Mr. Robot: Season 1 [Blu-ray]

Mr. Robot is an original series of the USA Network, and the first two seasons (22 episodes in all) are currently streaming on Amazon Prime. The third season is in production at this time.The story line of this engrossing program revolves around a group of young people, computer hackers with the goal of bringing down the biggest corporation in America and throwing world financial markets into chaos. (It is apparent, even to someone with limited computer skills like me, that lots of careful research has gone into the making of Mr. Robot, particularly with regard to the methodology of hacking.) The corporation that the hackers are hoping to topple is a massive conglomerate with tentacles reaching into many businesses and industries stretching across America and around the globe. It is known as "Evil Corp."The main character in this fast-paced television drama is Elliot Alderson. He is portrayed by a mesmerizing young actor named Rami Malek. Malek's acting skills in the series were recognized in 2016 when he received an Emmy for Best Actor in a Drama for his role in Mr. Robot.Elliot (Malek) is the leader of the hackers, but his life and mission are complicated by the fact that he is a diagnosed schizophrenic who won't take his meds - but he does have a dependency on crushed morphine tablets which he snorts. Elliot's friends and co-conspirators, at least one of whom is imaginary, sustain him. Elliot is motivated to bring down Evil Corp because its wanton disregard for environmental regulations led to the cancer that killed his father. Elliot also has a mixed legacy of feelings toward his father which color his actions throughout this cyber drama. (In fact, if the show's creator and writer, Sam Esmail, had sought my opinion on the matter, which he did not, I would have suggested naming this primary character Bud Anderson, with a tip of the hat to a television son whose father always knew best.)Christian Slater plays the title role of Mr. Robot. He serves as a motivator and enabler for the group of young hackers, and he is often pitted against Elliot who does not want to injure or kill anyone with the group's otherwise illegal pursuits. Mr. Robot, who once pushed his young son out of a second-story window, has no qualms at all when it comes to violence.Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) is a fringe player with the hackers who is also an executive with Evil Corp working to bring it down from the inside. Angela, like Elliot, is motivated for revenge because Evil Corp also caused her mother to develop cancer and die.Darlene (Carly Chaikin) plays Elliot's sister, Darlene who steps in to manage the hackers during her brother's occasional mental breaks. Darlene is one of the more ruthless characters in this drama, and will not hesitate to murder when the need arises.B.D. Wong, of Law and Order SVU, has a dual role in Mr. Robot in which he plays both a male Chinese diplomat as well as a female Chinese revolutionary/anarchist by the name of "White Rose." Wong is very cunning and believable as he drifts effortlessly between genders.Swedish actor Martin Wallstrom gives an edgy performance as Tyrell Wellick, a Wall Street executive who is passed over for an important promotion at Evil Corp. Wellick, too, is brilliant with computers, but he has a dark side that smolders with depravity and violence. Wellick satiates himself by roughing up his pregnant wife (Danish actress Stephanie Corneliussen) at her insistence and careful direction. Wellick, in fact, enjoys aggressive sex with other women - and men - and is also capable of murder. There is enough psychopathy between him and his wife to sustain a boatload of bloodthirsty Vikings.Law enforcement is represented in part by FBI Special Agent Dominique DiPierro (Grace Gummer) known as "Dom." Her focus on the hackers in all-consuming, a situation which leaves her as emotionally flawed at the individuals she is pursuing.And those are just a few of the main characters who populate this tightly-wound psychodrama. There is also a second tier of players who are just as vile and brutal - like the drug dealer who had his own brother killed, a porn ring, and a serial philanderer who, even though he is married, works hard at maintaining relationships with several other women.Those who devote the time to watching this series will come away with a more realistic view of the actual threats to personal security and world order. It is a gripping and extremely enthralling look into a future that is probably not too far distant.I highly recommend Mr. Robot. It will definitely rattle your security cage.

Mr. Robot is a showed that aired on the USA Network from 2015 to 2019, and starred Remi Malek as Elliot Alderson, who by day has a job at a reputable cybersecurity company, and by night is a hacker who takes down bad guys. He is approached by a group of hacktivists called fsociety, whose goal is to take down a large, own-everything company called E-Corp, which basically uses the old Enron logo and is a metaphorical stand-in for any of the huge companies that basically run everything. Elliot has numerous mental issues such as social anxiety disorder and clinical depression and breaks the fourth wall by directly addressing the audience. The show has a lot of twists and turns that play out over the course of the ten episodes. By the end of the season a lot is revealed and a lot is still unanswered, and you find out there is a lot more to the storyline than what you necessarily think there will be at the beginning of the season.For those who get the blu-ray, the show looks and sounds great in HD. There are not a ton of special effects, but the cinematography is very well done, and the show goes from looking dark and gritty to sleek and polished, depending on where particular scenes are being shot. The extras include a few deleted scenes and a short gag reel. The most extensive extra is on the second disc, a twelve-minute making-of featurette that includes interviews with the cast members and showrunner Sam Esmail.Overall, the season is very good. Malek is great as the series lead, and it has a strong supporting cast including Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Stephanie Corneliussen, Michael Cristofer, and Christian Slater. I cannot say much about the roles of any of the other cast members because to do so would give too much away. While the show does take some creative liberties, it does try to be realistic with the computer coding and the portrayal of hacking. It is really a show that you will know very quickly if you like or hate it. It definitely uses a serial storytelling format in which the episodes build on each other and more of the story is revealed as throughout the season. It does have some swearing, sexual content, drug use, and violence in it, so it is definitely not a family-friendly show. It is set in the real world as it uses video clips from actual events and utilized deep fake technology to have real-world leaders comment on the events in the show. I definitely put it in one of my best series of the 2010s along with series like Breaking Bad and The Americans. If you have not seen the show and are looking for a good dramatic series, this is definitely worth watching.

Love the show when i started watching i came in thinking this would not be a show of my liking but O boy that change, hate that they don't have this show free on prime it's behind a subscription or pay to show or rental they did had this for prime members