If you missed Season 1 of "Mr. Robot" catch up on Netflix, so you can understand what's happening in Season 2, airing every Tuesday at 10 pm EST on USA.
1. Social critique
The whole show is based on a plot to exact revenge on corporations which hurt the protagonist with their capitalist greed.
The viewer gets a closeup look at the functions of elitism in society and the politics within corporations, similarly to "Damages," which lend themselves to discussions over the nature of man and state of the values in our society indeed.
2. Representation
The amount of female characters and their powerful roles in the show provide representation and reinforce the idea, unfortunately not found in much media, that women can be more than just a plot tool in a man’s story. Women are just as developed, well-rounded, and independent as their male counterparts. They play villains capable of murder, heroes fighting the same cause as the protagonist, and everything in between sometimes at the same time.
The show contained a gay couple, which though only onscreen for a few minutes, was treated normally and without stereotypes. Other than Rami Malek, an Egyptian man, being cast as lead, several other people of color play major roles, B. D. Wong appears as a genderfluid character, and everyone’s existences are portrayed and written respectfully.
3. Portrayal of Mental Illness
While it is never specified what mental illness(es) Elliot has, he is never stigmatized nor romanticized for his symptoms. The show goes out of its way to show the good. bad, and the ugly of mental illness including dissociative episodes and self-destructive behaviors and the struggle to accept it as part of one’s life, albeit dramatized, all while Elliot sees a psychologist demonstrating the difficulty often found in the therapy process.
As someone living with mental illness, seeing a character living with it on screen and having it not be treated as a gag or an evil characteristic or miraculously being cured by therapy is what we need.
4. Cinematography
I don’t know a lot about cinematography but, as an actor, I do know that Sam Esmail is a genius in the way he creates mood through his writing and action on screen. We look where he wants us to look, assuming that we are one step ahead of the story only to find we are wrong but right again later on.
Esmail brings to life, with help of his amazing cast of actors, the abstract concepts felt with anxiety so our hearts throb just as hard as Elliot’s when he’s pulling off something dangerous and illegal and we want to yell at him as loud as “Mr. Robot” to stop him from putting himself in danger. He has mastered the psychological thriller, all while alluding to "Star Wars," "Fight Club," and "Full House," and any big screen or small screen fan will see his method and appreciate it.
5. Excitement
It goes without saying that "Mr. Robot" is a psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. This a show where, after being blind-sided by the events of every episode, you feel you have to back and re-watch to see the clues leading up to it. I personally, and this comes as a shock to many, have never sat down and watched a complete TV show from beginning to end. I’ve never felt the need to tune in week after week to catch up with what my favorite characters were doing.
The only show that has really pulled me in other than "Mr. Robot" is "Law and Order: SVU" and even then I watch its episodes randomly and out of order with no particular dedication nor withdrawals in its absence. "SVU" was my friend with benefits but "Mr. Robot" is my significant other and we have a closed relationship. Last summer, when the first episode aired, I watched it live and got the feeling that "Mr. Robot" will be a show that I will watch for years, anxiously wondering what will happen next, though I’ll never be able to predict correctly, through its end, and now, in the midst of season 2, I still feel the same way.
