It is not uncommon for the second season of a popular television series to
experience a phenomenon commonly referred to as the sophomore slump. The
manifestation of its effects is proportional to the success of the initial
season with the loss of perceived quality greater with the most praiseworthy
shows. When the first season wildly exceeds expectations the onus of outdoing it
often goes beyond realization. Showrunners are trapped by the perennial quagmire
of the follow up season. Fan will demand that the aspects of the series that
were responsible to that success yet introduce sufficient alterations to keep
the series fresh. All too often theses are mutually exclusive demands.in the
case of the USA network’s most recent mega hit, ‘Mr. Robot’ managed to achieve
both with panache. The main theme at the core of the story is black hat hackers,
so called ‘hacktivist’ and cyber security. Considering the controversy that
dominated the global political scene effecting the 2016 Presidential election
that revolved around computer hacking on an international scale, ‘Mr., Robot’
has become more frightenedly real than anyone could have imagined. Whenever a
dystopian premise move closer to the current headlines, the show is certain to
assume a significant degree of gravitas. Popularity of this series immediately
was infused into the zeitgeist of a generation resulting from some of the most
powerful writing, intense performance and a directorial style that includes
visual components not even seen on most films. ‘Mr. Robot was a tsunami that
swept away the competition. During the second season considered here it should
upon the foundation in place and achieved even greater heights of success. It
turned the sophomore slump into a sophomore surge.
The previous season ended with a group of hacktivist who call themselves
‘fsociety’ succeeded in the ultimate hack, infiltrating the most secure data
farm that belonged to the corporate juggernaut, E Corp, better known to many as
‘ Evil Corp’ , destroying their records and backups for most of the credit
accounts in the world. People were now liberated from crushing consumer debt but
at an extreme cost; the global economy crashed. Not only did most people live on
credit but this dependency extended to business and governments. The most
talented hacker of fsociety is Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), a young man beset
by a myriad of personal demons. The audience is taken through some of the most
important moments of the first season from a third person vantage point rather
than the Elliot’s point of view. The man that has been pulling his strings
brining him to crashing the world was his father, Edward (Christian Slater),
better known as the titular ‘Mr. Robot’ due to the patch on his ever present
jacket from his electronics repair business. The big reveal last season verified
the most popular fan theory concerning the series; Mr. Robot was a construct of
Elliot’s deeply disturbed mind. Elliot suffers from Dissociative Personality
Disorder, previously called multiple personalities. The man controlling and
tormenting Elliot, the one he remembers as his father, is all in his mind. This
revelation also includes the most radical member of fsociety, Darlene (Carly
Chaikin), is his sister.
In the aftermath of plunging the world, the hack now known by its date, 5/9,
into chaos the members of fsociety are confused as to the next step. Darlene
steps up guiding her cadre of hackers to continue to bring the evil agendas of
large corporations and governments to the attention of the pubic. While she is
driving forward, Elliot has withdrawn into himself. He has decided that the only
way to keep Mr. Robot from controlling him is if he adheres to a strict
schedule, not deviating by a minute during the course of the day. A part of this
routine was to challenge his mind, now deprived of hacking as an outlet, by
playing chess in the park. He becomes friendly with one frequent opponent, Ray
Heyworth (Craig Robinson). Ray was persistent in breaking Elliot’s self-imposed
silence and eventually breeching a web site. This opens Elliot to the direct
notice of the incredibly powerful and active black hat community the Chinese
group known as ‘The Dark Army’. They are not just dangerous online but are
engaged in numerous forms of criminal activities in the real world.
Such a catastrophic failure of global stability cannot go without an official
response and in line with those law enforcement agencies set their resources to
locate the perpetrators. Senior Special Agent Dominique "Dom" DiPierro (Grace
Gummer), is assigned to investigate the hack of E Corp and the head of the
corporate legal department, the General Counsel, Susan Jacobs (Sandrine Holt)
who’s draconian methods has given the nick name, Madame Executioner. Jacobs was
directly targeted by fsociety when they hacked into her high tech, sophisticated
smart home to frighten her. SSA DiPierro is one of the best agents in the FBI’s
Cyber Division who is intelligent, intuitive and tenuous, qualities that make
her exceptionally dangerous to fsociety. One of Elliot’s best friends from early
on in his life is Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday). They both worked together at a
cyber security firm before Elliot became involved in fsociety. After that
company went under Angela went to work for E Corporation managing to receive a
lucrative salary and exalted corporate position and access. Initially a sweet
young woman Angela was forced to become hardened just to survive in this post
5/9 world. Starting at E Corp in public relations Angela leverages a promotion
to a crucial position in Risk Management. Once drawn deeper into the activity of
fsociety, with the help of Darlene, Angela begins to develop hacking skills of
her own.
After such a fast pace conclusion of the first season, season two leaves fans
with the distinct feeling that the pacing has slowed to a crawl. It must be
remembered that the entire world literally changed overnight and it requires
significant time to bring the audience up to speed by revisiting the individual
members of the principle cast depicting how they survived. This necessitated
substantial changes to most relations between people and affiliations with
groups and organizations. In many respects this is a new series, extending the
central narrative in an uncharted direction. The main focus of season one
followed the events leading up to the 5/9 hack. So many stories of a similar
nature are concluded at this point, leaving it to the imagination of the
audience or a sequel at some future point. In the context of this series the
aftermath follows directly following the game changing tipping point, offering
incredible potential for the writers to escalate the intrigue, amplify the
tension and force drastic changes in the character development. Many appear to
hold firm to the misconception that the crux of the thematic impetus remains
dependent on the strange existence of cyberspace. This is only the slightest tip
of the proverbial iceberg. Cyber security is the means to segue into the
exploration of the truly critical themes; the interdependency of economic,
politics and the military that are able to alter the course of the world. While
these events might seem too remote and grand of scale to effect the mundane
lives of individuals, this series demonstrates the all-pervasive reach and
repercussion of events similar to what was depicted here. Although the season
was written and produced long before events that are only now unfolding. Hacking
individuals, political parties and government have been suspected of altering
history, rippling down to literally millions of people and potentially bringing
the world to the brink of disaster, a place not held for over sixty years.
The acting in this thriller is extraordinary. Rami Malek has skyrocketed from
a sought after character actor in a number of television series and movies to
one of the most recognizable actors in the world. The overnight success that
took over a decade of dedication has paid off as the considerable talent of this
man continues to grow in scope and degree. Portraying a person with such a
quagmire of emotional and psychological disorders is highly prone to being over
done or presented in such a convoluted fashion that the distinct elements that
synergistically form the character’s personality are lost in a morass of
conflicting quirks. Mr. Malek navigates this treacherous road to achieve a
masterful control over his character allowing the audience to embrace this
severely damaged person as the protagonist. Contrasting Elliot’s fight against
the Mr. Robot personality is the emotional journey Angela is forced to
undertake. Some of the actions encompassing corporate blackmail and self-serving
ambition would be unimaginable for the idealistic young woman seen early in
Season 1. The character that has embraced the new world order with enthusiasm
was Darlene. She slips effortlessly into the positon of leading fsociety making
it into the means to enact her own view of how society should function.