8 Reasons You Should Be Watching USA’s ‘Mr. Robot’

All the blerds know that USA’s Mr. Robot is the hottest shit on TV right now. The show features Rami Malek who plays Elliot, a computer security analyst by day and a mega-hacker by night. But the intersection of those two conflicting worlds is just the oversimplified entry point to an incredibly complex, smart, snarky, and undeniably addictive series.

1. Elliot is intriguing as hell.

On the surface, Elliot is an incredibly intelligent human being. He is able to use his hacking abilities to completely profile a person. By analyzing their actions, both public and secret, he can predict their actions and set traps for those he deems to be “bad”. His inner monologue is shady as hell, and we get the added bonus of hearing both his inner and outward responses to things. He is an habitual drug user, “self-medicating” to keep his social disorder at bay and adding recreational drugs to the mix just for the hell of it. At all times he is a mash-up of bad-assery and hot ass mess.

But beneath those vices, he is a man conflicted on his views of people. On the one hand, he sees them as mindless mice being led by social media and corporate controls. At the same time, he is driven to protect people in his life, from his childhood friend to his drug dealer to his therapist. And being a clever hacker with outrageous temerity makes him the perfect person to protect them from things they don’t know.

Antihero, reluctant hero, or just hero by circumstance, Elliot is irresistible as an agent for righting wrongs.

2. Paranoia runs rampant

This show is predicated on paranoia from all corners of existence. Elliot is paranoid of being caught. He is paranoid of the capabilities of the nefarious mega corporation being targeted. Everyone at his job is paranoid of getting fired. And as viewers, the true motives and agendas of all the characters, including Elliot, are elusive at best. Pile all that paranoia together and you’ve got a show where you can’t predict what will happen from one moment to the next.

3. Thinly veiled criticism of Apple and corporate culture

E Corp (Elliot inner conscious name: ‘Evil Corp’) is a massive company that more or less runs the world. Society at large depends on their goods and services (most notably cell phones and a massive amount of loans). Their revenue is astronomical. The company heads are some sketchy individuals. And apparently, their tentacles reach everywhere behind the scenes.

More or less, you could substitute the name E Corp for that of a long list of companies: Apple, Disney, Wal-Mart, etc. And the show takes zero steps to hide that connection. Instead they go to great lengths to exacerbate it.

4. Unbridled and questionable dialogue

While watching last weeks episode, we tweeted this out:

N-Bomb … not sure how I feel about that #MrRobot #DatBot

— WaterCoolerConvos (@ColoredConvos) July 2, 2015

Yes. A non-Black character dropped the n-bomb … and then went on to say it again. And as badly as we want to knock the show for this, the use was so true to real life that it is hard to find fault.

And that is what makes Mr. Robot so good. The show pulls no punches. Profanity use is at a 10. Sex and drug use are gratuitous but not sensationalized. In essence, the show is as raw and real as it gets on television today.

5. It has already been renewed for a second season

No risk with falling in love with a show only for it to get cancelled after the first season. USA renewed Mr. Robot prior to its official airing based off of online sampling of the pilot.

6. Christian Slater is one scary curmudgeon

Christian Slater’s character, the titular ‘Mr. Robot,’ runs Fsociety, a hacker collective whose goals should be plainly obvious. He attempts to recruit Elliot into the ranks due to the particular access he has to certain systems, and when Elliot isn’t 100% down for the cause, things turn all the way bad in an instant. We are two episodes in and all we know about ‘Mr. Robot’ is that he is scary as hell and seemingly has no limits to how far he will go to achieve his goals. I likes.

7. Creative episode titles and descriptions

Look no further than the title and description for this weeks episode as proof that this show can’t be missed.

eps1.2_d3bug.mkv:

“elliot tries to lead normal life – but pulled back into fsociety. gideon gets suspicious. tyrell plays dirty @ evil corp. I did it 4 the lulz.”

Now tell me you don’t want to tune in on Wednesday to figure out what the hell that means.

8. All the cool kids are watching

Mr. Robot airs Wednesdays at 10/9C. And when that hour strikes, you’ll see the blerd collective shut down Twitter with the hashtag #DatBot. And if you ain’t there … well…sorry. I think I have to check your blerd card’s expiration date.

Photo credit: USA

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Daren W. Jackson

Co-Founder/Editor

Daren is one half of the Water Cooler Convos team. He's a writer, music connoisseur, and comic book geek who spends his free time working on his novel and other short stories.

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