‘Mr. Robot’ Best New Thriller Of Summer
Mr. Robot, a new tech thriller that is coming to USA on June 24th at 10pm, deals with Rami Malek as Elliot (The Pacific). He’s a tech wizard at a security firm that looks over cyber security for one of the biggest companies in the world, but by night he is an Internet vigilante that exposes criminals that deal in awful deeds on the web.
In the past few years, I mostly gave up watching network TV and most cable stations. The USA Network has had many shows that I loved to watch (Psych, Burn Notice, Monk), but none of them really pushed the envelope to the point where you stop and think about what has gotten you to this point in your life. Chances are that you had to go to college to get a degree that would say you’re qualified for a position you could’ve probably from Googling. Now, you have the job you want, but the only reason you got the job was because you spent thousands of dollars to get a piece of paper. Your life is now spent using that job to pay back the loans it took for you to get the degree to get that job. That’s a big part of what the show is about, but on a grander scale.
The moment that really hooked me onto this show was a line of dialogue that is better than most dialogue you hear in any show on television. His therapist asks Elliot why he hates society so much, and he responds:
“Why I hate society? Is it that we collectively thought Steve Jobs was a great man even though we knew he made billions off the backs of children? Or maybe it’s that it feels like all our heroes are counterfeit? The world itself’s just one big hoax? Spamming each other with our running commentary of bullshit masquerading as insight. Our social media faking as intimacy. Or is it that we voted for this? Not with our rigged elections, but our things, our property, our money. I’m not saying anything new. We all know why we do this, not because Hunger Games books make us happy but because we want to be sedated. Because it’s painful not to pretend. Because we’re cowards… F*ck society.” – Elliot
He soon encounters a man going by the name of Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) who opens Elliot’s eyes to a new world of possibilities. As I suspect, there is way more under the surface of Mr. Robot then he leads on, obviously. He makes valid points with just about everything he says, but no matter how valiant and trustworthy a person seems, you can’t really trust anyone in a show like this. Remember how convincing Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) started off in Fight Club? Like that.
I think this show is meant to be a starting point for USA to try and rebrand themselves with mature content aimed at a more intelligent audience. Many of their hit shows have come to an end, and they seem to be noticing that AMC, Netflix, and HBO have really dove into deep storytelling with production values that equal big budget movies. The first 5 minutes of the pilot made me think ‘This is going to be on USA? It’s too well done.” It felt like a mix between House of Cards, Fight Club, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. All those movies were directed by David Fincher, but it was a bit different. The pilot was directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who happened to direct the original and superior Swedish version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I had a feeling this was true, and I’m glad he directed because it looks fantastic.
USA is offering up the pilot to watch before it premieres, so you should get a head start on this show now because you won’t want to miss what everyone will be talking about in the next few months. The writing, acting, directing, and music are all top notch and high-quality. If there is ever a show to give a chance, it’s this one, because a lot of the other Summer choices are looking pretty terrible.
UPDATE: Mr. Robot is so good that it has already been picked up for a second season before the first episode has aired. It feels good to know that a quality show is appreciated like this.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
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