Mr. Robot – Season 1 (a J!-ENT Blu-ray Disc Review)

Enter the “completely captivating” (Jimmy Ryan, Spoiler TV) world of Mr. Robot. Cyber-security engineer by day and vigilante hacker by night, Elliot (Rami Malek, The Pacific) finds himself at a crossroads when the mysterious leader (Christian Slater, Very Bad Things) of an underground hacker group recruits him to destroy the firm he is paid to protect. Compelled by his personal beliefs, Elliot struggles to resist the chance to take down the multinational CEOs he believes are running (and ruining) the world. Now, watch all 10 Season One episodes back-to-back and uninterrupted of the psychological thriller that critics rave is “damn near perfect” (Jessica Rawden, Cinemablend).

From director/writer/producer Sam Esmail (“Mockingbird”, “Comet”) comes a TV drama-thriller series titled “Mr. Robot”.

Originally planned as a film, Sam would realize that he had a script that would be more suitable as a TV series.

With a pilot that was first screen online, the series would eventually find a home with the USA Network and its first season would receive critical acclaim.  And now, the series has received a green light for a ten-episode second season.

“Mr. Robot” stars Sami Malek (“Need for Speed”, “Night at the Museum” films), Christian Slater (“True Romance”, “Interview with a Vampire”, “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves”), Carly Chaikin (“Suburgatory”, “The Last Song”, “In a World”), Portia Doubleday (“Youth in Revolt”, “Carrie”, “Her”), Martin Wallstrom (“Ego”, “Simple Simon”, “Stockholm Stories”) and Michel Gill (“House of Cards”, “The Palermo Connection”).

The series revolves around Elliot Alderson (portrayed by Sami Malek), a talented programmer who works for the top cyber security company, Allsafe.  Allsafe is also responsible for protecting many major corporations including one of the largest companies in the world, E Corp (known to many as “Evil Corp”).

Elliot works with Angela Moss (portrayed by Portia Doubleday), a woman hew grew up with and has always liked, but to his chagrin, she is dating Ollie Parker (portrayed by Ben Rappaport).

But Elliot has mental health issues (which he sees a psychiatrist named Krista Gordon, portrayed by Gloria Reuben), addicted to morphine (which he gets from his neighbor Shalya Nico, portrayed by Frankei Shaw) and wallows in his own loneliness.  So much that he turns to his main passion which is hacking major companies, his friends and people he knows.  And despite not enjoying his job, he uses it as a way to take down E Corp.  And his boss and the entire company has been stressed by attacks against E Corp undermining the security software created by Allsafe.

Meanwhile, he meets the E Corp execs which include its CTO Terry Colby and a former programmer, Tyrell Wellick (portrayed by Martin Wallstrom) who has set his goals of becoming E Corp’s next CTO.

But someone else has tried to take down E Corp, a hacker group known as F Society unleashes a DDoS attack.  As Elliot tries to stop the attack, he finds a text file on E Corp’s server asking him to leave the malware he finds.  Making a decision to delete it or keep it on the server, Elliot chooses the latter.

And while going home, he is approached by a mysterious man named Mr. Robot (portrayed by Christian Slater) who is part of F Society and asks Elliot to join the collective of hackers which include Darlene (portrayed by Darlene), Trenton (portrayed by Sunita Mani), Romero (portrayed by Ron Cephas Jones) and others.

But will Elliot join F Society or will he continue to take down E Corp on his own?

VIDEO:

“Mr. Robot” is presented in 1080p High Definition and in 1:78:1 aspect ratio. Picture quality is very good as one can expect from a TV series.

Meanwhile, it’s important to mention that if you want the 3D version of the film, unfortunately the 3D version is separate from the regular 2D version.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

As for the lossless audio, “Mr. Robot” is presented in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.  The series is primarily dialogue and musically driven.  Dialogue and music are crystal clear, while there are action scene moments with gun shots or crowd ambiance that utilize the surround channels.

Subtitles are in English SDH.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

“Mr. Robot – Season 1” comes with the following special features:

• Deleted Scenes – (5:45) Featuring four deleted scenes.
• Gag Reel – (5:17) Bloopers from the first season of “Mr. Robot”.
• Making_of_Mr_Robot.Mov – (12:14) A featurette about how Mr. Robot became a TV series.

EXTRAS:

“Mr. Robot” comes with a slipcover and an Ultraviolet code.

There have been many films inspired by hackers.  But in today’s modern society and trying to capture today’s hacking groups and also looking at them as possibly the largest threat for nations and corporations, “Mr. Robot” has done an excellent job of creating a thrilling and riveting series.

And part of what makes the series so captivating is because of it’s unstable protagonist. May you think he’s an anti-hero, hero or villain the fact is that the main character Elliot is a person who is mentally unstable but happens to be excellent when it comes to programming and his hacking skills are amazing.

Combine him with other like-minded people who are excellent hackers who are determined to take down one of the largest corporations of the world and you can probably understand the chaos and trouble, but also respect that these anonymous hackers will receive.

But just when you think that the series can be predictable, the writers pull the rug right under your feet with unexpected situations that really hasn’t been done before on television.

So, you have to give credit to series creator Sam Esmail and his other directors and writers who managed to create a fresh episode every week. And having built this wonderful foundation for the first season, the question is if the crew can keep it up or season two because they pulled of so many unexpected situations for the first season.

I have to give credit to the acting of actor Sami Malek. His portrayal of the mentally unstable Elliot is simply wonderful. It’s not easy to play and fit in this type of role, but the level of efficacy of playing a person who is lonely but also amazing when it comes to hacking, you get a perspective through his mindset as Elliot narrates his thoughts. It’s an original character role that you just don’t see on television.

Add in the coolness factor with Christian Slater, who plays the mysterious character known as Mr. Robot. And one will have to keep watching in order to see how this character develops. It’s a bit of a shock, but worth watching!

I found the other character roles to be entertaining and adding synergy to the series with their own characteristics, from the spunky Darlene to the often prudent Angela, the cold and heartless Tyrell Wellick and more!

As for the Blu-ray release, “Mr. Robot” looks very good on Blu-ray. And dialogue and music is crystal clear. With certain action scenes and ambiance utilizing the surround channels. But the soundtrack is primarily front/center channel driven.

And dare I say that I absolutely love the musical soundtrack to this film! It’s like vintage Los Angeles KROQ, alternative rock music from the ’80s and ’90s and I absolute love hearing songs that I grew up with, especially obscure songs, finding its way into this series. It is another component that made this series even more enjoyable to me.

You also get deleted scenes, a gag reel and a making of featurette included as well.

Overall, “Mr. Robot” has become one of my favorite TV series for 2015. But it set the bar so high that there is a high level expectation for the same level of quality writing and performance but also an expectancy of surprises for next season.

Sam Esmail and crew have created one hell of series and if you are in a mood for a heavy hitting thriller, “Mr. Robot – Season 1” is highly recommended!