Mr. Robot Season 2 Review: Slow Start, Steady Finish

 

Genre: Drama/ Psychological Thriller

Directed By: Sam Esmail

Starring: Rami Malek , Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin , Portia Doubleday

Written By: Sam Esmail

Synopsis: Mr. Robot follows Elliot, a young programmer who works as a cyber-security engineer by day and a vigilante hacker by night. Elliot finds himself at a crossroad when the mysterious leader of an underground hacker group recruits him to destroy the corporation he is paid to protect.

Mr. Robot has just finished it’s season 2 finale and man was that a mind-fuck. I started Mr. Robot season 2 in utter disappointment as it seemed to lapse severely in keeping my interest. However, after following a few tweets about the show picking up it’s pace, I quickly binged my way to the season finale, as I watched it live on TV and was glad I gave the show another chance.

THE GOOD:

Mr. Robot stars Rami Malek, who just won his first Emmy for his portrayal as Elliot Alderson.  That being said, the show has always had it’s fair share of highly talented actors, who tend to carry the dark tone of the show without utter boredom ( for the most part ).

While I did state that season 2 starts gut wrenchingly slow, the episodes post episode 4, actually pick up drastically as there are certain points season 2 touches the level of writing and plot that Breaking Bad in it’s best moments has.

From the extremely un-predictable plot, to the shocking plot twists, Mr. Robot post episode 4 gets you more than interested enough for what the rest of the season has to offer.

While the show may have its un-interesting and boring moments, it is one of those shows that is worth the wait if you give it a chance. Season one had the same flaws, as it did lapse in interestingness from time to time, but as the show goes on, the story is destined to get crazier and crazier as the episodes go by.

Mr. Robot season 2, holds through with it’s steady build up and character development, that matches it’s excellent acting skills.

THE BAD:

As Ive mentioned before, Mr. Robot suffers from un-interesting story telling that unfortunately plagues it’s viewers until the first couple episodes of season 2 end. The problem with this is that season 1 ended so wildly, that your average viewer went into season 2 with a full head of steam hoping the show would match that excitement.

Unfortunately, the first couple episodes don’t do that, and actually made some viewers never come back. While thankfully I wasn’t one of them, I got tired of seeing the same old “it was all just an illusion” Fight Club trick.

Yes that psychedelic “it was all just in your head” stuff is fun to a certain extent, but season 2 seemed to start depending on it too much, as it seemed that everything from a characters death, to this show even having a real premise, could be explained by that same idea.

After a couple times, it just got annoying to see that I just wasted a couple hours watching something that didn’t even happen that way.

Luckily as season 2 progressed and the season finale ended, it seemed the directors knew exactly what they were doing as they strayed away from that illusion stuff in a very vital and important season finale.

If Mr. Robot continues with a balanced approach of illusion and real premise, Mr. Robot season 3 is sure to keep me hooked as the season finale seemed to do exactly that.

THE VERDICT:

Mr. Robot season 2 suffers from un-interesting writing and plot early on, but through steady build up and the strong acting talents from Rami Malek and others, Mr. Robot carries it’s way to the end, with a jaw-dropping season finale and good cliff hanger to keep fans onto the next season.

For more, see a Mr. Robot season 2 character ranking