“The world itself is just one big hoax. Spamming each other with our commentary bullshit masquerading as insight.”

At this years’ South by Southwest Film Festival (Mr. Robot Q&A) (cast interview) I was able to see the anticipated pilot episode of the American drama–thriller television series “Mr. Robot”. A 10 Episode, May 27th US release (3 million viewers on TV vs 2.7 million viewers watched it online before the pilot aired), with multiple online and VOD’s distributions. We follow a young computer programmer, portrayed by the brilliant soon-to-win-a-shit-loads-of-emmys Rami Malek (CIP) who suffers from social anxiety disorder and forms connections through hacking. He’s recruited by a mysterious anarchist portrayed by this-is-his-comeback-role Christian Slater (CLIP), who calls himself Mr. Robot. The bit lack-of-good-series-during-US-summer overhyped series is written and created by the relatively unknown showrunner, and self proclaimed former small-time hacker Sam Esmail (CLIP) (Talks at Google). The series also has 9 unknown episode Directors (IMDB) – besides the strong pilot direction by “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” brilliant Dane, Niels Arden Oplev – and relatively large group of ‘by hollywood standards’ unknown writers (IMDB). All together “I’m a huge matrix fan” Sam Esmail did it, and brought us a refreshing Television. Again all brilliantly produced by one of the top commercial production entities in the Advertisement and Independent Film Industry: Anonymous Content. Easier written then produced, right? Writing and producing a good drama series is extremely difficult. Period. Remember? “The Following”, “Charlie’s Angels,” “Stalker”, "Mulaney”, “Bad Judge”, “True Detective” (season two). What’s surprising, is the fact that the mini series aired on the minor player basic cable, and satellite television channel USA network (NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal, itself a subsidiary of Comcast). But USA is steadily growing due to its original programming like “Suits”, “Psych” and now “Mr. Robot” 

With a strong Apr 7th released TEASER, OST, Pilot written monologue like the following below, kicking against the establishment (Remember Aaron Sorkin monologue – Is America the greatest country), you will know that you will get the attention of the current ‘binging’ millennials and critics…

What is it about society that disappoints you so much? – VIDEO

• “Is it that, we collectively thought that, Steve Jobs was a great man? Even when we knew he made billions off the backs of children. Or maybe it’s that it feels like all our heroes are counterfeit. The world itself is just one big hoax. Spamming each other with our commentary bullshit masquerading as insight. Our social media faking us into intimacy, or is that we voted for this? Not with our rigged elections, but with our things, our property, our money. I’m not saying anything new, we all know why we do this. Not because Hunger games books makes us happy, but because we want to be sedated. Because it’s painful not to pretend, because we’re cowards. F*ck society.” – Elliot

“Mr. Robot” already had it’s US season finale last night – 9/2/15 – “The summer’s top new scripted cable series in adults 18-49 were HBO’s “Ballers” and USA’s “Mr. Robot – according to Nielsen. So we have a 2nd season coming. 

But what really makes “Mr. Robot” join the ‘great’ group of original series like: Mad Men, Sherlock, Narcos, Breaking Bad, Black Mirror, House of Cards, True Detective (Season1), Game of Thrones, Lost, The Sopranos, The Wire and The West Wing is the fact that the creator Sam Esmail, and Anonymous Content produced an organic ‘cohesive’ writing-cast-production-post of the following: 

• Generation Y ADD/ADHD  (WeAllWantToBeYoung) (Lowsumerism) speed of storytelling erase-debt-crisis-hacker script: the fact that currently Americans owe 12 trillion in debt. The prospect of the series is the idea that Mr. Robot and the main protagonist will bring this back-to-zero… REMEMBER Chuck Palahniuk ? “On a long enough time line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.” (CLIP) and it’s hacker group. All this is simply an interesting concept for societies failed capitalism to start all over. Also references/homages to “The Matrix” ‘ferris wheel’ scene in episode eps1.0_hellofriend.mov have elements of the Morpheus’ red pill/blue pill (CLIP) speech like the "meeting the mentor” – “Monomyth” and “The Hero’s Journey” – The Call to Adventure
• raw film locations (Old as the outskirts of Manhattan, Coney Island and Kensington Brooklyn.
  
• Brilliantly Pilot episode direction/cinematography by the Danish Niels Arden Oplev “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (2009) (Original) 
• smartly choosing one of the best composers and music programmers in the business Mac Quayle (Vulture) (A Mix Of Sound – Youtube) known from Nicolas Winding Refn cult-following music programming work for Drive. Quayle will blow you away when the last scenes kick in at the end of "eps.1.4_3xpl0its.wmv.“ with a great remix of "Love On A Real Train” by Tangerine Dream (LISTEN!)
• strong image editing by Franklin Peterson and 2-time Spielberg Sam Seig
  
• brilliant Bret Easton Ellis Mirror Monologues (CLIP), 
  
• the mix of the visual style of Charlie Brookers’ even more brilliant Black Mirror (Trailer), The Circle, a 2013 novel by American author Dave Eggers and David Fincher ‘Fight Club’ (Article), 
• and visually perfectly adapted by Mr. Robot’s cinematographer Tim Ives (Girls, How to Make It in America) single camera setup “rules are meant to be broken” No Rules for Composition – VIMEO, 
  
• realness (technically accurate) of the actual computer usage (WIRED – MR. ROBOT IS THE BEST HACKING SHOW YET—BUT IT’S NOT PERFECT) 
• Rami Malek’s skills as an actor (SAGFoundation Moderated by Debra Birnbaum) but also with his ‘Max Payne’ like voice over. 

Keep in mind the series wasn’t made for the A-list American pay premium cable and satellite television networks: AMC, Showtime, HBO or even Netflix, therefore Mr. Robot had to be sold with the pilot episode and not with the complete season premise Yes, this US broadcasting problem was already addressed by Kevin Spacey in August 2013 at the Edinburgh Television Festival – (CLIP). Meaning? Mr. Robot episodes 2 to 10 are half the speed and half the strong narrative as the pilot. All in all, the complete 10 episode series a great after-summer European watch. Highly recommend it. You can watch it it on: USA Network’s website, Hulu and Amazon, on-demand.) A-One-To-Watch! Photo credit: USA / Mr. Robot.