Hello friend. Yes, I am talking to you. I know you can hear me. Let me tell you a story. A story about a man who wanted to change the world and ended up destroying it. Sit down. Have a coffee and scroll through these words, they are just for you. The man’s name is Elliot Alderson and he is … many things. Hacker would stand among them. But he is also an employee, brother, prisoner, criminal, morphine junkie, abandoned son, a friend. Your friend, that is.
So this young man goes on a journey to shut down the biggest corporation in the world, E Corp, releasing everyone from the burdens of capitalism. And he takes us with him. Prepare yourself to be confused because nothing is black and white. Welcome to the ultimate game of shadows reality, where governments are tied up by lobbyists and challenged by underground societies. Where the middle class citizens become pawns to both the party that uses them and the party wanting to save them. That is probably the best way one can squeeze Mr. Robot’s two seasons into a couple of words. Derived from the story behind the Anonymous movement, Mr. Robot paints small personal dramas over the picture of a larger national one in the most sophisticated way I have seen in any series ever. It’s the ultimate giving-face-to-apocalypse. As previously said, we follow the story of Elliot and those around him. This might be much more complex than it sounds, as our protagonist’s perception of reality is altered, slipping in and out of what is real and what is not. It is the price he pays for his mathematical ingenuity. The whole series can be divided into three interrelated parts that pour one over another as 45 minute episodes tick by.
First we have Elliot struggling to keep his identity together, involuntarily sharing it with the incarnation of his dead father, who is part of his consciousness. Then we have Darlene, Elliot’s sibling, trying to hold together and lead the hacker community known as fsociety while her brother struggles to keep control over himself. Lastly we have Angela Moss, a young and at first timid blonde who starts as Elliot’s friend — real friend, that is. But as the story progresses she also becomes our lens into the world of power and money, following her own agenda in an attempt to avenge the death of her mother, caused by E Corps’ indifference to human life. Those are the pillar characters the story is built on, and of course there are many more stories, big and small, webbing around them. However, I would rather let Elliot show you those. If you are looking for an evening spent on the edge of your seat, living through the desperation and pain of people trying to find their own ultimate truth, then Mr. Robot is definitely a good way to make yourself question what is white and what is black when the world is composed of grey.
