Mr. Robot received critical acclaim, particularly for the performances of Malek and Slater, its story and visual presentation andMac Quayle's musical score. The series has gained acult following. Esmail has received praise for his direction of the series, having directed three episodes in the first season before serving as the sole director for the remainder of the show. The show receivednumerous accolades, including twoGolden Globe Awards, threePrimetime Emmy Awards, and aPeabody Award.
Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson,[9] a senior cybersecurity engineer at Allsafe Cybersecurity and a vigilante hacker.[9] He hasdissociative identity disorder and deals with other mental illnesses such asclinical depression and severe anxiety, which are partly responsible for his antisocial behavior and drug use.[10][11] Elliot's hacker nickname is "Sam Sepiol" or "samsepi0l". Elliot as a child is portrayed by Aidan Liebman (seasons 1–2), Alex Bento (season 3), andEvan Whitten (season 4).
Christian Slater as Mr. Robot,[21] an insurrectionary anarchist who recruits Elliot into an underground hacker group called fsociety[22] and Edward Alderson, Elliot's father[23]
Grace Gummer as Dominique "Dom" DiPierro, anFBI field agent investigating the E Corp hack (seasons 2–4)[26]
BD Wong as Whiterose, atrans woman,cyber-terrorist and leader of the Dark Army who is also China'sMinister of State Security under her birth name, Zhi Zhang (seasons 3–4; recurring seasons 1–2).[27][28] A younger version of Whiterose was portrayed by Ross Kurt Le (season 4).
Bobby Cannavale as Irving, a car salesman who is a Dark Armyfixer (season 3; guest season 4).[28]
Elliot Villar as Fernando Vera, Shayla's drug supplier and Elliot's only supply ofsuboxone who has a unique dangerous philosophy and is obsessed with Shayla and later Elliot (season 4; recurring season 1; guest season 3)[25]
Ashlie Atkinson as Janice, a chatty taxidermist and a Dark Army fixer with a peculiar sense of humor (season 4).[29]
Michel Gill as Gideon Goddard, theCEO of Allsafe Security (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).[31]
Ben Rappaport as Ollie Parker, Angela's ex-boyfriend and an employee at Allsafe (season 1; guest seasons 2, 4).[32]
Aaron Takahashi as Lloyd Chong, Elliot's coworker at Allsafe (season 1; guest seasons 2, 4)
Frankie Shaw as Shayla Nico, Elliot's drug dealer, next door neighbor and former lover (season 1)[33]
Ron Cephas Jones as Leslie Romero, a member of fsociety (season 1; guest season 2).[25]
Sunita Mani as Shama "Trenton" Biswas, a member of fsociety (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).
Azhar Khan as Sunil "Mobley" Markesh, a member of fsociety and Bank of E employee (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).
Bruce Altman as Terry Colby, a formerCTO of E Corp who is framed by fsociety for a hack attack (season 1; guest seasons 2–3)
Armand Schultz as Lenny Shannon, Krista's ex-boyfriend and one of Elliot's early hacking targets (season 1; guest seasons 2–3)
Michael Drayer as Francis "Cisco" Shaw, Darlene's ex-boyfriend who was the U.S. liaison to the Chinese hacker group Dark Army (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).[25]
Brian Stokes Mitchell as Scott Knowles, the CTO of E Corp following Colby's arrest (seasons 1–2)[34]
Jeremy Holm as Donald "Mr. Sutherland" Hoffman, a fixer under Tyrell and Joanna Wellick (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).
Sakina Jaffrey as Antara Nayar, Angela's lawyer (seasons 1–2; guest season 3).[34]
Don Sparks as Donald Moss, Angela's adopted father (season 1; guest season 2).
Michele Hicks as Sharon Knowles, Scott's wife (season 1; guest season 2).
Rick Gonzalez as Isaac Vera, Fernando Vera's younger brother (season 1).
Nadia Gan as Elizabeth, Tyrell's assistant (season 1; guest season 4).
Stephen Lin as The Hamburger Man, Elliot's contact with the Dark Army (season 3; guest seasons 1–2, 4)
Joey Badass as Leon, a close friend of Elliot and an inmate who is obsessed with sitcoms, as well as an agent for the Dark Army, he is responsible for Elliot's safety (seasons 2–4)[35]
Series starsChristian Slater (left) andRami Malek (right) speaking as part of theMr. Robot panel during the 2015PaleyFest. Slater has also served as a producer since the first season, while Malek began producing in season 3.
Sam Esmail, the show's creator and showrunner, is the credited writer on the vast majority of the episodes.[39] In an interview, Esmail shared that he is fascinated byhacker culture and wanted to make a film about it for around 15 years.[40] In the production, Esmail consulted experts to give a realistic picture of hacking activities.[41] Another inspiration for Esmail, who is of Egyptian descent, was the2011 Arab Spring, mainly theEgyptian Revolution, where young people who were angry at society usedsocial media to bring about a change.[42][43] He has said that Elliot is a "thinly-veiled version" of himself.[44]
Esmail had originally intendedMr. Robot to be afeature film, with the end of the first act being someone finding out that he had a mental disorder while enacting a greater scheme.[45] However, midway through writing the first act, he found that the script had expanded considerably, and that it had become better-suited for a television show.[46] He removed 20 of around 89 pages of the script then written, and used it as the pilot for the series,[47] and what was to have been the end of the first act became the finale of the first season.[45] Esmail took the script to film and television production companyAnonymous Content to see if it could be developed into a television series, which was then picked up by USA Network. USA gave a pilot order toMr. Robot in July 2014.[48] After an exhaustive search to cast the lead role, it was announced in September 2014 thatRami Malek had been cast as Elliot;[49] the remainder of the roles in the pilot were cast later in September and October.[50][51]
USA picked it up to series with a 10-episode order in December 2014.[52] Production began in New York on April 13, 2015.[53] The pilot premiered on multiple online and video on demand services on May 27, 2015,[54] and the series was renewed for a second season before the first season premiered on USA on June 24, 2015.[55] In December 2015, it was announced that Esmail would direct all episodes in the second season.[56] In June 2016, it was announced that the second season's episode order was increased from 10 to 12 episodes.[57] The 12-episode second season premiered on July 13, 2016.[57] On August 16, 2016, USA renewedMr. Robot for a third season to air in 2017.[58][59] The third season debuted in October 2017 and consisted of 10 episodes. All episodes were directed by Esmail, just as in the second season.[28][60] On December 13, 2017, USA renewedMr. Robot for a fourth season.[61] In August 2018, it was confirmed that the fourth season would be the final season.[62]
Originally, the show planned to dress Elliot in a worn sweatshirt and colorful backpack; however, Malek suggested a black backpack and wore his own B:Scott black hoodie to set.[63] The outfit became the signature look for the character, and the costume designer ordered 20 more of them, despite the item having been discontinued years earlier.[63] To portray the unusual, often confused worldview of lead character Elliot Alderson, Franklin Peterson, who edited threeMr. Robot episodes in the first season and six in the second season, used creative editing styles that includedjump cuts, varied lengths of takes and shuffling scenes around within an episode and sometimes even between episodes. Esmail encouraged the experimentation as Peterson and his team explored the personality of each character in the editing suite, finding creative ways to tell their stories and maintain their humanity.[64]
The show'scinematographer Tod Campbell is known for helping craft "a distinct moody and disruptive" feel to the scenes' atmosphere through stylistic lighting and camera choices.[65] The unorthodox approach taken involves characters "placed at the very bottom of the frame" which in turn "leaves massive amounts of headroom that suggests a great weight hanging over their heads, and echoes their isolation." The intended effect for audiences is to feel a sense of "mounting paranoia and dissociation" of the protagonist.[66]
FuseFX was hired to provide the visual effects for episode "eps3.4_runtime-error.r00" of season 3, in which they took 40 shots and stitched them together to appear as one seamless shot for the entire episode.[67][68]
Mr. Robot has been widely praised for its technical accuracy by numerouscybersecurity firms and services such asAvast,[71]Panda Security,[72]Avira,[73]Kaspersky,[74]Proton Mail,[75] and bloggers[76][77][78][79] who analyzed and dissected the technical aspects of the show after episodes portraying hacking scenes aired. Aside from the pilot episode, Esmail hired Kor Adana (former network security analyst and forensics manager forToyota Motor Sales), Michael Bazzell (security consultant and formerFBI Cyber Crimes Task Force agent and investigator) and James Plouffe (lead solutions architect atMobileIron) as his advisors to oversee the technical accuracy of the show. By the second season, Adana assembled a team of hackers and cybersecurity experts includingJeff Moss (founder and director ofBlack Hat andDEF CON computer security conferences),[80]Marc Rogers (principal security researcher forCloudflare and head of security for DEF CON),[81] Ryan Kazanciyan (who was then chief security architect forTanium and is now the CISO atWiz) and Andre McGregor (formerFBI Cyber Special agent who was then director of security forTanium and now CEO of ForceMetrics) to assist him with the authenticity of the hacks and the technology being used.[82] Hacking scenes were performed by members of the technical team in real life, recorded and rebuilt usingFlash animation. Animation process is carried out by animator Adam Brustein under the direct supervision of Adana himself.[83][84]Kali Linux and its tools were used in multiple episodes.[85][86][87]
The show has also attempted to accurately represent Elliot's mental health issues. In an interview withTerry Gross for the radio showFresh Air, Malek recounted contacting a psychologist to learn aboutschizophrenia,dissociative identity disorder, andsocial anxiety. When in meetings with Esmail, Malek's knowledge on the topics led Esmail to bring the psychologist on as a consultant for the show.[88] Subsequently, the show has been widely praised by critics, viewers and psychiatrists as being one of the most accurate representations of mental health issues ever portrayed on TV or film, especially for its depictions of dissociative identity disorder, social anxiety, panic disorders andchronic depression.[89][90][91] Malek and Chaikin's performances have been further singled out for their "raw and authentic depictions of mental illness [which] makes it more relatable to those who haven't experienced it firsthand" while also representing a "kindred spirit" to viewers who do have mental health issues.[89]Inverse describedMr. Robot as "setting a new standard for depictions of mental illness [in media] ... without ending up exploitative."[92]
Sam Esmail has acknowledged several major influences on the show, such asAmerican Psycho,Taxi Driver,A Clockwork Orange,[93] andThe Matrix.[94] In particular, Esmail creditedFight Club as the inspiration for a main character who hasdissociative identity disorder creating a new manifestation of his deceased father in the form of a hacker,[94][95][96] as well as for theanti-consumerist,anti-establishment, andanti-capitalist spirit of its characters.[97] Commentators have also noted the parallel in its plot on the erasing of consumer debt records to the film.[98][99] Even so, Lauren Lawson forGQ remarked, "Mr. Robot elevates theFight Club formula: the show's mindfuckery lubes us up to think about society (Elliot's and ours) in a discerning way, but it's not the main event. You can seeFight Club once and pretty much get the picture, but it will take years of scholarly binge-watching to answer the questionsMr. Robot raises."[100] In an interview, Esmail explains how playing the song thatDavid Fincher used to underscore the climax ofFight Club ("Where Is My Mind?") when Elliot initiates the hack in episode nine is intended as a message to the audience that he is aware of the inspiration they took from the film.[101] The narration by the protagonist was influenced byTaxi Driver,[102] and other influences mentioned includedRisky Business for its music score,Blade Runner for the character development, and the television seriesBreaking Bad for thestory arc.[93]
The series was filmed inNew York. Filming locations includeSilvercup Studios,Queens College andConey Island, which serves as the exterior of the base of operations for the hacking group fsociety.[103] As the production crew was unable to shut downTimes Square for filming, the scenes at Times Square in the first-season finale were shot late at night just before theJuly 4 holiday weekend to catch the area at its emptiest while other shots were done on sets.[104] Production on the second season began on March 7, 2016, resuming filming in New York City.[37]
In June 2016, USA Network announcedHacking Robot, a liveaftershow hosted byAndy Greenwald to air during the second season.[105]Hacking Robot debuted after the second-season premiere and aired again following the tenth episode. In addition, a weekly web-only aftershow titledMr. Robot Digital After Show premiered onThe Verge andUSA Network's websites after the third episode, and continued through the third season.[106]
The first season ofMr. Robot received critical acclaim. OnRotten Tomatoes, it has a rating of 98%, based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 8.35/10. The site's consensus reads, "Mr. Robot is a suspenseful cyber-thriller with timely stories and an intriguing, provocative premise."[107] It set a record on Rotten Tomatoes as the only show to earn perfect episode scores for an entire season since the site began tracking television episodes.[108] OnMetacritic, the first season scored 79 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[109]
Merrill Barr ofForbes gave it a very positive review, writing, "Mr. Robot has one of the best kick-offs to any series in a while" and that it "could be the series that finally, after years of ignorance, puts a deserving network among the likes ofHBO,AMC andFX in terms of acclaim."[110]
InThe New York Times,Alessandra Stanley noted that "Occupy Wall Street, the protest movement that erupted in 2011, didn't do much to curb the financial industry. It didn't die out, though. It went Hollywood", before findingMr. Robot to be, "an intriguing new series ... a cyber-age thriller infused with a dark, almost nihilistic pessimism about the Internet, capitalism and income inequality. And that makes it kind of fun".[111] The UKThe Daily Telegraph reviewer Michael Hogan gave the show five stars, finding it to be "The Matrix meetsFight Club meetsRobin Hood", noting that, "bafflingly, it took months for a UK broadcaster to snap up the rights". Although Hogan found too much attention was devoted to Elliot's social anxiety, he eventually decided that "this alienated anti-hero was a brilliant, boldly complex character." Overall, Hogan concluded that the show deserved to find an audience in the UK.[112]
Mr. Robot made several critics' list for the best TV shows of 2015. Three critics,Jeff Jensen ofEntertainment Weekly,Rob Sheffield ofRolling Stone, and the staff ofTV Guide, named it the best show of the year. The series was also placed second on the list from three other critics, and was named among the best of the year from four other critics.[113]
The second season also received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 90%, based on 241 reviews, with an average rating of 7.85/10. The site's consensus reads: "Unique storytelling, a darker tone, and challenging opportunities for its tight cast pushMr. Robot even further into uncharted television territory."[114] On Metacritic, it has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[115]
Sonia Saraiya ofVariety praisedRami Malek's performance and wrote, "It's Malek's soulful eyes and silent pathos that giveMr. Robot its unexpected warmth, as the viewer is lured into Elliot's chaos and confusion."[116] Tim Goodman ofThe Hollywood Reporter laudedSam Esmail's direction, writing "Esmail's camerawork—characters tucked into corners of the frame, among other nontraditional compositions—continues to give the sense of disorientation and never feels tired" and "there are some flourishes in the first two hours that are brilliantly conceived and [...] contribute to what is one of the most visually remarkable hours on television."[117]
The third season also received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 92%, based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 8.25/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mr. Robot's striking visuals and bold narrative fuel its seductive blend of reality and fantasy."[118] On Metacritic, it has a score of 82 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[119]
Based on six episodes for review, Darren Franich ofEntertainment Weekly gave it an "A" grade, calling it a "noir masterpiece", and overall, wrote that "Season 3 ofMr. Robot is a masterpiece, ballasting the global ambitions of season 2 while sharpening back to the meticulous build of season 1."[120]
As with previous seasons, the fourth and final season was met with critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a score of 96% with an average rating of 8.95/10, based on 115 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Mr. Robot returns with a thrilling final season that is sure to surprise and satisfy its audience."[121] On Metacritic, it has a score of 81 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[122]
The episode "407 Proxy Authentication Required" specifically gained exceptional acclaim byDecider, who called it "among the best individual TV episodes of 2019, and possibly one of the best of all time."[123]Variety listed it as the 22nd best show of the 2010s,[124] andEmily St. James ofVox named it among "shows that help explain the decade".[125] Emma Garland ofVice described the show as defining the 2010s and post-Occupy world as one of vast inequality: "Even if you don't buy into its earnestness, you can't argue with its bittersweet irony."[126]
Mr. Robot has spawned a variety of video games. Its mobile game, titled:Mr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n.apk (for Android) andMr. Robot:1.51exfiltrati0n.ipa (for iOS) are set during the first season of the series and was published byTelltale Games. Users play as a fictional character who has stumbled upon the phone of an important member of fsociety and takes it upon themselves to assist them in bringing down E Corp.[172] TheMr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience, written and directed by Sam Esmail, is a 13-minute video viewable usingvirtual reality headsets that explores Elliot's past.[173]Mr. Robot also features severalEaster eggs, including websites related to the show or IP addresses used within the series that redirect to real websites.[174]
A book tie-in,Mr. Robot: Red Wheelbarrow (eps1.91_redwheelbarr0w.txt) written by Esmail and Courtney Looney, was released on November 1, 2016.[175]
Mr. Robot premiered in the United States onUSA Network on June 24, 2015, and in Canada onShowcase on September 4, 2015.[176] Before USA Network's broadcast release, the pilot had a "pre-release" with a live stream onTwitch on May 27, 2015. USA Network's partnership with Twitch continued with a live stream starting on June 16, 2015, where the in-universe group "fsociety" broadcast them "hacking" Mr. Robot's Twitch account and sending cash prizes throughPayPal to viewers under the guise of "cancelling $100k in consumer debt". The broadcast continued until June 24, during which viewers could watch the pilot on various streaming services before the official broadcast.[177]Amazon.com secured international broadcasting rights in the United Kingdom, with the first season added onAmazon Prime on October 16, 2015, and second-season episodes to be released immediately after initial broadcast in the United States.[178][179] InAustralia, the series premiered onPresto on August 14, 2015.[180] After Presto shut down, the series moved toFox Showcase for its third season and toFoxtel On Demand for the fourth season.[181][182] The show aired in theRepublic of Ireland onTG4.[183]
Universal Pictures Home Entertainment released all four seasons on DVD andBlu-ray. The first season was released on January 12, 2016. It contains all 10 episodes, plus deleted scenes, gag reel, making-of featurette, andUltraViolet digital copies of the episodes.[184] The second season was released on January 10, 2017.[185] The third season was released on March 27, 2018, in the United States.[186] The fourth season as well as a complete series collection was released on March 31, 2020.[187]
In September 2015,Amazon.com acquired exclusive streaming VOD rights toMr. Robot in several countries. The first season became available to stream in June 2016 for U.S. Amazon Prime subscribers.[188] The series left Amazon in October 2024.[189] It became available onNetflix in July 2025.[190]
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