I must admit I enjoyed watching Mr. Robot. I don't know exactly why I think that it is something that Ihave to admit to. Maybe because I suspect that there are plenty of critical reviews and opinions on it out there. I didn't check. I'm writing this without looking up what others think about it, what fans of it talk about and what connections and references I didn't get.
Mr. Robot is a series of 45 ~45 minute episodes in four seasons. The first one was released in 2015. It's about mental illnesses and neurodivercity, coorporate and world politics, hacking and the a world conspiracy.
Season 1
The first season has a lot of similarities with the book and movie Fight Club. I go so far to say it is a reinterpretation/rewrite of the Fight Club story but with a continuation. It is that heavily inspired by the story and the movie's unique narrative style. Watching it for the first time was as gripping and exciting as watching Fight Club for the first time. Some story elements from Fight Club are not in it but additional parts of the story make for a little bit more complex story. Watching it for the second time years later was like watching Fight Club for the second time: Highly entertaining and I knew the story so I could pay attention to more details. The main story element it has compared to Fight Club is all the hacking. A typical American action movie take on social engineering, IT security and vulnarability exploitation _but_ with the surprising feature of being realistic and not embarrassing. There's always enough being shown and explained to let the viewer know that Sam Esmail knew what he was writing about. Yes, maybe it's not realisitic in the way conversations always contain the right amount of keywords and explanations to enable a bystander (the viewer) to easily look up more information. Yes, the main character seems to have a memory, knowledge and hacking skills ptobably not many on this planet have and he is quick suspiciously quick in gaining access or information he requires at any point of the story. But it is way better than in almost any other movie while containing way more hacks and related jargon than almost any other movie and it is being acknowledged by the narrator that some things take more time than he is given.
Season 2
Season two contiunes the story to a great extend. The narrative style is refined to its own Mr. Robot way of talking to the viewer in different ways and tones through different characters or personalities. One character seems to have changed a bit as decisions were made to take the story into a certain direction. It is a worthy continuation, stays true to the character and, as I know now, prepares the story for more than the viewer would expect, without leaving gaps to fill or unknowns to answer by what's going to happen in futures seasons, with is also an achievement. In the second season the first hints to an upcoming shift in the story are placed. At that point they only cause confusion or create questions, which is very much in the spirit of the rest of the show so far.
Season 3
There is a lot in Season three to make you find yourself in a completely different place at the end and not recognise what was important in the first two seasons. That is how fast the story develops. It all makes sense though. Well, it's fiction, but it's consistent and logical. Even though the character of the show doesn't change during the season, there is technically a change of genre in season three. The viewer might not be aware of it, yet, or might not realise what certain statements mean, but the shift from hacking drama to science fiction has begun.
Season 4
Season four feels a bit different with several new characters and several old characters, whose stories had already finished, coming back with new stories. Sex and violence are upped for the last season. Hacking scenes do not occur as often.. The show becomes more like other American crime thrillers. But it does still feel like Mr. Robot. That is not the shift in genre I meant that makes this season special. I call it science fiction. Somebody else calls it paranormal. The project that, through connections with all substories of the show, caused everything that happened in season two and later, is very slowly being reveiled to the viewer. Not to spoil too much, just in case. But then everything turns out to be otherwise again, which is exactly the way you could have ecpected after knowing what you know about Elliot, and the last episode resembles an homage to Mr. Nobody more than one to Fight Club.
Camera Angles
The unusual camera angles that often introduce a new scene or change in scenery deserve a shout-out. I don't know how how this works in film, who decides on these shots. But whoever is responsible should be proud of them. They often highlight shapes or peaces of architecture by placing the camera vewry close to them, leaving only little space in the frame for the actual to take place in. But because those close objects and shapes are out of focus and not moving, you naturally view the small part of the frame where people are having a conversation. One scene dtarts by showing just a grey wall with a grey rubber knub, Then a door opens from out of frame and a women steps in. We don't see her face, but can recognise her from her coat and the long hair that reaches into the frame. She steps around something that is also no in frame, then sits on it. (It was a chair.) Now her face is placed perfectly in the frame in profile. Then after a seconds it cuts to the other person sitting at the other side of the table. We knew the roomm, who's in there and who's about to enter it. That makes the interesting composition all the more estimable. (I've never heard the word estimable. But dict.cc says it's a good fit. Whatever.)
Music
This is the first time I feel that way. But this sound track must be worth listening to on its own on any day. More than a few times a scene started with a song that fades into the background as the scene starts to have other sounds to be heard, like a conversation, and I wanted to continue to listen to the song. I'll have to check out some of those songs.
Transgender Character
By mentioning it here I might be breaking this excellent handling of the matter of a transgender character in the show being embedded in the story without ever mentioning it or making it the topic of any scene. But considering how bad the topic was handled in TV shows over the last decades, it is worth mentioning how matter-of-factly this subsidiary matter is included. She is shown presenting herself as a male and as a female in different contexts. And the first times she is referenced she is attributed the pronoun he simply because she is part of an anonymous hacker personality and people tend to assume they are male. As people learn more about her more and more people start to use "she". In a way the show includes her transition in the eyes of, well, not the public, exactly, but a the group of people we follow throughout the show.
Overall
I praise this show for various different things. Among it: Unique characters, good to very good actors (including a strong crying scene), a non-judgemental depiction of mental illness, a realistic amount of sex and romance for a story not about romance or sex (at least until the last season), recreating and adding to the cinematic style and story of Fight Club and more. The main thing for which I like the show though is its unique approach of using a coporate director's fraudulent decision, various mental health challanges of more than one character, a family drama, a disruptive revolution/economic crash, world politics, a worldwide conspiracy tale and lots of IT security substories to very elaborately introduce a science-fiction plot that in itself wouldn't have been new or very exciting/entertaining for long. That is what I like to see in it. What it is affter all and most of all is a portrait of a mentally ill IT security worker and his issues. A real review of the show should contain a lot of sentences about the dillusions, illusions, different personalities, drug habit, coping strategies, challenges, memory gaps and mental blanks of Elliot. I feel like many of these things are portrayed in a way one with similar problem could relate to. The topic of mental illness is certainly portrayed in a way I havent seen before. But I don't know enough to analise those aspects of the series.