The first two episodes of Mr. Robot are absolutely incredible. With Rami Malek and Christian Slater's great performances, the unique direction, and the thought-provoking commentary on society; I was thinking that this show was simply too good to be true. This episode makes me think I was partially right.
Now don't get me wrong; this episode was still good in many ways. Rami Malek and Christian Slater are still very strong performance-wise; as are basically every other actor except maybe Portia Doubleday as Angela. I got no emotion from her in a scene where there should have been quite a lot. The direction was also just as, if not stronger, than the last two episodes.
However, the thing that really made this episode not work for me was the focus on other characters besides Elliot. The previous episodes really thrived on you seeing the world through Elliot's eyes, but this one decided to have entire story lines that had absolutely nothing to do with that narrative. If you're reading this review you are probably arguing that this was just character development. I'm fine with there being character development, but the way they did this, with Tyrell especially, just bored me. I feel like there are other ways to show you what's going on behind the scenes. I'm not specifically suggesting anything, I'm just saying that they could have done it better.
You had a connection to Elliot as a viewer in the first two episodes, but that connection was lost in this one. However that does not mean that this still isn't very good television and that I won't continue watching the rest of this series.
I give Season One, Episode Three of Mr Robot a six out of ten.
