I was genuinely impressed by Mr. Robot. Mind you, I went in to it with low expectations (an original show about hacking on USA? No way this is any good), I figured it would be the same old same old, people typing furious random characters into a terminal window and going on about how they're hacking the ping time of the IP.
The show establishes its credibility right away with a plausible explanation of how the main character, Elliot, tracked down a cp distributor through TOR. I knew that if all else, the writers for the show had competent tech consultants - unlike every other tech show out there.
The acting from Rami Malek as the asocial hacker is on point. He is perfectly distant and odd, and his speech and cadence are reminiscent of someone with asbergers - I find this character direction works.
The story is fairly compelling. Two episodes in, the show hasn't explicitly explained what is going on. There is the mysterious fsociety hacking group that Elliot has become involved with, but we don't yet know their true intentions, and we are not very sure what Elliot's motivations are for his actions. I find that the vaguery works quite well. Mind you, the story is nothing ground breaking or revolutionary, and there are plenty of predictable moments & cliches, but it's very enjoyable to watch.
This show delivers on what I expected of Halt and Catch Fire (before I decided fgsfds about that show) - Mr Robot is a good character drama framed in technology, and they get the technology right. I plan to keep watching the show this summer, and I recommend everyone else try it too.
