Maybe Mr. Robot's real message is to show how incredibly damaging mental illness can actually be on a society if not to outright question why society even exists in the first place

I'm a few episodes into season two of USA's hit, Mr. Robot. Although I'd classify it as "good" by placing it within the same vein as "A Beautiful Mind" or "Memento," these are both films that I don't revisit. Once was enough, because they're basically depressing shows. But on top of that, Mr. Robot adds another layer of "annoying" for me: the whole "unreliable narrator" schtick. Basically, we see the world of Mr. Robot through crazy person "Elliot" or through Tyrell Wellick's sociopathic wife (who knows what motivation she is up to). It makes me wonder if I (as a writer) would ever toy with the unreliable narrator trope, and I think it frustrates me so much that I compare it to "it's all a dream" sequences that are in books (but are only revealed as dreams after whole chapters). It's like pulling the "just kidding!" button and leaves the reader feeling like they've wasted time. Furthermore, it makes the reader question what is real, what isn't real, and why should I even care? So no, I don't think I'd ever use that.

I do think that Mr. Robot definitely has an audience out there. Disaffected people who are angry at the world and just narcissistic enough to lay no blame at their own feet for the choices they have made in life will love the show. People who express frustration, or who feel neutered and disrespected by life will flock to its themes of using computers to disrupt systems and bring pain to the rich elite whom they see as undeserving of the blessings within their life. In the latest episode, Elliot was praised for "hearing voices" and compared to the likes of Moses and Jesus. That's sure to stroke the ego of any narcissistic computer nerd out there whose life has been made a living hell through low self-esteem but likens himself as a social justice warrior (read "moral narcissist" into this phrase). The "no one appreciates that I'm a genius" mantra is a HUGE underlying current in Mr. Robot. Sigh.

So I'm what? Four episodes into this season. The big reveal last season was that Mr. Robot was in fact Elliot's dead father, and he wasn't real at all. I'm beginning to suspect that this season has even more big reveals. I think Elliot (for one) is in a mental institution. He keeps a journal, gets regular meds, there's only one phone he uses, and his only way to access a computer looks like it happens in an office in a prison or asylum (with a guard). He watches hoops from bleachers, and the show makes you think that it's probably a neighborhood park that he walks down to. But I suspect it's just in the yard where he's being kept prisoner. And I think he landed in there because he killed Tyrell Wellick in the season opener. But who knows, maybe I'm wrong. Tyrell might still be alive because we get hints through his sociopathic wife, but she doesn't give us much as far as that goes. The only thing that we really know about her is that she's into bondage, doesn't have enough hush money, and that she's dating a bartender because dating a loser (in her own words) is really appealing since she had all of the material things she could ever want and was never happy. But does the woman even know what happiness is?

The characters in this show are incredibly frustrating, evil, manipulative, and crazy. It's a good show, but it's not a "feel good" drama. Maybe it's only real purpose is to show how incredibly damaging some kinds of mental illness can actually be on society, if not questioning why society even exists in the first place. That, and maybe to compare hackers to gods. I'm sure Julian Assange would approve to being deified. Why not? The narcissism runs strong in the almost all male dominated tech community. But at least these narcissists seem to have good intentions: they want the world to be a better place. I guess we couldn't expect hackers to have read Virgil's Aeneid wherein the quote "The descent to hell is easy" appears and probably morphed into the phrase "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

Is Mr. Robot noir and if so is it a reinvention of Breaking Bad?

 

I just figured it out: Mr. Robot is just Breaking Bad, only it's Breaking Bad for techno geeks. Elliott is the stand-in for Walter White and his slow descent into the criminal world is basically the same as Walter White's. I mean, Walter White started out slow by cooking meth for small time drug dealers and then outwitted/killed them. Elliott is essentially doing the same thing: forced to outwit the clueless drug leaders by outplaying them. What really clued me in was last week's episode where he had a gun held to his head, and he began to rattle off all the reasons that the guy holding the gun to his head couldn't shoot him. It sounded eerily familiar to something Walter White might say to Tuco or to Gus.

As a caveat, Mr. Robot is not a ripoff of Breaking Bad by any means, but it certainly seems to be a clever reinvention, however intended as far as the writers are concerned. Which makes me ask the next question: is Mr. Robot noir then? From what I understand, noir is where the main character is basically an anti-hero and we are dragged along on a ride that ends in his ultimate destruction. If this is the case, then Elliott is doomed and the seasons of this show will show us his descent piece by piece (and of course his path will be littered with the bodies of everyone that knows him). We already started this in a way with Shayla's brutal death at the hands of Vera's henchmen.

So what do you guys think? Is Mr. Robot noir and if so is it a reinvention of Breaking Bad? Let's hope so, because Breaking Bad was probably the best television series I've ever seen.

Mr. Robot is probably a figment of Elliot's mind and Tyrell is a combination of everything I liked about Christian Grey and everything I hate about Francis Underwood

Christian Grey is "Mr. Robot" who is probably a figment of Elliot's mind
(pictured behind the monitor in front of Mr. Robot).

I've watched three episodes of Mr. Robot now. Wednesday's episode was called Eps1.2d3bug.mkv, and if you haven't watched any of these, you should probably be warned that the narrator is very unreliable. Elliot's a genius software developer/engineer that regularly uses morphine and other drugs and when filtered through his point of view, his employer simply becomes "Evil Corp" instead of "AllSafe." I get the impression that "Allsafe" is probably some stand-in for "Google" or for "Apple" (the two largest tech companies in the world). As far as I'm able to tell, the hacking and coding seems to be about as close to reality as anything I've ever seen, which doesn't necessarily mean much since I'm no expert. It becomes obvious to me though that USA in this latest series is taking great pains to be as authentic as possible.

Christian Slater is the telltale "Mr. Robot," and I'm pretty sure that just like in "A Beautiful Mind" and in "Fight Club" that this particular character is a figment of Elliot's imagination. His loud comments never get remarked upon, which lend credence to this theory. Mr. Robot has a plan that reminds me a lot of Tyler Durden's. He wants to crash the global financial system by wiping out all debt owed by individuals so that everyone is finally free. It'll be interesting if the series actually follows through with that premise, and it's probably very popular with everyone right now as every country and most citizens seem to be drowning in debt these days.

There's also a villainous bisexual named Tyrell Wellick. He's incredibly handsome (think Jamie Dornan in "Fifty Shades of Grey"), and I'm a little disappointed in this choice. When I see him pick up this guy named Anwar just to slip a bug into his phone, I'm reminded of the "secret homosexual" as a sign of amoral and sexual deviancy from a couple of decades ago. But maybe he just knows how to capitalize on his looks to get what he wants and wields his beauty like a tool. Beyond his sexuality, Tyrell is complex: his wife is pregnant and likes him to tie her up (again like "Fifty Shades of Grey") only it's clear she's in charge. He also pays a homeless guy to allow him to brutally assault him under some train tracks. It's like Tyrell is a complete psychopath in a way, and it oddly seems to fit in what I think of corporate America: that being that only the psychopaths make it all the way to the top to claim the golden chalice of "C.E.O." or otherwise.

This is Tyrell in front of a mirror prepping his speech to advocate for himself
being appointed the new "Chief Technology Officer" of  Evil Corp. So you can see
what I mean about his character being a cross between Jamie Dornan's Christian Grey
and Kevin Spacey's Francis Underwood, below is a still of Christian Grey from the
hit 2015 movie. Tyrell's got about the same moral character as Francis Underwood
from House of Cards. If you've watched it, you know what I mean.

Mr. Robot is a show that I'm probably going to watch on a regular basis. It's characters are just too compelling really for me to let go, and I gotta know if Elliot's imagining everything and what the hell is going on with Tyrell and his wife (who have obviously got one of those "House of Cards" arrangements to support each other ruthlessly). I could imagine the pitch session for the Tyrell character: "He's a combination of Christian Grey and Francis Underwood all rolled into one." How could you go wrong?

Are you watching Mr. Robot?