For Your Viewing Pleasure: Mr. Robot

I have had my fair share of surprises in television this year. Science fiction has a tough time finding audiences on any network. There are a lot of things to get right, and then you have to find an audience to watch it. Currently, fantastical shows are hitting their prime with all audiences rather than just a small percentage. It also surprised me that I watched a comic book series adapted to television, and I liked it. Arrow and The Flash flourishing on The CW? It’s something I’ll never wrap my head around. Even 12 Monkeys on Syfy had me tuning in week after week.

So you’ll have to excuse the fact that I completely ignored these revelations when I heard about Mr. Robot on USA. Now I knew USA has some popular original series like Suits and Psych, but I wasn’t familiar with their programming and I wasn’t even really interested in hearing anything more about the show until I saw the trailer.

So Rami Malek plays Elliot, an anxious cyber security engineer with a flair for hacking, realistically. He’s recruited to an organized team of vigilantes by Christian Slater, playing the titular Mr. Robot, to take down “the Man.” I have to tell you though…they nail it.

The pilot is currently available here, on USA’s website and, rather than tell you more about it, I want you to watch it. I definitely believe it’s going to find a passionate audience right away when it premieres on June 24th. After South by Southwest, the internet was abuzz with praise, and now I know why. It’s dark in all the right places and finds way to make the most boring moments exciting. It’s techy, but not silly. It’s complicated but doesn’t feel off-putting, and Rami Malek is so perfect. I’m not one to gush, but he is absolutely the right choice for the character. He’s not overtly handsome, but there’s something in his eyes that makes you equally creeped out and invested. It’s a winding road that I hope will have some big payoffs throughout the ten-episode season.

If you enjoyed Carly’s robotics, you can find the rest of her work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow her on Twitter @MrsCarlyRodgers.

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