What a joy to watchMr.
Creator Sam Esmail is directing every episode, and hes turned his hacker noir into a thrilling sizzle reel.
There was that opening montage in episode 2, Elliots return to normalcy set to New Sensation by INXS.
Credit: Michael Parmelee/USA Network
The mission statement with music videos was, to be specific, whatever.
Make it funny, make it sexy, make it experimental, make it weird.
Realism is the anti-point.
The choreography is rambling, like stand-up seat-dancing.
Ginger Spice looks one high-heeled step away from pratfalling.
The lip-syncing sounds beamed in from another room in another country, like whenever Optimus Prime speaks in theTransformersmovies.
The label hated it.
The Spice Girls said (paraphrasing), WE LOVE IT!
(Theyre just trying to have a good time, narc dont commit your hate crimes here!)
Robots third season, titled eps3.4_runtime-error.r00, one of the real TV events of the year.
(My colleague Kevin Sullivanhas all the details on how theMr.
Robotcrew made the episode here.)
He says goodbye to her and walks out of the elevator.
Hes at work, missing memories, and for some reason he cant access to the server.
Like Camitz, Esmail is not going for realism.
This is how they do it, isnt it?
Elliot says, trying to fit in with his co-workers, who dont have to try.
How theyre able to watch the world fall apart around them.
Because to them, this is normal.
The first half of the episodeisnormal, for most people.
Elliot is the darkening chaos, constantly walking into places where he doesnt belong.
At the comedy-thrill high point of this sequence, he hides from security by walking into a boardroom.
He says hello, sits at the table, checks his BlackBerry.
Yknow, Sean, Elliot says, sometimes I get a lot like you.
Where you have a lot of anxiety because of a deadline.
When you find yourself at the center of one of those storms, you just gotta breathe.
The effect of this speech is electric.
Elliots ginning up his confidence, but his tone is both sincere and sarcastic.
Hes on a race against time, but he seems self-aware about how ludicrous this race-against-time structure is.
The flashiest part comes next.
Elliot walks outside into a protest.
There are people yelling, This is what democracy looks like!
Youve been trying to play me, says Elliot, thiswhole fing time.
Intermission: The camera swoops away, finds a reporter with an update on the protest at E Corp.
Suddenly, were just watching a CNN update, complete with a chyron that appears and then disappears.
They storm E Corp like its the Bastille.
They get to the elevator and force a poor sap to use his security card to carry them upward.
They arrive on a floor and begin their merry marauding, spray-painting and crushing and breaking.
Again, listen to the sounds.
He looks at her, assuming shes just another regular person.
The little atmospheric touches are important, and carry a bigger message.
This is some key big idea inMr.
(Isnt Elliot such an amateur?
Look what Julian Assange has done lately, and he hasnt left his home in years.)
There are wild things happening in thisMr.
More accurate, given the storytelling, to title itThe Raid on a Laptop.
But then she has to sneak out past the protestors.
One attacker has fallen, maced into unconsciousness.
She takes off his mask familiar to us as the insidious Monopoly Man-meets-Guy Fawkes face of fsociety.
And she grabs his hoodie, covering her head so just her blonde hair is visible.
And the actions Angela has taken in this half of the episode are actions meant for Elliot.
She couldnt find him, so she finished the job herself.
A key plot thread throughout this brilliant season ofMr.
Elliot lit the fuse, but now Angela is making sure that there is an explosion.
It climaxes, perfectly, at the end.
Angela walks back to her office, eyes darkened.
She turns a corner, and theres one final lovely visual joke.
So she doesnt notice Elliot standing in front of her until hes onscreen.
They look at each other, shot in a dual profile (duel profile?
), like opponents in the worlds most melancholyStreet Fightersequel.
Is there something you want to tell me?
What shewants, Elliot what she really, really wants is to save tonight.
