5 Best TV Shows on Amazon Prime
Mr. Robot
If you’ve heard nothing but ecstatic praise for Mr. Robot, let me be the 22nd to tell you: it’s true, it’s all true. Few single seasons of television distinguish themselves so quickly from the glut of familiar, visually dull dramas that networks churn out with the efficiency of a cat-food-canning operation as Mr. Robot, which follows the doings of a deeply unstable hacker named Elliot living in a small Manhattan apartment. Creator Sam Esmail, who took on the series after his fascinating yet facile romantic drama Comet, cleverly creates a distinct fictional world where the world is all-but-owned by Evil Corp, or E Corp, which has a logo that suggests a riff off of several bank logos, most noticeably Bank of America, and its potency is bolstered by nuanced characters and alluring, clever visuals. The shots throughout the season are pointedly off-kilter, placing characters in corners or to the side often, bringing out the displacement and alienation that our hero (the intensely engaging Rami Malek) is increasingly overwhelmed by. The exquisite editing stirs these images up into a bewitching spell of aesthetics and ruminative, rigorous performances from Malek, Christian Slater, Portia Doubleday, Carly Chaikin, and Martin Wallstrom as Elliot’s friendly nemesis at Evil Corp. Even as the show’s second season has hit some dull moments, the spell Mr. Robot casts remains intoxicating.