TheBloodyCritique’s Mr Robot - Season 1-3 SPOILER Review
Having recently finished the third season of Mr Robot, one of my new favourite shows, and with confirmation of a fourth in the works I just wanted to talk about the series so far and highlight everything that stood out to me, what I liked, what I didn’t etc. So, without further ado, let’s get into it! SPOILERS ahead.
First of all, Mr Robot is a show with a very current and realistic depiction of things to come, it’s aware of Bitcoin and crypto currency in general plays a large part in the world of Mr Robot, it’s refreshing as someone who’s recently been introduced to the world of crypto to see it acknowledged in a show as intelligently written and poignant as Mr Robot!
I didn’t like the child actor they chose to play young Elliot, he looks nothing like him! All they needed was a kid with a rectangle head and big bug eyes, the second kid they used for the third season was definitely better but I still think they could have easily found a kid with much more of a resemblance, it’s hard to associate them as the same character at times.
I loved the first half of the second season where we’re lost as to Elliot’s real whereabouts, and given the continuous twists and turns so far we just accept strangeness of it all until the beautiful reveal that he’s actually in prison, I can’t wait to re-watch it all, I feel it’s a series that needs to be watched through at least twice to fully appreciate!
Bobby Cannavale was an excellent addition to the third season, I loved him as Gyp Rosetti in Boardwalk Empire and I loved him as Irving here, there’s a calm insanity to him, he’s good with people and seems to know exactly what to say, he makes them feel as if he cares but given the order he wouldn’t think twice about brutally murdering them! He was an interesting character and it was a great performance from Cannavale.
I loved Darlene’s shocking choice to murder Susan Jacobs, it was a great moment for her character, not that she was the happiest of people to begin with but it gave her a darkness and showed us what she was capable of, especially with the way she disposed of the body, it was cold and I liked it! Afterwards she says she feels nothing and that she knows she should, he fall into insanity was inevitable.
Angela had some great character development throughout the series, seeing her completely breakdown at the end of season 3 felt like a long time coming, finding out that Phillip Price is actually her biological father was a nice little twist as well, it makes perfect sense! With Phillip as her father Angela has the potential to become an unlikely villain, I’m interested in her future.
Joey Badass is great as Leon, I love his references and his calm disposition, he’s cool as fuck and sometimes seems completely out of place but it works! He’s the go to guy to get shit done much like Irving, both of them bring very different but equally entertaining and at times comical performances, I approve!
I’m excited to see the return of Fernando Vera, he was like Elliot’s evil twin or something to that effect, it was a great performance from Elliot Villar and like the dynamic between the two, if Elliot was Batman, Vera would be the Joker, I enjoyed his storyline and look forward to his return and what comes of it, it can’t be good!
B.D. Wong delivers an excellent performance as both Whiterose and Zhang, I still don’t know what the fuck he wants in all of this, his reasoning seemed petty there in the third season but I’m sure there’s more to his plan, insinuating he was responsible for Donald Trump’s election was a little on the nose, and the awkward kiss between him and his assistant Grant Chang, that was weird.
Elliot opening up to his psychiatrist was a great moment in the first season and it continues in the third with him introducing her to Mr Robot which was interesting to see, I do miss the first season which had a lot of Elliot hacking his friends and associates and looking into their lives in depth including his psychiatrist, they were simpler days.
Tyrell Wellick’s character development has been interesting throughout the series, after the death of his wife and losing his child to the system it’s hard to imagine him bouncing back, I hated Ernesto Santiago in that final scene between the two, it was painful, I don’t like Tyrell, but it was still a tough moment! I’m gonna miss Joanna, that was a calculated lady, she was a great character and her scheme to clear Tyrell’s name was almost fucking perfect!
I’m not a fan of Dominique, I find her annoying and I’m not rooting for her, her final words to Darlene were harsh and pretty much let us know she actually fell for Darlene? Which is stupid. She’s alright I suppose, there’s just something about her that annoys me, I don’t like how she tries to ‘relate’ to Darlene when they first bring her in either, it’s too phony.
The first big twist at the end of the first season definitely caught me off guard and at first I wasn’t invested in the idea but it’s grown on me more as the show’s progressed and it’s stuck with me, I feel a need to watch it again and I can’t wait to do so with new eyes, there’s so many twist and turns and it moves between past, present and future so often it’s easy to get lost.
Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson and his alter-ego Mr Robot, played by Christian Slater are without a doubt the highlight of the show, both performances are excellent and as a character Elliot is a very interesting idea, his anti-social highly intelligent self-destructive personality is the heart of the show and his struggle is extremely entertaining, there’s a lot of depth there!
In season 3 we get to see the exact moment Elliot created Mr Robot, his father takes him to the cinema and dies in front of him, Elliot takes his father’s jacket and goes and watches a film like nothing had happened, it’s like his mind just split in that moment, he never dealt with his father’s death and to this day keeps him alive through Mr Robot. Elliot and Mr Robot were getting along by the end of this third season as well, I’m interested to see what they could achieve united!
And that’s that! My fairly messy thoughts about one of my favourite new shows Mr Robot, I’m excited for the fourth season and half hoping it’s the final season in the series, I want them to wrap this thing up so I can watch it from start to finish with new eyes and absorb it more, it’s like a fucking maze! Anyway if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading and I’ll see you soon!
What were your favourite moments or elements from Mr Robot?