After watching just a couple of episodes of USA Network’s hacking series Mr. Robot, we knew it was going to be outstanding; not only because it would be the first TV show to appease technophiles used to seeing television clumsily portray technology with as much verisimilitude as a scene from the muppets, but because it’s a story that presently haunts our minds, spooks us daily in the form of end-of-world social media memes. Mr. Robot blended well-researched tech realism with real world issues of corporatism, oppressive government surveillance, socioeconomic inequality and the psychological fall-out of those current, pressing issues. We watched it and thought, this could be us … this is us. And just as the series would have us believe, after an episode finished we turned over the channel, ate a bag of heart-attack chips, and returned to our previous state of subservience in front of our high-definition truth-making machine.

After winning the Golden Globe for Best Drama TV Series we haven’t heard much about Mr. Robot other than the series creator, Sam Esmail, and show protagonist Rami Malek, telling us season two is going to be dark, and that Mr. Robot has a “lifespan”. In an interview Esmail told Entertainment Weekly, “The problem is that our episodes are really long sometimes. I always have to recalibrate. It’s a hard thing because to figure out 40 more hours versus 30 more hours; it’s difficult. It could even be somewhere in between that.”

So now we have been given our first taste of the next series in the trailer for the aptly named Mr. Robot 2.0, a trailer that already has over 1.5 million views and has Barack Obama in a cameo role. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until July 13 to see the first episode of this series.

In the meantime, here are some of the things we think might happen:

The Small Stuff

Mr. Robot is good because it’s realistic. Not only are people working in the tech field bored with outlandish portrayals of technology, but the general public are now mostly savvy to outrageous claims on the future of technology. But the creators of Mr. Robot, as well as actor Rami Malek, have said time and again that this is not just a tech series, more importantly it’s a social commentary on consumerism.

Part of this commentary was Rami Malek’s character’s (Elliot Alderson) disenchantment with modern life, modern choices, and its side effects: anxiety and addiction. The series, sticking to realism over ‘This is your brain on drugs’ PSA silliness, saw Elliot hooked on prescription drugs. One of America’s growing trends, the era of Oxycontin et al. Addicts don’t easily stay off drugs, and most opiate fiends return to their onerous habits, usually at the end of a very bad day. So, expect Elliot to go back to his drugs of choice when the going gets tough … which it will.

The Big Stuff

So Alderson and his hacking cabal, FSociety,  succeeded in erasing debt. But at the end of season one it seemed those who should have been hurt most by that were fairly cool headed about the ordeal. Perhaps this is because they knew it would happen and either know how to profit from this, turn it around, or know fully well that whatever happens, the untouchables, the one percent, our ruling oligarchs, are always untouchables. Mr. Robot won’t end happily, only because that’s not how the world works.

In the next season we can expect a kind of bailout for the baddies, in line with how things really work. The public, for their part, will soon become entranced by what the bought media says, or so addled on the next fad they’ll soon be back to Go on the monopoly board and start over. This will lead to more distress for our idealist antagonist, and there will be a lot more angry diatribes aimed at the way we live today.

In short, the public will reset itself, and the bad guys, with some help from someone betraying Elliot, will come out smelling of roses … or at least own the roses.

It will also be interesting to see if the series invokes some tech scandals of late, mainly the Ashley Madison hack, but also Apple vs. FBI case and related encryption matters. Knowing how Mr. Robot likes to keep it real, don’t be surprised if the writers took some side steps to introduce these and other related issues.

I hate selfies

In a series focused on hacking, internet security and the machinations of the mega-rich and their clandestine midnight round-circle get-togethers, Mr. Robot was always going to be a series with secrets, TV that shrouds itself away from the public eye, and then allows leaks to penetrate the web, just enough to cause intrigue but give little away. After all, isn’t this how technology, at least the consumer side, works? Prior to the main event something always gets leaked.

Malek, in an interview with LA Time’s The Envelope, created some intrigue concerning a rampant admission of his feelings and also series three of Mr. Robot. Besides telling us he was hooked on his smartphone and not very proud of that fact, it seems Malek, like his character Elliot, shares some misgivings about narcissistic consumerism.

He explained that after putting some selfies online containing his own face and that of Breaking Bad’s Brian Cranston, Malek deleted them soon after. “I thought, ‘What are you doing? Who do you think you are? This is not you’,” he told LA Times, following that up with a Fight Club-esque rant. “People are spending so much time staging photos — what they’re eating, how much fun they’re having … even the way they shape their faces in the pictures is contorted… Everything is filtered. Everything is manicured. It’s a house of cards and it’s going to come crashing down one day and you with it.”

You might ask if this itself was staged, an unintended piece of vitriol that was actually intended. it could have been part of the script; a kind of leak, a cause of intrigue. Or has Malek just become very immersed in his role? The former is a better scenario, and Mr. Robot does like to meld reality with fiction. Mr. Robot is trying to mess with your head, just as it did in season one by letting you know it knew you had been comparing it to the movie Fight Club. It’s involving the viewer with the story this way, making it more immersive. There will be more tricks as the show goes on.

Another outcast

Malek also told the interviewer this:

“The other day we were talking about Michael Shannon and Sam said, ‘I really want to use him for this role I’m writing for Season 3.’”

Shannon plays the outcast, whether heroic or demented, with aplomb. He will be perfect for a series that bathes in seediness and subterfuge. Remember his role in Boardwalk Empire as the encumbered Federal Prohibition agent turned gangster, Nelson Van Alden. Many characters in Mr. Robot seem on the edge of a breakdown, so don’t be surprised if Shannon comes in as a character who is the personification of ‘pot-boiler’.

Photo credit: USANetwork