Board 8 > The Best Show No One Ever Talks About - Mr. Robot (light early small spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Seriously, I never see this show mentioned too often, I know it does have plenty of acclaim of course, but in general talks where I frequent it just never comes up really. I'm on the last stretch of episodes, and this show has been an absolute delight from front to back.

Mr. Robot is a show about Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer by day, a hacktivist and vigilante by night, who deals with constant social anxiety, feelings of loneliness, depression, and struggles with his own identity. He wants to make a splash, a dent in the corporate evils of the world, and so he's coerced into joining a hacker group called Fsociety to bring his smaller visions into a grandeur plot to truly shake up and turn the world upside down. Now at first, you might be annoyed with how on the nose and blunt everything might seem, and the characters can even seem obnoxious and self-righteous, but it's all to service to the show's first huge twist and from there each character blossoms into their own complex individual that quickly break away from their initial one-note personality traits to weave an intricate web of trauma, triumph and emotions that keeps leaving wanting to dig deeper and deeper into what makes these characters tick.

Mr. Robot is of course a political series - modern in its approach and prescient to current events. It presents several perspectives, conservative, liberal, socialist, anarchist - characters present their viewpoints usually through monologue but their beliefs tend to be challenged by others and does leave ambiguity open for you to choose a side with (a participant aspect of the show I'll get into next). One clear thing is Mr. Robot as a whole is definitely critical of wealth, big companies, and internet age surveillance, spying, and privacy on both sides - it usually sees E-Corp (an Apple/Google-esque entity) and Elliot as two sides of the same coin - both intrude on your personal lives, and Elliot may seem like a hero for what he does, but two wrongs don't make a right and as the show unfolds and evolves, Elliot's actions are shown more and more in a villainous light and it becomes clear his methods are not truly what the world needs.

What I think Mr. Robot does best, however, is confront the viewer with their sense of morality and control. It does what I've always wanted to see in a show after being used so effectively in video game format so often - using psychological tricks to disorient the viewer and make them an active character in the show's events and proceedings. New twists every couple of episodes constantly redefine your perspective, recontextualizing whole seasons all the way back to the start. I've never felt so involved watching a television series before - not only does it demand constant attention with miniscule attention to detail, but Elliot always talks to you, confides in you, trusts in you (or not), demands your input, and you, a silent observer, can feel helpless or even intrusive, turning Elliot's greatest tools against him - again going back to that feeling of control, having power, or lacking it, as grander machinations leave you like a marionette attached to the puppeteer's strings either way and laughs at your believing you ever had a choice to begin with. Touches of psychological horror makes you feel even more powerless - as events spiral out of control, even for characters you thought untouchable, fear stricken into the hearts of the most steadfast and brave individuals, you start to question your own life and the way its controlled and managed by the people in it and perhaps above it.

The show wouldn't be as thrillingly captivating without its dazzling camera work. The show's cinematic ambitious are proven justified time and time again especially once the show really takes off in S2 and beyond. Off-kilter shots again play into that psychological aspect, while the camera follows closely and steadily when occasional bursts of violent carnage occur, showing gruesome detail to remind you of the high stakes at play. S3 and S4 ESPECIALLY get flashy, with one episode even presented as one continuous shot (and I will never not love something like that).

I highly recommend this show, and though I haven't finished, I feel confident knowing they will stick the landing as they have so thoroughly stuck everything else. Every episode just leaves me feeling breathless and with so many thoughts running my head and I love it as one of my favorite TV experiences I've had in a while. So if you've ever thought about giving it a shot or never even heard of it, I hope I could convince you to start it up ASAP!

I liked the first season quite a bit, but while the later seasons have great episodes from time to time (like the continuous shot episode), they never felt as consistently good to me. The ending especially was pretty weak.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Seriously, I never see this show mentioned too often, I know it does have plenty of acclaim of course, but in general talks where I frequent it just never comes up really. I'm on the last stretch of episodes, and this show has been an absolute delight from front to back.

It's my all-time favorite show. I talked about it a bit when it was airing but never found much traction beyond the couple of us who seemed to be watching it so I don't make a big fuss about it unless prompted.

because it is the GOAT.

Snake5555555555 posted...

Now at first, you might be annoyed with how on the nose and blunt everything might seem

See, it sounds that way now - and sure it sorta was at the time too (remember it debuted in 2015), but it kept accidentally getting shit right too lol. Like a lot of major hacks were happening as it aired. LOL, I think the Ashley Madison one that gets referenced in the show at one point happened like days before the episode aired and was just dubbed in last second because filming had obviously long concluded. Not to say it was predictive but a surprising amount of stuff in the show to a present viewer hadn't actually happened yet at time of filming and either happened like after it concluded or shortly after it aired lol.

Also one of the rare shows that gets hacking right instead of it being techno-magic. They had cybersecurity experts on staff to make sure they got the techniques and coding correct.

Snake5555555555 posted...

The show wouldn't be as thrillingly captivating without its dazzling camera work. The show's cinematic ambitious are proven justified time and time again especially once the show really takes off in S2 and beyond. Off-kilter shots again play into that psychological aspect, while the camera follows closely and steadily when occasional bursts of violent carnage occur, showing gruesome detail to remind you of the high stakes at play. S3 and S4 ESPECIALLY get flashy, with one episode even presented as one continuous shot (and I will never not love something like that).

100%. The camera work is out of this world. It's so, so good with the empty space and that presented as one shot episode is nuts.

Maybe one day I'll go back and finish season 2

xp1337 posted...

Also one of the rare shows that gets hacking right instead of it being techno-magic. They had cybersecurity experts on staff to make sure they got the techniques and coding correct.

Oh yes, I did want to mention that! Like I don't know the first thing about hacking really but I had a sneaking suspicion it was pretty much close to accurate. And the show still manages to make it engaging without resorting to that magic too.

And that's pretty crazy about the real life stuff, yeah. I do have to keep reminding myself of the time this show came out, especially since 2015 feels so strangely long ago, because it just feels that modern and ahead-of-the-curve, I guess you can say.

bump for this amazing show

I watched Mr. Robot last year and definitely enjoyed it. The later seasons had some really great episodes, like the one that was made to look like a continuous shot while so much chaos was going on, one where there was no dialogue, and one that was like a stage play set in a few rooms.

I agree with Mac that the ending was weak, though.

i remember season 1 bring fairly enjoyable but didn't feel any real desire to keep going. might spin it up again at some point. what's it stream on?

I tried watching it a couple months ago but could not get past episode 6 or so. I found the main character to be really irritating and unsympathetic, and the premise was a little too cynical for me.

I could see myself trying it again somewhere down the line, but it's not a priority.

SeabassDebeste posted...

i remember season 1 bring fairly enjoyable but didn't feel any real desire to keep going. might spin it up again at some point. what's it stream on?

I watched it on Amazon Prime

I watched the first two seasons and some of the third but don't remember exactly where I stopped. I loved the first season and enjoyed the rest but I think it list my attention somewhere along the way? I do eventually want to go back and finish it though

Not so much a discussion about the show itself, more about the first 8 words of the topic title so ignore the first part if it derails what you're trying to discuss.
Mr Robot's S1 was heavily discussed and hyped at the time, i think i found out about it because it beat Netflix's Daredevil for best new show of 2015(?) on Reddit's tv subreddit. Not that impressive in hindsight but very impressive at the time due to how hot Netflix originals and the MCU were at the time, and how the first series of Daredevil lived up to that hype.
The first half of S2 cooled it down a lot though, that part is a lot better to marathon than it was to watch weekly. The pace is very slow compared to S1 and it feels very repetitive until the prison reveal.
Still, i think describing it as a show that no one talks about is waay too far, would put it around the same level as stuff like Fargo and The Leftovers in terms how it was received and the following it has. Would probably give that title to something like Kingdom or Line of Duty.

Full on agree with the cinematography and camera work, there's a fairly unimportant scene early on in series 2 where some rich guy whose working with the police has to put on the Mr Robot mask and burn a load of money in a park at night while Phil Collins plays in the background. Don't even remember the full context of that scene (think it may have been the opening or closing scene of an episode), but fuck me has it stayed with me. Beautifully shot and edited.

I loved Mr Robot but all of my friends I was watching with did lose interest at the beginning of Season 2 (like most people). Yes the pace was slow but I think they also spent WAY too much time on the storyline with Tyrell's wife.

Also my biggest critique of the show is how badly they used Tyrell. He's great in Season 1 then has a total of like 5 episodes where he appears for the rest of the series. It makes no sense. I wouldn't be surprised if his wife gets more screen time than him!

It was a bit of purposeful flagrant clickbait on my part TBH!

I fucking loved it, but (ending spoilers): I hated what whiterose's ultimate plan was. It was too ambiguous and didn't earn credibility. If we had seen more evidence of it working, or being permanent, but the second you kinda understand what it can do (put's people's minds into an alternate reality), they destroy it. Whiterose killed herself for something that was undone seemingly in the same day? I dunno, man. That was a bummer, because she was so fucking badass until that.