Mr Robot – television review

It’s taken a while, but the hit show of the just-passed US summer, Mr Robot, is now available in Australia. Mind you, if you’re hoping this intriguing and unsettling show will turn up on network TV after the next collection of cat videos, you’ll be disappointed; as it’s currently only available via on-demand provider Presto.

Mr Robot dives deep into the paranoid world of hackers and hacking; with a decent dose of danger, madness and violence thrown in for good measure. If any one word could sum up this show, it’s “unsettling”. There’s a palpable air of menace surrounding both the show itself and its fascinating characters.

Our (anti)hero is Elliott (Rami Malek). In the workaday world, he’s an engineer and trouble-shooter for a cyber-security firm known as AllSafe; but he’s secretly a “vigilante hacker”, who digs into the cyber history of some very bad people and exposes them. AllSafe’s biggest client is a company called E Corporation (though it’s referred to in the show as “Evil Corp”). So when E Corp is hacked, it’s a big deal for AllSafe. Elliott tracks down the hack, discovering it seems to be the work of a shadowy group, fsociety. On the train, Elliott encounters a man (Christian Slater) who seems to know him; though his only identification is a patch on his jacket reading “Mr Robot”. This man tells Elliott he wants him to insert an IP address associated with E Corp CTO Terry Colby (Bruce Altman) into the root files; making it look like Colby orchestrated the hack on his own company. Despite some reluctance, Elliott agrees. Thus he’s drawn into the world of F Society – a ragtag bunch that includes the smart-mouthed Darlene (Carly Chaikin) and the wizened Romero (Ron Cephas Jones). Meanwhile, Elliott’s colleague at AllSafe and childhood friend Angela (Portia Doubleday) is dealing with the fallout of the E Corp hack. And with suspicion cast on Colby, ambitious E Corp executive Tyrell Wellick (Martin Wallström) decides to make his move.

There’s so much going on in Mr Robot, it’s a little difficult to keep up at times. That’s possibly by design though, since Elliott is the archetypal unreliable narrator. As mentioned above, E Corp is referred to throughout as Evil Corp, even by characters unconnected to Elliott. There are plenty of other pointers to the unreliability of his viewpoint; and the fact he indulges in drugs from time to time is just one of them.

Series creator Sam Esmail (he shares writing and directing credits for this season) makes sure both the tension and the stakes are raised with each successive episode. Even when things apparently go off the rails (as in one episode in mid-season), there’s a reason behind it – a set-up that circles back several episodes later. That particular little circularity is just one of the reasons this is such compelling television. Esmail plainly draws on a variety of influences, and you’d have to think the films of David Fincher are high on that list (though this is far more Fight Club than it is The Social Network). Digging a little deeper though, there are elements of Chekhov (think The Cherry Orchard in its depiction of the collision between the old order and the new); William Burroughs and David Mamet bubbling to the surface every so often.

The whole edifice of Mr Robot however hinges on the jittery but compelling performance of Rami Malek (probably best known before now from the Night at the Museum movies). He inhabits the character to a degree that’s a little scary. Even as he delves into Elliott’s worst traits, you just can’t tear your eyes away, no matter how disturbing the scene might be. Christian Slater – a long way from Heathers here – is perhaps surprisingly low-key here, drifting around the margins of the show (at least until things ramp up toward the end of the season). As arguably two sides of one coin, Portia Doubleday (Carrie [2013]) and Carly Chaikin (Suburgatory) are excellent; while Swedish actor Martin Wallström brings a truly creepy vibe to Wellick.

It’s not hard to see why this edgy, mesmerising show has cut through the sometimes cookie-cutter world of American television. The story is long form story telling at its best, with its compelling plot and flawed but fascinating characters. The beauty of having it on demand of course is that you can either binge-watch the whole season, or drip-feed yourself. Either way though, this is one series not to miss.

Update: Mr Robot screens on Foxtel’s Showcase channel from 12 November 2015

David Edwards