Best New Thriller / Drama, “Mr. Robot” Season Finale This Wednesday

After learning that I’m an IT geek for a living, a good buddy of mine suggested I check out a show on USA Network—”Mr. Robot”. After watching the first episode (first season), I was hooked. It’s reached, and sustained, my “Top-5″ favorite shows.

Mr. Robot’s target demographic appeal clearly seems to be techies, but this techno-geek-space theme is perhaps just an awesome, clever vehicle to drive the even more poignant story/drama, of the pitfalls of unregulated capitalism, as portrayed by one of the largest and most powerful conglomerates of debt-ownership—”E-Corp” (which is referred to throughout the series as Evil Corp, but only in the main character’s mind), who own 70% of the world’s debt. Their logo is virtually the exact same as the now-defunct Enron Corporation—the diagonal “E”. The writers have an interesting way of juxtaposing the subtleties of nuance in some spots, with the polar opposite absence of any nuance, as portrayed by the Enron “E” logo, or even the nickname given to the conglomerate’s name, “E Corp”, which is “Evil Corp”.

My tech buddies/colleagues and I often joke about how pathetic so much of the way Hollywood attempts to portray the life of IT people in their respective environments… via either over-simplified, or on a premise that’s flat-out devoid of any basis in fact. Some are better than others, but most shows tend to miss the mark from a technologically sound perspective. An exception was Gene Roddenberry, who was known for his insistence on all of the technological aspects of Star Trek having a basis in scientific fact—at least in theory—right down to the Transporter (the modulation / demodulation of molecules actually turned out to the basis of fax technology—changing an analogue signal to digital, sending it to a set of coordinates, and then DE-modulating that digital signal back to analogue. Hence the word MODEM, derived from Modulate—DEModulate. Mr. Robot demonstrates a refreshingly and remarkably accurate technological foundation, and masterfully done somehow without putting a viewer to sleep.

Mr. Robot has a bit of everything. Cast in the setting of New York City, the writing also features the thriller/drama of the topics of unprincipled/unregulated capitalism, legal vs ethical issues, mental illness, addiction, and even the heartbreaks of love. The soundtrack (by Mac Quayle) is, admittedly a subjective statement—awesome. All musical thematic producers are tasked with underscoring the drama, suspense, etc., and Quayle achieves this in a uniquely compelling way that often finds me so captivated that—at a commercial break, like I’m cruising inside a motherboard’s bus, reaching the next ROM. Yes, really that captivated. The setting, soundtrack, writing, acting, and directing is very robust.

The main character, Elliot, is a hacker by night, and works for a cyber-security company “Allsafe” by day. He finds himself thrust into a maelstrom of internal conflict resulting from his sheer disdain for E Corp, which just happens to be his employer’s largest client. Elliot’s character is mind-blowingly dynamic, complex, and evolving… written into his character are facets of humanity that virtually anyone can empathize with. Sometimes that makes me happy, sometimes it scares me.

I just finished binge-watching the entire first season, and it’s going to be a long layover until season two. If you can, watch it on-demand from the first episode. Wednesday nights at 10 PM (EST), on USA Network.