Tue 13 Jun 2017
A TV Review: MR. ROBOT “hellofriend.mov” (2015).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , TV Drama[4] Comments
MR. ROBOT. “hellofriend.mov” USA Network, 24 June 2015. (Episode 1, Number 1.) Rami Malek (Elliot Alderson), Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Christian Slater (Mr. Robot), Michel Gill, Ben Rappaport. Created and written by Sam Esmail. Director: Niels Arden Oplev.
I’m always far behind the curve. This highly acclaimed cable network series has already been renewed for a third season, starting in October, and I’ve only just now sampled the beginning of the first, which has been out on DVD for a while.
The leading character is a cybersecurity expert named Elliot Alderson, a nerdish young man who suffers from a severe society anxiety disorder, depression, and by night is an online vigilante, outing online predators, scam artists and worse. He is contacted by an underground group of hackers whose aim is to take down a gigantic worldwide corporation named E Corp (Evil Corp) which controls a high percentage of the world’s net worth.
The leader of this self-named fsociety group is known only as Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), who in this first episode convinces Elliot in to take down the CEO of E Corp by a bit of totally illegal computer wizardry.
There is no doubt that the series is well done, perfectly cast and beautifully photographed, and to me all of the code that shows up on Elliot’s computer screen looks authentic. (I’m no expert.) It is not surprised that the series as a whole currently has an 8.6 rating on IMDb.
I have also watched the second episode, in which we learn more about Elliot’s friends, his not-so-friends, his psychiatrist, his drug-supplier (female, across the hall), but not yet all that much about Mr. Robot. There’s plenty of time for that, I realize, but this is as far as I’m going to go.
I find all but one of the characters exceedingly unlikable — the exception being Elliot’s boss at Allsafe, and he probably is going to have problems that will be as depressing as all of the others. Even his psychiatrist has her problems, which Elliot in his usual awkward way, tries to set right. We may see the consequences of this in later episodes.
As for Elliot himself, he has all kinds of conflicts to work out between himself, his friends — the few he has — and, well, the world in general. Elliot as a character is extremely well drawn, but I’m not ready to jump on board yet. For now, I’m going to pass on this one.
I realize that I’m in a very small minority, but neither will I lie to you.
June 14th, 2017 at 4:58 pm
This is a series that at the end of season one has one of the most surprising twists in the history of TV. The series plays far, stick with it and if you have seen a certain movie you could see the surprise coming.
The characters are dark and at times unlikable. The best you can hope for is you find the characters interesting as the story heavy series moves on.
This was a series I kept trying but found it hard to watch once a week. It is a series to binge watch at a streaming service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Everything Steve wrote is true. If you like your TV series to be like NCIS or Inspector Morse then MR. ROBOT is not for you. If you prefer your TV push the edge of television drama you could really enjoy it.
June 14th, 2017 at 5:16 pm
Thank you for the second opinion on the series, Michael. I have been waiting impatiently for Someone to say Something, either pro or con.
Never has a review on this blog been ignored for so long as this one, in terms of either comments or incoming traffic, as this one.
You make a good case for me to continue watching it, which I was hoping someone would do. After sleeping on it over night, I has pretty much decided to give it (and me) one more episode.
If I do, I’ll report back here.
June 14th, 2017 at 10:10 pm
Too much work for me even if there is a payoff. I need at least one character to root for.
June 15th, 2017 at 12:17 am
It is the type of show that gives you someone to care about just to kill them off. We are talking dark here, kids.