Mr. Robot (Season 1)

By: Robert Murphy


In today's world, people rely on electronics for just about everything, we use it for our jobs, to keep track of our money, we trust it to keep us safe but in many ways it makes us more vulnerable than ever. Everyone is tweeting, Facebooking and letting out their inner most personal information and for some all it takes is a few moments and they have your entire life in the palm of their hand. For hacker Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) all it takes is a few clicks and a little clever manipulation and he has all the information he needs but he typically uses anything he finds for the greater good. This holds especially true as he and a group of other high level hackers attempt to free the world from technologies hold on everyone and hack the world. 

Okay, I may have dramatized all that a bit but that doesn't make Elliot's story any less interesting to follow once you start to get to know him. Elliot suffers from many different quirks and not all of them are minor such as his issues with human contact like hugging or touching. No, Elliot has many more disturbing issues that lie beneath the surface such as the belief that he is being followed by men in black suits or his talking to an imaginary friend. The engaging part about that is that we're the imaginary friend. There is a fair chunk of internal monologue throughout the story as Elliot bounces ideas off of himself as well as those of us who are watching. His character invites us in, says hello to us and even made me feel like answering his questions like some bizarre Dora the Explorer episode. 

This is due in large part to Rami Malek who just got done playing a similar psychologically disturbed character with his voice over role in Until Dawn and while they both share a fractured state, Malek's role in Mr. Robot shows his skills as an actor much more thoroughly. His performance is so much dead pan as it is unwavering and precise in what it is his character is going through in each scene, moments of genuine confusion occur for Elliot more than once throughout the show and when he feels it he makes the audience feel it too. Every emotion is displayed perfectly and in a manor that made a character like Elliot insanely likable which is rare considering the type of person he is wouldn't usually make a great main character but Malek makes Elliot a great main character to watch.

Moments where Elliot's character may have appeared to light of a punch are complimented by the other lead for Mr. Robot by Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) himself. Founder of the FSociety group that Elliot now finds himself in, Mr. Robot was a say what he wants type of character which would make you think that he and Elliot would not get along whatsoever but the two work wonderfully together. The reasons behind this proves to be a big twist for the first season later on but nevertheless he serves to bring Elliot out of his shell and bring to light many of the hard hitting issues for the series like big corporate corruption, specifically when it came to a group known as E Corp.

E Corp or Evil Corp as it becomes aptly named thanks to Elliot's mind filtering out their actual name to the audience is the group that FSociety and mainly Mr. Robot wants to take down. Their's was a group that had their name and image on just about everything you could think of across the world and the way the show presents the group makes you really want them to be crushed as they ruthlessly lord their power over everyone. Elliot's main reasons for wanting to take down this group don't get revealed till later on but this journey he embarks on with FSociety also serves to deepen the enjoyment of him as a character. Right from the get go you knew Elliot wasn't your normal main character as I've said but by the end of all of the first seasons twists and turns you don't need him to be anymore.

It is easier to understand some of the other side characters for the show due to the fact that they're meant to be more of the average sort of person, the people who are forced to go along with things like Evil Corp and are enslaved by the hold of money and technology. Elliot's childhood friend Angela (Portia Doubleday) was perhaps the most watchable among these characters. She suffered from immense debt due to student loans and fell into a later role that I never would have expected from her to end up in but it certainly spells interesting points for her and Elliot's relationship. Not all the side characters proved to be so relatable though as Elliot's dealings with Evil Corp grew so did his connections to Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallstrom) who you could never get a read on. One minute he was a corporate climbing sleazeball like the rest and then the next minute he's going off an punching homeless guys. His performance was all over the map and while I saw and interesting correlation between him and Mr. Robot, I never saw the point or appeal in his off the wall character.

Mr. Robot's first season held nothing back and on so many levels I am grateful for that. There weren't too many lighthearted or softer moments to the series and the showrunners never shied away from that fact but I feel if they had tried to make things softer in their approach than everything wouldn't have been delivered so well. For a USA series this is all especially shocking but whatever the case things wrapped up quite interestingly for the first season. The effects of what FSociety does has already begun to show signs that there will be some even darker clouds in the second season but as to what will happen to Elliot and the rest of the cast, I am left here eagerly waiting. 

Good:

- Rami Malek as Elliot

- The dialogue is something new and bizarre but handled well

- A much more realistic view on hacking and today's society

Bad:

- Some side characters don't pan out especially Tyrell Wellick

Scully Rating: 8.9 out of 10