Mr. Robot’s first season was a compelling descent into madness

Mr. Robot, USA Network's critically acclaimed drama in the mold of William Gibson's Blue Ant trilogy, wrapped up this past week. A dystopian fiction set in the present day, the series' final episode was due to run a week earlier but was postponed as it showed some graphic gun violence on the same day the real-life murder of two journalists was live-tweeted. The show is the story of Elliot (played to a tee by Rami Malek), a disaffected but talented hacker, and his plan to take down Evil Corp, the world's worst business.

Elliot is seemingly recruited to this mission by actor Christian Slater's character—the pseudonymous Mr. Robot—into "fsociety," a small hacker collective that operates from a fallow amusement arcade on Coney Island. By day, Elliot works at an Internet security firm, fighting off the assaults of his kind in defense of—yes, you guessed it—Evil Corp. Did we mention that Evil Corp was responsible for an environmental disaster that killed not just his father but also his best friend Angela's mother?

But Elliot is very obviously an untrustworthy narrator right from the off. He speaks directly to the audience, acknowledging our presence as the manifestation of his mental illness. When we reviewed the pilot episode back in June, my colleague Sam came away underwhelmed, wondering if the show had any heart. Well, heart it certainly found.