on Blu-ray.
{Spoiler}I'd heard about this show, but also heard it was quite 'confusing' which was what had given me pause in checking it out. I even watched the trailer for Season 1 on YouTube and that didn't exactly tell me anything about the show or impress me, but instead just left me confused. However, I decided to take a chance (as I often do with shows I haven't seen on TV and can only watch if I buy them on DVD/Blu-ray). Yes, there was going to be the chance that I didn't enjoy it (and considering I'd bought both Seasons 1
and 2, that was going to be a costly risk that I took if I didn't end up liking the show - though they were part of a buy 2 for a cheaper price than normal deal), but the first episode of the show at least piqued my interest. I liked the atmosphere/tone that it set, it was well-directed and the characters were intriguing. The only real 'negatives' were that I didn't understand too much of the hacker jargon used and I found Rami Malek's voiceover to be very monotone. However, I'd watched
Dexter, and in that show Michael C. Hall's voiceover was quite monotone too (monotone voiceovers always make me appreciate voiceovers in other shows where there's much more 'life' to them such as Kristen Bell's voiceovers in
Gossip Girl or
Veronica Mars).
Speaking of, one of the things that stood out the most to me when watching the first episode was how there were a few similarities between Elliot Alderson in this show and the character of Dexter Morgan. You had the voiceover, you had the 'not good around people' personality, you had him taking down a bad guy (albeit not ending with his death but instead his arrest) and he even keeps trophies of his victims (instead of blood slides it's discs of his 'hacks' - not the literal kind of 'hacking', though), but after noticing these similarities, I was able to just roll with it. I'd seen much praise for Rami Malek in this role and so I was expecting to be impressed. I think one of the first things I ever saw him in was the TV series
24 and then I recognised him years later when he appeared in
Breaking Dawn - Part 2, as he definitely stands out with his unique look. His most distinct feature - his eyes - were being used to full effect during his opening scene. While his monotone voice did kind of feel like the cure to insomnia at times, it also added to the darkly humourous moment when he shared what he had in common with the guy he'd hacked...and what he
didn't.
I always think that the introductory scene for the lead of a show should establish what sort of person they are, and this one did a good job of telling us what sort of person Elliot was. But it wasn't just the very strong opening scene; the episode
as a whole really pulled me in. If I didn't already like Elliot, his likeability was certainly cemented when he rescued a poor pooch who was being mistreated by its owner (though I did wonder how the guy he blackmailed explained to his wife the sudden disappearance of their dog. I also wondered how they filmed the shot of the dog being pulled up into the air by the lead attached to its collar without it actually being hurt). Any rescuer of abused/mistreated/lost animals is instantly 'okay' in my book (that's why I liked Will Graham from the series
Hannibal within the first episode of that show). At least now Elliot had something other than a fish to keep him company (though there was a funny moment in the fourth episode where we got to hear the fish 'speak'). Of course, Elliot wasn't always likeable and we got to see another side of him when he emotionally eviscerated a guy named Bill as part of a plan of attack against 'Evil Corp' (that was actually 'E Corp' but he always heard their name as 'Evil Corp', which the show illustrated by having characters actually
say it/call it that when interacting with Elliot).
Unlike some, I had no problem with the character of Angela from when she was introduced to the end of the episode. It became clear that she knew Elliot had 'issues' and was willing to be accommodating, but would also stand up for herself when he did more harm than good in trying to help her out. I could totally understand her frustrations when the head guy during the meeting had no interest in listening to her/dismissed her as someone who made mistakes (which she
hadn't, actually). I instantly hated that guy (though, sadly, he seemed very 'real' as I see evidence day after day of guys who treat women the same way he treated Angela). While on the one hand it was nice to see Elliot step in to back her up, I could also see it from her perspective - that he needed to let her fail or succeed on her own and swooping in to 'save' her was not going to help anything. I'd only seen Portia Doubleday in the
Carrie and
Fantasy Island movie remakes prior to seeing her in this, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of her character here, but she showed she was no pushover and was actually capable of not only standing up for herself, but also taking on those who underestimated her. I would've liked to have seen more interaction between Angela and Elliot, as clearly there was quite a bit of history there, but it was nice that he was willing to hug her/be hugged by her in the first episode, after it'd been made clear how uncomfortable he was with such human interaction.
Someone else who had an interesting dynamic with Elliot was the character of Darlene, played by Carly Chaikin (who was another one with a very distinctive face that I recognised, but I couldn't place where I'd seen her before until late into the first episode when it finally dawned on me that I'd seen her previously in the show
Suburgatory where she played a 'self-absorbed, vacuous valley girl' (as the character's Wiki page describes her). She was also blonde there. So, basically she was playing a character here who was as different from that character as she could get. I saw that some people took an instant disliking to her, which I'm guessing was because of her few lines to Elliot during the first episode (which weren't overly friendly) coupled with the fact that she liked to make herself at home in his place (after seemingly having just met him) by appearing to break in, take showers there, etc. I personally didn't have much of a problem with her, but I was mainly just impressed with how Carly Chaikin was able to make Darlene so completely different from her
Suburgatory character (though occasionally her voice would remind me of her). Things got interesting the more we saw her interact with Elliot culminating in episode 8 when it was revealed who she really was to him. Sadly, I'd been spoiled for it, but on the plus side I got to watch all the prior episodes with this knowledge and therefore noticed things that hinted at their relationship with each other
before the onscreen reveal. What I hadn't been spoiled for, however, was that he snogged her - so that was kind of amusing, since I knew what her reaction to it would be before we saw he react (such a shame that he'd just started to feel feelings for Darlene...but they were the 'wrong' sort of feelings).
There were actually a few big revelations during this episode. I wondered if I'd missed an episode when this one started with Angela and Darlene seemingly chummy with each other at ballet class (as we'd never seen them interact previously), but since I was already spoiled for the reveal, things weren't quite as shocking for me. I remembered there was the girl who adult Elliot saw during the fourth episode (which was like one big hallucination) and I thought that should've been a big clue as to who Darlene was. I'm bummed that the reveal wasn't a surprise for me, as I wonder how I would've reacted to the snogging scene if I
hadn't known. Darlene being Elliot's sister certainly made all her bizarre interaction with him (ie. barging into his home, taking showers there, acting overly familiar with someone who we thought she'd only just met) suddenly make sense (and no wonder she freaked out when he saw her in the shower. It wasn't just some guy seeing her, but her
brother). I do find her character interesting as well as her dynamics with both Angela and Elliot. I hope that we get to see more of both.
Probably the least shocking revelation was that 'Mr. Robot' (who, amusingly, I saw some name 'Hobo Christian Slater'), the character who'd introduced Elliot to Darlene and wanted him to help them make their 'fsociety' hacker group take down the evil corporation Elliot worked for, was in fact
not Mr. Robot (as his jacket claimed) but was actually a hallucination of Elliot's dead dad. Apparently there'd been loads of speculation early on during the series that there was going to be a
Fight Club-like twist (I haven't seen that movie, but I know what it is), and I guess this was more or less
that. Though what would've made it really hard for people to work out was that we'd finally seen Mr. Robot interacting with people other than Elliot. So how could others be seeing Elliot's hallucination? The answer being that Mr. Robot *was* Elliot and Elliot *was* Mr. Robot, so whenever one would talk to other characters, the other would fade into the background and when Elliot was talking to him, he was just interacting with himself (as was amusingly demonstrated when he had himself shoved up against a wall whilst in public and he was told by his ghost dad "You should get a Bluetooth headset so everyone thinks you're the local douche."). I'm not sure where they're going to go with the character now that Elliot knows who he is and I wonder if ghost dad will become like ghost Spike in Season 5 of
Angel and just pester Elliot endlessly - seems like it might get stale after a while. Rami Malek certainly sold the hell out of all these revelations overwhelming Elliot and I understand why he won those accolades. As for Christian Slater, I thought he was fine in the role.
I saw the characters of Tyrell Wellick and his wife, Joanna, described as 'Swedish vampires' elsewhere, which amused me, as they've certainly got the whole creepy vibe thing going on. I did roll my eyes that the writer/s felt they had to make Tyrell 'interesting' by having him beat up hobos (but at least he pays them!), doing it with a guy just to bug his phone, and then going home for some Fifty Shades action with his pregnant wife. Even more eyeroll-worthy was how unhinged he became, firing three guys from work for 'nothing' (other than they poked fun at employees 'going gay' to work their way to the top. I'm pretty sure they could've sued, couldn't they? Can people be fired without cause? Anyway, they got the last laugh since by the end of the season Tyrell's arse got fired too), watching a woman on the toilet and then choking her to death in a later episode. It was almost funny how he'd been made out to be so 'badass' early on, but in the end he was just weak, desperate and pretty pathetic actually. Heck, his creepy wife seemed calmer/cooler than him and seemed to hold their schemes together. She was certainly dedicated, as she even induced labor with a fork from the kitchen when the police were in the middle of questioning them about the woman Tyrell had offed. In her scene with Elliot in the final, she was especially creepy - and all without any gimmicks required. No shouting, no throwing things, just eerie calmness - THAT'S how you be an actually
effective Swedish vampire, Tyrell!
I think the one scene I didn't mind Tyrell was the one where Elliot brought him in on his plan to 'save the world'. I'd actually discovered this scene quite a while back due to the song that plays during it. 'Where Is My Mind?' was originally by the band Pixies, but then I heard a cover version of it in an episode of
The Good Wife ages ago and immediately sought out that version on YouTube. I've listened to it countless times and I think it's safe to say I like it even more than the original version. I honestly don't want to hear any other versions of the song, as I can't imagine them being any better than this one. When I looked it up on YouTube I saw people commenting on how it'd been used in
Mr. Robot and I found the scene. Of course, since this was quite some time ago I'd forgotten most of it, so I was looking forward to watching the scene play out within the actual episode. However, I was expecting the
song to be used, but instead they just used an instrumental version with no singing...which I was a bit disappointed by, I have to say. Still, the music used in the scene made it all the more effective/one of the more memorable ones from the show.
Other characters in the show either bored me or annoyed me. I didn't mind Shayla in the beginning, but I was spoiled for her death. The episode following her death started with a flashback to how she met Elliot and it turns out she more or less acted the same way Darlene was (ie. barging into his place, making herself at home, being somewhat rude, etc) except she didn't have the excuse of being his sister, so I wasn't that broken up over her demise. The one behind her death was FAR more annoying, though. If there's one thing I can't stand it's philosophizing monologues, but they're made even worse when they philosophizing
villain monologues. I SO wanted the character of Fernando to STFU AND DIE...but, sadly, he seems like the type of villain character writers love to write for, so I don't foresee him being offed anytime soon (which is disappointing). Angela's b/f was entertaining to begin with due to us hearing what Elliot thought of him, but he just proved to be another jerk and I was glad she dumped his arse. All the rest weren't memorable enough to warrant mention (the one exception being BD Wong's character, Whiterose, who certainly made an impression...but I'm hoping they don't overuse that character).
All in all, while I wasn't always sure what was going on, I think I got the gist of it most of the time. I even didn't mind that it often left you wondering what was real and what wasn't. I think they did a decent job of making it comprehensible if you paid close attention. I did think the show became slightly less interesting after the first episode, but it picked up again around episodes 5 & 6 and
really got interesting by episode 8. Speaking of episodes, this show was totally doing my head in with the episode titles. The first episode, for example, was titled 'eps1.0_hellofriend.mov', but then the second episode was titled 'eps1.1_ones-and-zer0es.mpeg', the third episode was titled 'eps1.2_d3bug.mkv' and so on until the tenth episode/season final, which was titled 'eps1.9_zer0-day.avi' (episode 2 is ep 1? Episode 10 is ep 9? WTF?! Be less confusing with your episode titles next season, show!). The episodes were directed well and certainly had a lot of atmosphere, I wasn't really too bored and/or confused during it and I'm eager to watch more. I guess it's a
good thing that I liked the show, since I'd already bought Season 2 and bought Season 3 after I started watching Season 1. Sometimes taking chances on shows I haven't seen before pay off...and this one one of those instances. I just hope we see Elliot doing more of what he did in the first episode - ie. taking down bad guys Dexter-style but with hacking in the
computer sense rather than the
literal sense. After all, he has a superhero-like name, his hoodie is practically his costume and he can even do a superhero stance/pose.