TV Pilot Review: Mr. Robot
Mr. Robot is my favorite TV
show of all time, I could argue for hours for the case of it being the greatest
piece of storytelling ever created, every calculated twist and turn, every
pitch perfect performance where every actor finds multiple ways of expressing
various emotions, the punchy synth score, filling you with the same dread as
the characters in the show. One of the most notable parts about it is it’s
instantly engaging first episode, commonly praised for being one of the best
openers of any TV Show ever and I love it too so it was a no brainer to discuss
this one.
The show opens with the protagonist
Elliot Alderson, uttering the most famous piece of dialogue from the show “hello
friend”. Elliot is talking to us, we are part of the show, a voice in his head,
his friend. Elliot in the original pilot script comes off very differently,
more akin to the wild internet conspiracy theorists that most hackers in film
& tv are stereotyped as. This is most clear in this piece of dialogue where
he states “I sometimes think dinosaurs never existed. For absolutely no
scientific reason do I think this. I have chronic insomnia. I think aliens are
real. I think they’re invisible and staring straight at us.”
We’re thrown straight into the hacker action just like in
the final version of the episode with the scene at “Phil’s Coffee” in which Elliot
completely destroys the life of coffee shop owner and mastermind of a hidden dark
web network, Rohit. Just like in the actual scene Elliot is nervous but precise
and is able to strike fear into the hearts of those he targets with his
awkwardness. It’s a masterwork of a scene, something even Fincher would be
jealous of. Elliot comes off very differently again in this scene in contrast
to the show, being more meddling than blunt. Instead of saying “I don’t give a
shit about money” he says “That’s the part you were wrong about, Rohit. I was
just fucking with you about the money.”
It’s clear at this point they really changed Elliot up for
the final show, he’s much more unlikable here, and you don’t really want to
start a four season long mid budget TV drama with your character being this
inhuman and although Elliot is a more different person than most, he is by no
means a villain but more a victim of his surroundings that are the true villain.
However, the rest of the script plays out like how it does
in the episode. We get Elliot struggling with his boring everyday job at “Allsafe”,
the beginnings of him and Shayla’s romance and his battle with “F-Society”
stopping them from hacking “Evil Corp”. Some of the supporting cast are very
different to how they are in the series though, Mr. Robot himself is described
as a long blonde haired homeless stoner, a tad bit different from Christian Slater.
But all the better for it in my opinion. Gideon Graves, named here Gideon
Norton (perhaps a reference to Norton AntiVirus) is depicted as a typical
awkward nerd with braces and not the stylish suave hipster mogul he is in the
show. But Tyrell Wellick is just as slimy and psychotic, Angela Moss is still
the naïve but endearing girl next door and Darlene is still as snappy and
rebellious as seen in the show.
Overall, this is a very faithful script story wise to the
final finished episode yet very different character-wise. It’s clear they were
a lot more fleshed out before the show went into production and all the better
for it. A great script, for a perfect show.
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