Highlights of "Mr Robot" Season 4

In Mr Robot's fourth and final season, Sam Esmail once again demonstrates that likes to play with his audiences' expectations and indulge in an array of cinematic pizzazz.

• Phillip and Angela's first (and final) scene in Episode 1 "401 Unauthorised"
• Whiterose's back story in Episode 3 "403 Forbidden"
• Everytime Janice (Ashlie Atkinson) appears as the creepy taxidermist/ killer (Episodes 1, 2, 5).
• Tyrell Wellick's final scene in the snow in Episode 4 "404 Not Found"
• Episode 5 "405 Method Not Allowed",  a heist/chase movie with no spoken word (except 2 lines of dialogue) for the entire 50 minutes.
• Episode 7 Riverting, filmed like a play, confined to two rooms, broken into 5 acts. Powerful Bernard Herrmann-esque score.

Amazing cinematography in "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 9

 Sam Esmail's series has always been visually stunning with inventive framing and compositions. This week was no exception. The shot with Elliot and dad outside the prison, camera mounted at their feet.

Photograph USA Network

Photograph USA Network

The scenes with Phillip Price facing off White Rose were equally stunning. One shot has the two umbrella men taking up only 5% of the screen. In another, they are strolling through a formal garden. Classically composed. Reminded me of the shot in Resnais's "Last Day in Marienbad" combined with a surrealist painting.

Five things I learned from "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 8

• The show is still great without Malek and Slater (but I am missing B D Wong as White Rose and that cute Scandi couple, the wacky Wellicks).
• Darlene must stop wearing short shorts, she is going to freeze in New York.
• "Danse Macabre" is still a great symphonic poem.
• Angela does great karaoke with Tears for Fears' "Everybody wants to rule the world".
• Dom's obsession with "Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion"

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 7 highlights

• Joanna's colour motif is definitely stark white and scarlet.
• Sam Esmail playing with the audience (Elliot's prison switcheroo)
• "Maybe next year..." (Phillip's response to Angela's birthday rebuff)
• "Can you let go of me please?" (Elliot being hugged by the Christian counsellor)
• Don't mess with Leon.

"Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 6, review

Despite "The Guardian" TV critic's theory about the demise of second seasons of critically acclaimed shows*, this episode proves that Sam Esmail is still full of surprises and "Mr Robot" is still one of the smartest things on television.
The "family road trip" 80's sitcom was inspired, complete with video-format, cheesy credits, laugh track, commercial breaks, back projection and a cameo by Alf.
Things get darker as the sitcom-from-Hell continues.
The middle part of the episode - Angela junior hacker - is more like a caper movie.
Getting a bit sick of Ray. Do we need this subplot?
The final scene with young Elliot and his dad in family car (a nice bookend for this episode) is satisfying as well as quite poignant.



*Anyway, I liked Season 2 of "True Detective". Season 1 was brilliant but got a bit wanky toward the end. Season 2 of "Fargo" maintained the quality of the first season, so the above theory doesn't hold up.

5 Things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 5

• Elliot's recount of his hacking of the public library at 11 years old.
• B.D. Wong (TV's go-to actor for Asian supervillains, see Hugo Strange in "Gotham") has a terrific scene with Dom showing her his treasured wardrobe collection (and clocks).
• Love Dipierro's Kojak-inspired Chupa Chups (she is now my favourite character, certainly the most sympathetic).
• Mrs Wellick (Stephanie Corneliussen) gets even weirder in this episode (the bit about drugging the underling so he knows the reason for his death, while cradling her baby).
• Creator Sam Esmail demonstrates his directorial prowess with the final shootout scene.

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 4.

• "The Careful Massacre of the Bourgeois" low budget slasher flick.
• The masterful use of Gustav Holst's "The Planets" in the opening scenes.
• Whiterose's elegant boudoir (shades of the French Provincial bedroom in the closing scene of "2001: A Space Odyssey"). For other Asian transvestite hackers, see Cinemax's patchy, but good fun, "Banshee".
• Elliot's fairy tale dream - street dinner party.
• The symmetrical composition of shots in the Court Square subway station and the park during the chess showdown.

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 3

• Jerome's Coney Island back story
• Eclectic music choice - Dusty Springfield, Willie Nelson
• Phillip Price's occasional channelling of Christopher Walken
• Elliot's rant on religion
• Ganja gran

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 2

• Ray's basketball court philosophizing. What does this dude want?
• Danish actor Stephanie Corneliussen (Joanna-Lady Macbeth-Wellick) reminds me of a young Liv Tyler. Interesting that Martin Wallstrom (the lovable Tyrell) is also Scandinavian.
• The beautifully directed $5.9 m bonfire scene.
• The lawyer's bar joke with Angela. Angela is a force to be reckoned with in this season. Those motivation tapes are a worry.
• Channel surfing with Joanna's new S&M buddy (Nancy Grace to "Vanderpumps Rules").

5 things I liked about "Mr Robot" Season 2, Episode 1

• The cleverly edited Obama TV speech.
• Elliot's Seinfeld-spouting buddy, Leon (Joey Bada$$ - great name for a rapper)
• The elegant framing in many shots
• Amazing musical score
• When was the last time you saw "Intermission" in a TV show?

"Mr Robot" - the best new US TV show of 2015?

Not from HBO, Netflix or even FX or Showtime, but from USA Network. Who would have guessed it? This show grabs you from the start and then provides constant twists and turns. The viewer is never treated like an idiot.
A savvy script, moody NYC locales and a standout performance by Rami Malek (the pharaoh in the "Night at the Museum" films) as the dysfunctional super hacker, Elliot, make this engrossing television.
Some of Elliot's rants (to himself or his shrink) are priceless. Christian Slater (the go-to guy in 80's and 90's if you wanted a cool, smart alek, e.g. "Heathers" and "Pump up the Volume") still has it. Nice to see him in something substantial, rather than voiceovers.
Another intriguing character is badass/unhinged Tyrell Wellick. Swedish actor, Martin Wallström, would make a great Bond villain. He reminds me of a young Christopher Walken.
Some scenes knock your socks off. In Episode 9, for example there is a lovely transition of time sequence showing the Mr Robot computer shopfront from 1984 to present day (shades of the dress shop in the 1960 version of "The Time Machine"). I also liked Christian Slater telling a customer the benefits of a 400 MB hard drive.
Writer/director Sam Esmail can do no wrong.