I'm on the lookout for new TV shows every season and I found this cyberpunk thriller drama in the summer 2015 batch. A second season was announced even before the pilot premiered and it's nice to see such faith in the quality of the show. There's talk of Mr. Robot elevating the USA Network into the ranks of reputability that HBO and AMC enjoy. I must say that with a pilot as strong as this one, that faith may well be justified.

The show is set in New York where our protagonist Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) works as a cyber-security engineer at Allsafe Security. In his spare time, which is mostly at night, he is a vigilante hacker. Elliot suffers from social anxiety disorder and has never quite got the hang of relating to people and he hacks them instead. His paranoia is a sword without a hilt, he isn't likely to be caught off guard but he is also painfully lonely.
This show explores what happens when someone gets involved in something that might be bigger than they can handle. Elliot is not a stable person and this makes him an unstable narrator. We only ever get to see and experience things from his point of view. Though he is a likeable character all in all, he also cannot be trusted.
With a clever use of over voice and Rami Malek's performance as Elliot, the show creates a sort of mounting anxiety. Coupled with the conspiratorial tones of this show, and Elliot's disorder, Mr. Robot creates a paranoid and thrilling atmosphere that sometimes reminds me of Hitchcock's movies.
This show managed to convince me of who the villains are, and even made me forgiving of what the supposed good guys do in order to save the world from itself. I have to wonder though, if any of it is at all true. I can only see what Elliot sees, and Elliot is not exactly stable. The entire universe of the show is painted through Elliot. I could argue then that Elliot managed to convince me of how everything is. The exciting thing about it is that Elliot might be too paranoid and delusional for it all to be true.
The titular character, Mr. Robot, is a mystery. He sucks Elliot into his schemes which sound very appealing and tailor-made to Elliot’s mindset. It’s also clear that there is a shroud of danger surrounding Mr. Robot and how he means to accomplish his goals. Elliot can see it too, but Mr. Robot’s ambitions are almost perfectlyaligned with his own. The collision of their worlds sure makes for some thrilling television.

I think that fans of the movie Swordfish will definitely enjoy this show. It has reality-baed technology and hacking but you don't have to be tech-savvy to enjoy it. The lingo is used constructively and purposefully. If you've seen the 1995 movie Hackers with Angelina Jolie, this show is not like that. Mr. Robot is as close to excellent as it gets.