After the extremely rated present Mr. Robot first got here out in 2015, it shortly grew to become successful and has collected an enormous cult following ever since. As a mainstream TV sequence, it is received its fair proportion of prestigious accolades, together with Emmy Awards and Golden Globes. However, it was by its attraction from utilizing cynical, revolutionary tropes that it discovered its true success.
The present could also be described in some ways, because it has a multidimensional nature to it. On the one hand, it has been acclaimed as a tech present because it prominently incorporates a group of Robin Hood-style hackers that use their abilities to combat in opposition to an evil, grasping conglomerate often known as E Corp. On the opposite hand, the present additionally highlighted a topical motion that is by no means actually light from relevance, and its with this facet of the present that Mr. Robot actually captures the cultural zeitgeist of its time. So, how did it do that?
The Battle Against Greed
One of the overarching themes of the present was the large battle that was waged in opposition to E Corp. From the primary season, the present’s protagonists, a hacktivist group often known as ‘fsociety’ (as in ‘f**okay society’), actively goals to erase all information of debt held by E Corp. By doing so, the group, and the present at massive, takes an apparent stance in opposition to the excesses of greed in a society the place capitalism has gone rogue.
In the method, Mr. Robot takes a really nihilistic view of points like capitalism, company greed, and revenue disparities between the wealthiest segments in society and abnormal individuals. It’s additionally usually brazenly cynical in regards to the society it operates in. Of course, given the timing of the present, the world of greed and extra it depicted echoed all too acquainted shortcomings of real-life society.
After the worldwide monetary disaster round 2008, it felt like these sorts of points reached a boiling level. The Occupy Wall Street motion was the fruits of many years of pent-up frustration from abnormal individuals who had been fed up with company greed, corruption, and what they deemed to be exclusionary financial practices.
The present performed on this theme and masterfully weaved it right into a plot the place there’s a clear proclivity towards exhibiting how the politics of cash is used to subvert democracy. By doing so, the present shortly discovered a house within the precise frustration it conjured up within the minds of thousands and thousands of actual individuals who suffered by the monetary collapse just some years earlier.
The Mental Illness of Mr. Robot and the Brilliance of Rami Malek
Through the present’s chief protagonist, performed by Rami Malek, audiences got a likable figurehead to cheer on. Despite the character being suffering from paranoia and anxiousness, Malek was nonetheless in a position to seize most viewers’ hearts by his complicated portrayal of Elliot Alderson. If something, Alderson’s struggles with psychological sickness solely made him extra interesting by his vulnerability.
Becca van Sambeck writing for the USA Insider completely captures why this was.
It’s inconceivable to think about “Mr. Robot” with out Rami Malek. As the lead character, Elliot, Malek creates a posh character viewers can each perceive and root for, regardless of his obsessive paranoia, his intense social anxiousness, and his basic anger towards the world. Malek brilliantly makes him seem to be greater than TV character, however an actual and genuine particular person. It’s no marvel he received the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series for the primary season of the present.
Malek’s efficiency within the present was virtually universally hailed as good. It took an actor who beforehand appeared to be a shy, soft-spoken determine by off-beat roles, corresponding to Kenny within the sitcom The War at Home, and turned him right into a Hollywood A-lister seemingly in a single day.
Malek deservedly received an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his function in Mr. Robot, and naturally later went on to win the Academy Award for greatest actor for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. He was arguably already an actor on the rise previous to taking part in Elliot, however the present actually catapulted his profession to staggering heights thereafter.
The Show Transcended into Reality
Apart from all of those sturdy factors, the present was additionally praised for issues just like the accuracy of its hacking scenes and for taking care to make sure that the logic behind them held up. In what was a real masterclass, the USA Network which first introduced the present to life, discovered a solution to make it extra immersive by turning an intangible thought from the present into an intangible asset that may very well be loved by followers, in a really tangible means.
How was such a factor attainable? At the tip of season two, E Corp develops a cryptocurrency often known as Ecoin within the present. The USA Network used a multi-platform social media drive to truly carry a model of the forex to life and supplied it to followers of the present to be used on the 2017 San Diego Comic Con.
The Legacy of Mr. Robot
The response was overwhelming and thru it, Mr. Robot as soon as once more confirmed its capacity to tune into the cultural zeitgeist of the time and seize it completely. By merging the fiction of the present with actuality, followers had been in a position to immerse themselves into the world of Mr.Robot in an unprecedented means.
The proven fact that issues just like the age of social media, cryptocurrency, and Occupy Wall Street had been nonetheless all sizzling subjects on the time solely added to the joy generated by this transfer. Mr.Robot stays probably the most extremely acclaimed reveals in current historical past.
It deservedly earned its status as a cultural phenomenon and can doubtless at all times be hailed for its brilliance. While the monetary disaster the present addressed could have been 15 years in the past, the political shortcomings and monetary irresponsibility that led to it makes the principle themes of Mr. Robot as related in the present day as they’ve ever been. The means the world’s going, there could should be a sequel.