The other day while at work I went to a website, Rotten Green Tomatoes, that praised the TV series Mr. Robot. I had never heard of it. It is on USA Network. As I am gazing at the website and its critique, I mumbled something about it to a coworker, Anna. She lit-up with excitement with just a touch of surprise that I was oblivious to the show. I'm not oblivious anymore.
Anna insisted I come by after work to watch a few episodes. She has recorded all ten or twelve of them. I thought; oh heck, why not, so I accepted, promising that I would bring over a bottle of wine.
I came by Anna's apartment at about 7 or so and she wasted no time answering the door. She was very enthused. I poured myself a glass of wine and Anna programed the pilot episode to begin. She had seen it a couple of times but she was more than willing to sit through it again.
The main character was not Mr. Robot. His name was Elliot. He was a young man who worked at an internet security company. He had tremendous tech savvy but had emotional trouble and was asocial. He also had a drug problem with morphine. He silently talked to an invisible character, the talk used as kind of a narration for the audience as to what he thought and what was going on in general during the episode.
No need for a spoiler alert. I moderately enjoyed the first episode. Liked the second episode a little less. About halfway through the third episode I proclaimed that it was "later than I thought" and that I had to go home and wash my hair.
All of the main characters were early 20s, angry at society and youthfully rebellious. No one smiled, let alone laughed. All the characters were from that same mold though some were unscrupulous, of course. It is a series with technology being essentially a main character, if not the main character. Watching someone putting data into a laptop is not that exciting, even if they are doing it furiously, accompanied by rousing music. Funny, by that third episode I was actually longing for a car chase.
Anyway, I'd kind of like getting into a TV series like I did a few years ago with 30Rock and my fictional counterpart Liz Lemon. Mr. Robot isn't going to be that series. I'm either getting a little too old to appreciate a parade of youthful bad attitudes, or, the series simply wasn't that good. It's the latter of the two, right?
