We may be past the era of Peak TV, but it's always fun to look back at the plethora of shows that hit television, propelled unknown actors to superstardom, and dominated the conversation. There are so many good ones, with obvious examples like Lost, Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad. When Vince Gilligan's hit drug drama came to an end in 2013, I was left wondering what series would capture the cultural zeitgeist next.
I never thought it would be a show about the internet, of all things, but it was. And it was brilliant.
The lead of the series was a relatively unknown character actor who took on the central role of the flawed, neurodivergent hacker genius who gets sucked into a shadow government conspiracy. It was a series that dominated the conversation week in and week out. It was lifted up by solid performances, relevant themes, slick writing and epic world-building, and it regularly kept me on the edge of my seat.
The program I am talking about is an Emmy-winner, a game-changer and one of the best thrillers to ever hit television. Now, for the first time ever in the United States, it is available to stream in full on Netflix.
This is Mr. Robot.
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Rami Malek plays Elliot Alderson in the hacker drama Mr. Robot. USA Network
"Hello, friend," Rami Malek's hacker antihero Elliot Alderson says in the opening moments of the pilot episode. He's talking to the audience. But moreover, I took it to heart that he was talking to me. As someone who related to his antisocial, black hoodie-wearing, outcast vibe, it felt as if Elliot was the TV embodiment of me -- if my goth outcast phase of the '90s and '00s never ended.
Without getting too into the weeds here, Mr. Robot follows Elliot, a computer programmer who works for a giant company, named E-Corp (or Evil Corp, depending on who you ask) by day and flexes his chops as a hacker at night. He gets recruited by a mysterious Anonymous-like organization that wants to crash corporate America. The only issue? He works for the company at the top of the greedy corporate food chain.
That's the nutshell explanation but there's more going on here than that. Add in a V for Vendetta-style anarchist cult, a mysterious mentor figure (conveniently named Mr. Robot) and a complicated mental health struggle and you have one heck of a layered onion to unpeel.
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