FFS Watch This: Mr. Robot

I’ve been binge watching Mr. Robot this past weekend. It’s a great show, and even though I haven’t watched many of the other new shows that came out this summer (Sense 8, OITNB, True Detective, etc.) I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said that this is one of the best.

The show follows Eliot, an experienced and skilled cyber-security engineer, who spends his free time being a hacker vigilante. The first episode paints him to be an autistic genius with a “controlled” morphine addiction who uses his talents and knowledge to put bad guys in jail. It’s pretty much Dexter meets IT Crowd meets Sherlock Holmes.

Early on in the first episode he’s approached by Mr. Robot, a forty-something techy who is hellbent on taking down The Man, The System, the evil bank, the omnipresent conglomerate that makes cellphones and laptops, sells insurance, has it’s own bank, and generally makes the lives of the lower, and lower-middle class miserable. The company is called E Corp, but pretty much everyone refers to it as Evil Corp. We very soon find out that Evil Corp caused the death of Eliot’s father.

Mr. Robot’s genius plan is to delete all of the data owned by Evil Corp, thereby freeing every inhabitant of America (and the rest of the world) from their debt. The anarchy that will ensue from that is seen as a casualty of a war worth having.

Like I said, this show is what Dexter would be if Dexter was a hacker. It’s dark, there are a lot of voice-overs, and the show doesn’t treat it’s audience like they’re idiots (which is unusual for shows/movies that have scenes of somebody hacking somebody). There are many other crossovers and references, but I would spoil the show if I gave them away. Suffice it to say that if you notice an obvious reference/source material, it will be acknowledged. The show runner really isn’t hiding where his well of inspiration is.

The Ashley Madison leak is mentioned (however briefly), and the show is deeply rooted in the reality that we live in today. If Google gave out insurance and banking services, this show would be eerily creepy and too relevant.

It’s so good. The show starts off at a pretty quick pace (they don’t mess around with introducing the main story arc), but it just gets more and more intense with every episode. There are few cliffhangers, and yet you never have to think about whether you want to see the next episode. You do.

According to the show’s creator, it’s meant to run for 5 seasons. Before the pilot was even made, USA picked the show up for two seasons, so you can bet that it’s going to be an exciting experience.