Created by Sam Esmail in 2015, Mr. Robot will leave the Netflix catalog on August 22. A techno-thriller carried by a Rami Malek who seems possessed, to see absolutely.
What is it about ?
Elliot is a young antisocial programmer who suffers from a behavioral disorder that leads him to believe that he can only meet people by hacking them. He works for a firm specializing in cybersecurity but a man known as Mr Robot approaches him one day to bring down an overpowered company which is one of those he must protect…
Mr. Robot, a series created by Sam Esmail with Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday, Grace Gummer… Available on Netflix until August 22
Why is it great?
Launched in 2015, Mr. Robot has had the effect of an earthquake in the landscape of TV series. The series revealed two talents: Sam Esmail, its creator, who then convinced Julia Roberts to play her first main role on television with Homecoming; and Rami Malek, who we already knew from the films Night at the Museum but who delivers a stunning performance here.
1. A scenario that turns the brain
We can’t say too much for people who haven’t seen Mr. Robot yet, but it’s a series that has a few surprises in store, some of which literally leave you speechless. This techno-thriller which is also a psychological thriller is essentially based on the psychology of the main character, Elliot, who is subject to mental disorders including a form of paranoia. The line between madness and reality is therefore often tenuous in a world – that of hacking and very large companies – where everything that seems the most improbable seems all the more plausible.
2. Rami Malek is possessed
We discovered him as a pharaoh, with the stature associated with his rank, in La Nuit au Musée and we rediscovered him in Mr. Robot. Rami Malek gives himself body and soul to play Elliot Alderson, an asocial boy, a hacking genius, a man tormented by his past and his mental disorders. For the role, he appears particularly thin. But above all, he oscillates between episodes of pure genius where his brain flies at full speed and others where he appears totally apathetic and depressed. It should be noted where Mr. Robot is one of those very rare series where the voiceover plays a real essential role. It is Elliott the narrator of his story, he takes us for a ride according to his moods, always in the same monotonous tone with sometimes cruel protrusions.
Elizabeth Fisher/USA Network Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson
3. Essential secondary characters
If the series is centered on Elliot, Sam Esmail does not forget the characters around it. They are also all so well written, not just being there to serve the narration and Elliott, that we have the impression that they live their own adventures between two scenes in which they appear. Mr. Robot, played by Christian Slater, is of course instrumental. The two have a kind of toxic and codependent relationship, unhealthy but fascinating. But we are just as fascinated by the evolution of characters like Angela (Portia Doubleday), Elliot’s childhood friend, or even Dom DiPierro (Grace Gummer) who investigates Elliot and whose personal life is distressing sadness.
4. A successful achievement
The production also plays a central role in the series. The techno-thriller side of the series is not expressed simply in its theme. This is reflected in the image by a polished aesthetic that will ogle David Fincher’s side. We can even speak of prowess at times. An episode of season 3, for example, is entirely produced in a sequence shot. An episode during which we hold our breath so much the tension never weakens.
5. A visionary series
Mr. Robot is not a series that stands out for its optimism. It’s quite the opposite. She has this particularity of anchoring her story in the current world and even of making a form of prospective narration, imagining a probable future often from a dystopian angle. It is a question of democratic excesses in EUnited States – which is confirmed less than 10 years after the launch of the series – or China seeking to annex other territories…
Over time, Mr. Robot has suffered a bit from its narrative mechanisms, but Sam Esmail’s series is so glaringly true – where we are supposed to be in pure fiction – that it deserves our interest in it. new.