Review: MR. ROBOT (First Episode Impressions)

There's a lot right off the bat you can say that's positive about USA's much-hyped new series Mr. Robot. It's from the same team of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, it features a star studded cast of Rami Malek and Christian Slater, and it's all about a hot-button topic of the early 21st century...hacking.

There's been a lot of hype about this one, and let me just start off by saying it lives up to all of it in the first episode...for now.

Elliot, secret hacktivist and tech support for a major software security firm, is already a likeable character. You may listen to the self-aware monologues, dry humor, and weird personality and instantly say, "This guy is just like Dexter Morgan," and you're right. Not that there's anything wrong with that as Dexter had a more than gracious run (with highs and lows) on Showtime and had an enormous fan base. In fact, a lot of this show (at least in the first episode) is very reminiscent of the Showtime series.

• Elliot is a vigilante who skates below the law to dole justice to whom he believes deserves it.
• He archives his former adversaries and shamed foes in his "souvenirs" box which he hides.
• He is socially inept and struggles to share his true feelings or interact with those around him.
• He talks to an imaginary audience and frequently has trouble distinguishing between reality and illusion.

All that aside, Rami Malek plays the part of new age Dexter as good as and even better at times than Michael C. Hall. His arrogance, anger, and paranoia all shone a little more brightly than the typical Hall performance, and sometimes you'll think he might actually be a sociopath. Malek is the star of the show, and for the first outing, he absolutely deserved the mantle with his performance.

You can watch for yourself and add to the checklist from which this show drew it's inspiration. That being said, there's nothing really wrong with being a new Dexter, so long as it doesn't go on to make the same mistakes...

The first red flag for me in this series was the fact that Elliot concedes he might be going crazy. Pretty soon we learn of an alleged Blackhat community dedicated to changing the world for the better through hacktivism led by Mr. Robot, played by Christian Slater. Slater is surprisingly not donning his poor man's Jack Nicholson impression this time around and while we only get a glimpse of him, he's one of the highlights of the show. Then the ending (which I won't spoil) just really leads you to believe one or two things.

• This is going to be a show with a lot of twists and turns
• Things are gonna get real dumb, real quick

There's really no dancing around with this one. Mr. Robot is only going to continue to amaze and impress, or it'll tip toe its way right into the fire with some stupid misstep in the plot. Dexter really stepped into that one in its later seasons and could never recreate the magic that was season 4, and Mr. Robot makes me feel like it could devastate me just as much as it captivated me.

Moving away from the plot, the camera work in this show is fantastic. If you're fresh off the Better Caul Saul cinematography high, you'll love the look and feel of Mr. Robot. You can also definitely see the new age dark influence of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which elicits thoughts of Rooney Mara that I swore I would not go into when writing this article. 

In short, this show was tailored for the exact type of people who read GeekTyrant. You're going to like this show, but heed my warning and pray that it won't break our hearts.