TV Review: Mr. Robot season 2

Warning—I discuss Mr. Robot season 2, so there are SPOILERS (duh).

TV series are like babies; some will grow up to be President of the United States (like the West Wing), some will grow up to be drug-dealing pedophiles (the odious Dancing with the Stars), and most will grow up to be accountants with 2.5 children who die at 56 from a heart attack (any sitcom on ABC).  But when people are babies you just can’t tell.

Generally speaking, most TV shows that start out great begin to decline almost immediately.  Lost won the Emmy for Best Drama after its first season and then wasn’t even nominated again until its final season. It’s difficult to think of shows that started out okay and then got better.  Certainly Buffy the Vampire Slayer got better; also Angel, and Dollhouse.  Hey, what do those series have in common?

Season 2 of Mr. Robot was not as good as season 1.  I don’t mean that as condemnation; it was still one of the most compelling, best written, best acted shows on TV.  But where it differed from season 1 it seemed less interesting, and where it was the same it seemed imitative.

The main difference between seasons 1 and 2 that I noticed was the lack of a propulsive impetus that kept the plot in season 1 always moving forward.  There was a constant sense that things were building to a climax, events were out of control and there was no slowing down or getting off the train.  The episode that took a side trip away from the E-Corp plotline and was all about Elliot breaking his girlfriend’s drug supplier out of jail (after he put him there) felt like a distraction, even though it packed a powerful emotional punch.  The E-Corp hack was an impending train wreck that you could see coming but couldn’t avoid.

Season 2 spent a lot of time backtracking, losing momentum to restart the narrative.  We spent several episodes seeing Elliot in his new lifestyle, only to find it’s all in his mind and he’s been in jail.  The show carefully created this interesting yet improbable character named Ray who needs dialysis and runs a black market website, then we find he doesn’t exist, he’s just the physical avatar of Elliot’s warden.  The show sets up conflict and deadlines, then they all turn out to be figments of Elliot’s imagination.

Also, more of the decisions by Sam Esmail seemed random.  The use of Phil Collin’s “Take me home” over the burning of E-Corps millions seemed less like a quirky, idiosyncratic choice and more like pulling a song out of an iPod on random.  Elliot’s old boss Gideon Goddard (Michael Gill) being killed by some guy in a bar (only to be resurrected in a sitcom fantasy to be run over by Alf) seemed like a waste of a guest spot of a good actor.  Almost all the plot twists in season 1, even the ones from left field, felt like part of a design; in season 2 they just felt arbitrary.

But why dwell on the negative?  The show expanded the role of Joanna, Tyrell’s gorgeous, thoroughly evil wife, and actress Stephanie Corneliussen imbued her with fascinating malevolence.  Grace Gummer and Michael Cristofer joined the regular cast and were given multi-dimensional characters that were interesting but not bizarre.  BD Wong’s Whiterose was like the Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, always enticing characters further down a rabbit hole that only he (she?) understood (maybe).  Regulars Carly Chaikin (Darlene) and Portia Doubleday (Angela) both portrayed formidable characters that thrived with more screen time and deeper backstories.

And then there is Rami Malek; excuse me, Emmy-winning Best Actor in a Drama Rami Malek.  Elliot’s emotional range is so limited it is hard to know exactly how good of an actor Malek really is, but no show on television today relies more heavily on the performance of its main actor, and Malek never disappoints.  He got to show a little more range this year, playing in a 1980’s sitcom fantasy and, in the season finale, doing a middling impersonation of Christian Slater.  But his vacant expression always somehow showed wheels within wheels going on in his head.

Series creator Sam Esmail assumed the unusual mantle of directing every episode of season 2, and he brought a distinctive visual style and an appreciation for all of the techniques available to a director to establish tone and mood.  He varied the soundtrack, playing jaunty spy music when Angela sneaks into to plant a bug in the FBI’s computer system, and then used an eerie Aimee Mann song in the scene in the finale where Darlene is shown the extent of the FBI’s knowledge about FSociety.  Esmail kept the show visually interesting, no mean feat in an industry where quality television direction is usually measured by how many set-ups you can complete in a day.

Of course the season ended with a cliffhanger, one that once again cut a little close to the Fight Club source material.  If I were handing out grades I’d give season 1 an unqualified A, season 2 an A-/B+.  Again, that’s not a criticism.  Being brilliant is hard; maintaining brilliance over time is nearly impossible.  Expectations get raised, tricks are revealed, tropes and gimmicks become familiar.  My hope for season 3 is that we spend less time in Elliot’s head, and more time working out the consequences of the 5/9 hack in the real world.

The most curious thing about Mr. Robot season 2 is that, despite all the publicity and awards, the ratings for season two fell from season 1. The ratings aren’t just a season-long hemorrhage, but started low from the first episode of season 2.  Is this a factor of Mr. Robot appealing to a too-high falutin’ audience? The new reality of Too Much Television and Too Many Channels?  How long will USA support one of its flagship shows if the ratings continue to fall?  We can only wait and see what season 3 brings.