Television Review: Mr. Robot (season 1, 2015)

2008 global financial crash had many serious consequences for today’s world, including the rising social and economic inequality which began to affected younger generations the most. This reflected in growing anti-capitalist sentiment and populist movements like Occupy Wall Street, phenomena that American film and television industry couldn’t ignore. One of the works that takes inspiration from them in a more radical and explicit way is television show Mr. Robot. The first season, aired in 2015, introduces us to the protagonist – young New York IT expert Eliot Anderson (played by Rami Malek), who lives a double. By day he earns a living in computer security company, while by night he uses his hacking skills for part-time vigilante actions against various evildoers. This brings attention of Fsociety, small hacktivist group whose leader Mr. Robot (played by Christian Slater) has hatched an ambitious plan to strike at the very heart of global capitalism. Their target is Ecorp, all-powerful multinational corporation that keeps financial data of all major business institutions in the world. The plan is to erase that data and thus make billions of people in the world debt-free. Eliot is recruited, but while he works on the plan, he must also face some personal demons like morphine addiction and complicated relationship with a co-worker Angela Moss (played by Portia Doubleday). In the meantime, Ecorp itself becomes battleground in a corporate power struggle which includes Tyrell Wellick (played by Martin Wallström), young, digital-savvy and ruthless executive.

First season of Mr. Robot is somewhat unusual even for today’s television standards, because it looks less like a typical television drama and more like a feature film by a single author. This isn’t surprising, because it was conceived as such by show’s creator Sam Esmail, who was inspired both by his own work in IT industry and the events of Arab Spring, in which few Internet-savvy youths played important parts in starting revolutions. A lot of plot elements are borrowed from real life – with Fsociety standing for Anonymous and Ecorp standing for Enron – while others look inspired by Fight Club, at times too much. General style of the show, however, owe much to Stanley Kubrick and his cold perfectionist ways of directing.

The greatest asset of the Mr. Robot in the first season is the cast. Malek is wonderful in the role of deeply confused protagonist, while middle-aged Slater in his role convincingly recreates teen rebel characters he has played in the early parts of his career. Doubleday and Wällstrom are also very good in their respectable roles, but the most pleasant surprise is Carly Chalkin whose talent elevates otherwise thankless and cliched role of punkish female hacker. Although the ending happens to be anticlimactic, and although obligatory cliffhanger at the end looks too convenient, first season of Mr. Robot deserves recommendation.
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Starring: Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chalkin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wällstrom
Created by: Sam Esmail
Number of episodes: 10

Pro: excellent cast, impressive style and atmosphere
Contra: too much character cliches, lack of originality anticlimactic ending, irritating cliffhanger
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RATING: 7/10