I think I've managed to avoid every show USA has offered up until this point, but they're apparently attempting to rebrand as of late. So, based on a producer friend's recommendation, I just checked out the pilot for their latest show, Mr. Robot, and it's actually pretty damn good. It's a bit cliched/heavy handed here and there, but overall it definitely shows a lot of promise. At the very least, it's unlike anything USA has done before, and seems like it could be a decent summer show to pass the time while not much else is on.

The pilot officially premieres this Wednesday night (6/24), but USA already has made the entire episode available in-full online. Would love to hear everyone else's thoughts when/if you guys get the chance...

Watched the pilot after a co-worker recommended it. I usually scoff at USA's programming, but was really impressed with the show. I like the way it's shot, with a dark feel to it, like Fight Club.

The lead actor is nails, when i think of a reclusive, socially inept guy. Not sure on Christian Slater. He's been pretty underwhelming in the last couple of TV shows I can remember.

The cold opening of the pilot was really well done, and i like how they play off the "will he use his skills for good, or for bad" throughout. Looking forward to watching it, given that there's nothing good on right now, except maybe True Detective tonight.

I'm a bit nervous any time a show wants to portray "hacking" or really anything computer related in detail. How do they handle that in this show?

I know absolutely nothing about hacking, but it seems fairly accurate to me. No cheesy graphics or over-obvious prompts or anything like that. Just a bunch of straightforward code, and not animated in a ridiculous way. The hokiest part is the "E Corporation" - which everyone eye-rollingly refers to as the "Evil Corporation" - who is like the big bad world conglomerate or whatever of the show. Still, it works for the most part, in a heavy-handed / allegorical kind of way.

That actor was excellent in The Pacific, and would be worth it alone to give this show a shot.

I'll probably get into it when a few more are out and I can binge.

Good premiere.

I saw the trailer for this a few weeks ago and was instantly hooked thinking, "wow, that looks fantastic!." For about 15 seconds I was absolutely pumped wanting to know what this cryptic show was about and when it would air... all to have that excitement collectively deflate as soon as the words, "On USA" showed up at the end.

But I will give it a try if everyone says it's solid.

That was a good pilot. My take on it:

The influences to this show seem transparent, but it'd be hard to hold that against this show, give on the subject (subjects?): some hints of Dexter, a bit of The Matrix, and definite Fight Club and V for Vendetta. Not bad material to be influenced by, though, and the production value and acting of the lead give a believable gravity to it.

Interesting that there seemed to be two actors from House of Cards (the CEO of Allsafe, and the agent like guy towards the end), and that it borrows a lot of artistic styling with it's hue and soundtrack. Nonetheless, a big step up in feel from those other USA shows, garnering a quality suitable for the prime cable shows of this gilded age of TV.

The global conglomerate always feels trite, and giving it essentially the Enron logo doesn't help, but the constant calling it Evil Corp doesn't bother me - I work in tech and the names we come up for other companies and products falls in line with that. It even later lends something to the plot and psyche of Elliot when at one point you see a poster advertisement with Evil Corporation elegantly written on it - this after Elliot notes that he has essentially convinced himself that that is the companies name - leaving you to wonder how much of this is happening and how much is just what's going on in his head. This theme of delusion, paranoia, and what's (not) real carries through - and gives it more resemblance to Fight Club - but seems to be an interesting aspect that can be carried through the series.

The hacking and server work was some of the more believable portrayls I've seen. None of that fake high-pitch churning sound as a cursor cycles through: / -- \ | / -- \ | ; instead there are standard unix consoles and use of custom developed programs to crack passwords, with the help of a lot of social hacking.

I thought the pilot episode last night was great. High production quality and phenomenal acting. I had the same thoughts others have already shared about similarities to The Matrix, Fight club, V for Vendetta, etc. These are good similarities though.

I liked it.

I liked it. Interested to see where they go with it

will definitely give it some time after catching the pilot last night.

I enjoyed it. It's strange to see a show in which the 'hero' has a morphine habit. But, perversely, it's refreshing to see a show in which at least four characters smoke. It's a terrible habit, but I know that seeing this portrayed infuriates the Politically Correct crowd.

The dude does need to lose the hoodie, though. Every time he had it pulled up, I was strongly reminded of Marty Feldman in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. I love that movie more than pizza. But he does need to lose the hoodie.

I thought it was pretty good, which during the summer basically translates to "must watch".

one thing that kinda bothered me...the show spent the first part trying to establish the main character is basically a good guy. yeah, he does illegal stuff, but does it "good". they do that in the cold open, showing that he doesn't act on a whim, he collects tons of information, then shares it with law enforcement for them to analyze and reach the same conclusion. he doesn't want money, he wants to take down bad people. fair enough.

they continue that after he gets approached by Mr. Robot. he goes home and does his own digging. when he saw Angela's student debt, i really thought that would be what caused him to do it. So the big question is whether he goes through with it or not. We know later he apparently decided not to, as he initially has the white envelope on the desk.

But then all it took for him to whip out the blue envelope instead and ruin that guy's life and start the process of taking down E-Corp (major eye roll) was for him to be a jerk to Angela? When, quite honestly, Angela was not doing a very good job in the meeting and seems to be in over her head.

and maybe that's the hook. that he'll be a mostly moral guy, but then blur the lines when it comes to protecting the women in his life (angela and the therapist).

or maybe I missed something.

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But then all it took for him to whip out the blue envelope instead and ruin that guy's life and start the process of taking down E-Corp (major eye roll) was for him to be a jerk to Angela? When, quite honestly, Angela was not doing a very good job in the meeting and seems to be in over her head.

and maybe that's the hook. that he'll be a mostly moral guy, but then blur the lines when it comes to protecting the women in his life (angela and the therapist).

or maybe I missed something.

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I didn't see it so much that he was just being a jerk to Angela, but here was another moment where the CTO was being even more of a poser about wanting to know the technicals and being a ****** about showing that, when it's clear that would mean nothing to him. I took it more as the CTO puffing his mysogynistic chauvinist dumb chest that was the turning point for Elliot.

I think the hook is that he's a mostly moral guy trying to make decisions regarding morality that aren't clear-cut: take down a leadership of corruption and oppression, or ruin the status quo and thousands/millions of lives in the name of liberty.

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He wasn't just being a jerk to Angela, I think there was a part where he was trying to be even more poser about wanting to know the technicals, when it's clear that would mean nothing to him. I took it more as the CTO puffing his mysogynistic dumb chest that was the turning point.

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this. there was a reason they pointed out he used a blackberry.

I'm in

Just finished the first episode. Really enjoyed it! Will be watching this summer.

"The hacking and server work was some of the more believable portrayls I've seen. None of that fake high-pitch churning sound as a cursor cycles through: / -- \ | / -- \ | ; instead there are standard unix consoles and use of custom developed programs to crack passwords, with the help of a lot of social hacking."

This.

I saw the teaser for this show a few weeks ago and thought "ok...could be interesting". So as it happened, I was flipping channels and somehow caught the pilot from the beginning. I thought it was really good. I'm not so much into the thinly veiled political plot, but the characters appealed to me. I work with tons of guys that are just like all these guys. Eliot, the CTO who still won't let BB die because of the tactile keyboard, the idealist, all of 'em.

It's like watching a diarama of work. Lol

I found the political commentary on the show a little strange. The double helping of Bush-bashing was expected, and the anti-conglomerate stance I suppose is necessary to instill a consistent enemy for our hero. However, I would expect someone like the main character to be more anti-government in general, not just anti-republican.

Usually, guys like that with extremely brilliant technical minds tend to be overly rational thinkers who rely entirely on logic and dismiss emotion as much as possible. Therefore, you'd expect him to be more libertarian than democrat. But he clearly referred to the invisible hand (traditionally associated with the free market and libertarian ideals) as evil and responded very positively to Mr Robot's comment about erasing of all the student loans and debt in general would being the greatest wealth redistribution in history. I wouldn't think someone like the main character would find that to be a positive thing.

I'm really not against the main character disliking republicans and libertarians, I just think he'd dislike democrats equally as much.

This is definitely getting Season Passed.

Glad to see the chubby asian guy that was getting so much commercial work breaking into TV.

The lead played a similar character in The Pacific miniseries on HBO.

Second episode was great as well. Was not expecting...what happened at the end. Will be interesting to see where it picks up on Wednesday.

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The lead played a similar character in The Pacific miniseries on HBO.

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Yeah, I recognized him from Pacific and Night at the Museum. I was talking about the guy at the desk next to the lead.

Really enjoying this so far. Like others have said, it's a hacking show that doesn't have all the "over the top" hacking. It's much more "true to life" and uses the real world to create the drama, not the computer.

I've seen a lot of folks complain about how everyone calls E Corp "Evil Corp". I thought was just part of seeing everything through Elliot's eyes. In the first episode when they all come walking in to the AllSafe office, he talks about how he "re-programmed himself" to hear "Evil Corp" anytime E Corp is mentioned. I just assumed that anytime we hear someone else say "Evil Corp", they are actually saying E Corp, but because it's told from Elliot's POV, we hear "Evil Corp".

You can check it out starting at 17:30 in the pilot: http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/videos/eps10hellofriendmov

Anyways, looking forward to another episode tonight!

My wife asked an interesting question. So are all of these F Society people in his head? This has a very Fight Club mental feel to it. No one seems to react to any of them in normal interactions.

Nvm, the girl was real. But I wonder if Christian Slater is his Tyler Durden?

Intense episode.

Wellick is a creepy dude. Wonder how he will intersect with Elliot as this unfolds. He appears to be the only one to be capable of keeping up with Elliot within the business.

Watched eps 1-3 last night. The show is way better than I expected.

I feel like I will be let down to know that Mr. Robot is just a character in Elliot's mind. It has to be, right? Like an alter ego. I mean the show is called Mr. Robot but Elliot is the main character, so they have to be the same person.

And yet Wellick is far more a robot than Elliot is...

I didn't enjoy the 1st two episodes but decided to stick it out for one more...and I'm glad I did. Developing the psycho villain a little more helped with that I think.

I agree that Mr Robot is Elliot's Tyler Durden. I think the others on the fsociety team are real , or at least the girl is. fsociety knows about Eliot's dual personality issue and are trying to cope with it as best they can. As Eliot, he's meeting them all for the first time, but as Mr Robot, he's known them for a long time, assembled the team, and leads them. Although they know he's crazy, they need the Mr Robot identity to come out and lead them as much as possible. That's why the fsociety girl keeps showing up...to keep Mr Robot motivated and focused on fsociety businesses.

It's also possible that the fsociety girl is Mr Robot's girlfriend when Eliot is in Mr Robot mode. That's why she always shows up wherever he's at. She was invited there by Mr Robot...Elliot just can't remember it. She knows he has a split personality and she needs Mr Robot, so she's not offended when Elliot is in Elliot mode or brings that other girl home with him.

That's actually a great theory. I believe you're right. Was reading an article the other day that was saying they are the same person but your reasons are better than the article's.

I'm in full agreement about Elliott and Mr. Robot being the same guy. Assuming that's true..... Elliott says that his dad was a top-notch tech engineer that died after a long, secretive bout with Leukemia. Mr. Robot says that his dad was a thief that eventually got caught and died a few years later in prison. So which is it? Or is it a little of both?

I was surprised to find something this good on USA. I especially liked how they channelled Trainspotting in the last episode.