Review: Blazingly Cinematic 'Mr. Robot' Is The Best New Show On TV

If you listen to Bret Easton Ellis’ great interview podcast, you’ve no doubt come across his many soliloquies about the supposed “golden age” of TV we’re living in. Even the good shows, he argues, are all about information. Cinema, he says, is still the go-to place for the other, less tactile stuff like atmosphere, tone, mood and the potential for a grand, immersive vision to take over your senses. The truth is, we’re in a golden age of content. It’s only natural, then, that visual storytelling styles will continue merging into exciting new hybrids. TV, whatever that means anymore, is becoming more visual and directed. “Mr. Robot,” a thrilling new series from USA Network which just concluded its first season last week, is not only great television, it’s a bold vision that further blurs the lines between cinema and TV.

Ever since the pilot premiered at SXSW in March, where it won the Audience Award, and premiered on VOD a month early to such great response that a second season...