbling beneath the whole season: basically, it’s us asking the question of And Then What?  Let’s say fsociety does what they say they will; Then What?  On the surface, there’s much questioning of Why, and we’re allowed the deft distraction of Elliot’s struggles to answer this.  But Mr. Robot the show chooses to answer that larger question by not delaying things behind a false cliffhanger.  Matters are, by and large, resolved, and we can now fully focus on the show’s main strength: its characters.

Which should provide for some deeper stuff, hoping the creators can keep the writing as patient as it was for this first season.