Yesterday, Bekah told you the reasons you need to watch The Man in the High Castle (hot guys, great chicks, important themes), and she’s right: that series is awesome. But today, I’m telling you to add something new to your queue: Mr. Robot. It’s currently on iTunes and onDemand on USA (which your parents definitely have, so you can chill there and binge while your mom makes egg nog and Christmas fudge).
Hot Topic
Mr. Robot is a hacking drama. And yeah, those have been around since you didn’t see Hackers in 1995, but this one takes the tech you do know and the hacking lingo you don’t and makes a compelling series. All without resorting to weird government agency intervention, car chases or roller blades.
How I see all hackers in my dreams
Basically, the main character, Elliot (played by Rami Malek, whom I’ll get to in a minute) is a socially awkward cyber vigilante, who spends his days working at the dreary 21st century version of Inatech from Office Space, and in his free time exposes child pornographers and Ashley Madison creeps.
While attempting to fix a major hack on EvilCorp, the conglomerate tech company that employs the data security firm he works for, he discovers a message for him from hacker group, fsociety. Being the do-gooder, super intelligent but also paranoid loner that he is, Elliot takes a chance and meets the enigmatic Mr. Robot for himself. Where it goes from there … you’ll have to watch, but I guarantee you won’t want to stop.
Everything Goes Back To Twilight
EGBTT is a mantra around here second maybe only to “that’s normal” itself, because truly … everything goes back to Twilight. And with Mr. Robot, the connection is pretty obvious. Elliot is played by Rami Malek (that’s the Egyptian vampire Benjamin to those normals out there), and he plays him to perfection. Rami is ridicuously watchable, which is a good thing because he’s narrating this journey for us as if we are the third person delusion he’s recently created for himself to sort all this mess out. We are up close and personal with his issues, his liabilities, his delusions, his genius, and his eyes for most of the series. And it’s fascinating.
And at times, it’s also really hot.
Vintage Sassy
From the bottom of my 11 year old heart, I would like to thank the USA Network and Sam Esmail (showrunner and creator), for giving me back my first crush. Finally, Christian Slater is once again in something I am excited to watch. I haven’t been able to say that since like 1997.
100% had this on my wall in 1991.
Christian Slater was the first boy poster I ever put on my wall thanks to my friend Kelly’s very liberal mom who let us watch Gleaming the Cube AND Kuffs at Kelly’s 12th birthday party. Which of course led me to a local Blockbusters for what I would consider my first binge watch weekend: Heathers, Robin Hood, and Pump Up the Volume. If I were cool enough to be in this video with the SNL ladies and Elizabeth Banks, I would definitely be singing a verse about Hard Harry.
But that first spark of tween love has not been enough for me to stick with Christian through his stints on The West Wing or the Forgotten. To be honest, I haven’t even seen anything he’s been in since 3000 Miles to Graceland because I just don’t have that much staying power. What can I say? I’m fickle unless you’re John Krasinski. But all of the sudden, my OG fave bae is on my new fave show.
YAAASSSSSS.
Now I’m following him on Twitter and “talking” to him on Instagram and listening to him on Nerdist, and I am swooning nonstop. Did you know he’s into dog adoption? I LOVE ADOPTED DOGS TOO! #MFEO #swoon
Creepy Clips
Still not convinced? Let these clips from the show push you over the edge.
Is it REALLY this easy to hack a hospital? Yikes.
Christian’s voice still does it for me.
So grab a 1992 edition of YM magazine, hug your Breaking Dawn 2 pillow, put a post-it note over the iSight camera on your MacBook (TRUST ME), and go binge you some Mr. Robot this month. You won’t hate it. Except if you have a crappy password.
Have you watched Mr. Robot yet? Who’s your original celebrity crush?
