TV: Mr. Robot

"Put simply, Mr. Robot is essential viewing."

Rami Malek plays hacker Elliot Alderson in Mr Robot.

There are some TV shows which build up slowly and perhaps by the end of the first season or later you realise you love the show.  Then there are other shows which capture your interest fairly quickly and by the end of the first episode you're a fan.  And then there are shows which firmly grab your attention right from the opening scene.  Mr. Robot falls into this final category, and within the first few minutes I was already confident I was going to love this show.

To outline the basic plot, Mr. Robot is a 'hactivist' (played by Christian Slater) who assembles a team of underground hackers known as fsociety to go after and bring down E Corp, one of the world's biggest corporations.  The story is told from the perspective of Elliot Alderson, a cyber-security programmer and talented hacker whose father was killed by E Corp's policy of putting corporate greed over human life, so E Corp are therefore appropriately referred to as Evil Corp throughout the series.

There are some clever twists along the way; some unexpected and also one big twist that most viewers will probably work out for themselves in advance of the big 'reveal'.  But with Mr. Robot, the foreseeable 'twist' is told with such brilliant story-telling that even though you expect it coming, it still adds to the overall intrigue.  And when it's finally revealed, although you're not surprised, it adds layers to the story and you're excited for how things will now progress.