TV

Robot vs. Reality: Mr. Robot (review)

If there's something society loves more than an underdog; it's an underdog with serious quirks and a personality disorder. From characters such as Sheldon Cooper to Sherlock Holmes and now to Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek) in the brilliant new show Mr. Robot on AmazonPrime. 

     With one of the best pilot episodes a tv-show has ever seen, the praise for it really should go to the ingenious creator and writer Sam Esmail. Mr. Robot plunges us into Elliot's dark and drugged-up world from the off-set, toying with our sense of reality. The plot follows his struggles with an everyday society as a young computer programmer whom makes connections through hacking. His conscience makes clear to us his fury and hatred for conglomerates, the metal chains of technology and most importantly, his frustration with the idea that he seems to be the only one aware of their powers. That is, until he's recruited by a man known as Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) and asked to join the hacker-team: 'fsociety', in an attempt to pull off the biggest hack that America has ever seen. 

Mr. Robot is brilliant and completely consuming. Echoing our real-life keyboard-heroes "Anonymous", 'fsociety' really are the unsung heroes of the day, saving millions of Americans from debt for no real reason other than that they truly want to.

     Though if watching capitalism crumble right in front of your eyes isn't enough, what's going on in Elliot's head might just swing you. With a serious anxiety disorder, induced further by a serious drug addiction, the audience are constantly battling with themselves over the reality of the characters that he meets. Just when you think you're going to lose your mind and give up on trying to find a concrete answer, Esmail throws in one of the biggest plot twists I've ever seen in a television show. 

Honestly, it's just a shame that Mr. Robot only airs on AmazonPrime and will do again in 2016 for a second series. It's not massively accessible and with Netflix at our fingertips, it's very easy for people to stay content in that one world. Though, if you do have the means, I can't recommend Mr. Robot enough. I'd definitely go so far as to say it's the best show of 2015. With, definitely, the best actors a television show has seen in a long long time.

By Ashley Bastiman

Tugging at our Morals: The Affair (review)

Created by Sarah Treem and Hagai Levi, The Affair set into motion a hurricane of inner turmoil that left me confused, sympathetic and in turn, frustrated. The plot follows the lives of a man and a woman, both unhappy in their marriages. Nurse-turned-waitress, Alison Lockhart (Ruth Wilson), is miserable with her ranch-manager husband, Cole (Joshua Jackson), after the death of their little boy. Writer, Noah Solloway (Dominic West), is also struggling psychologically and with a large, typically “happy” family he undergoes a mid-life crisis, battling with the idea that he will never amount to anything. Layered with ambiguity, every episode of The Affair is split into two parts which constantly keep us updated with Alison and Noah’s separate takes on each moment of their affair, the events that set it into motion and the ones that unfold because of it.

The story is told in hindsight, from the interrogation room of a police station. From the very beginning, the plot leans to the idea that there are two sides to every story... and, actually, there's something very unnerving about being force-fed both. Alison and Noah are constantly out to make themselves look vulnerable and the other, powerful and enticing, which of course poses difficult questions when is comes to accountability.

   

Whilst Noah and his family are in Montauk for the summer, visiting his rich in-laws, he meets Alison whom works at the local diner and uses her as an escape from his own reality; the stress of a growing family, estrangement from his wife and unfulfilled, undermined passions. After the death of Alison's little boy, her and Cole also become estranged, but contrary to the norm, their marriage is now only based around sex. With a psychological and emotional turmoil, her problems begin to surface and it seems that the only thing keeping her at bay is Noah. As their affair develops, it becomes increasingly harder to hide in such a small town. As the summer progresses, it is in fact the lies and secrets of almost all of the townspeople that surface and snowball, resulting in the murder of someone close to Alison.

West and Wilson are so good at playing their roles, it's no wonder that the show harboured a Golden Globe award earlier this year. The audience are so consumed by their passion, struggle and vulnerability that we seem to almost forgive them, even if just for a little while. It's a show that undoubtedly consumes you, leaving us torn between allowing adultery and craving consequence.

By Ashley Bastiman