Robot is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network.

The group aims to destroy all debt records by encrypting the financial data of E Corp, the largest conglomerate in the world.

In addition to Malek and Slater, the series stars an ensemble cast featuring Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallström, Michael Cristofer, Stephanie Corneliussen, Grace Gummer, BD Wong, Bobby Cannavale, Elliot Villar, and Ashlie Atkinson.

Robot received critical acclaim, particularly for the performances of Malek and Slater, its story and visual presentation and Mac Quayle's musical score.

Constantly struggling with social anxiety, dissociative identity disorder, clinical depression and drug abuse, Elliot's thought process seems heavily influenced by paranoia and delusion.

Robot to be a feature film, with the end of the first act being someone finding out that he had a mental disorder while enacting a greater scheme.

[63] To portray the unusual, often confused worldview of lead character Elliot Alderson, Franklin Peterson, who edited three Mr.

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's cinematographer 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."

Aside from the pilot episode, Esmail hired Kor Adana (former network security analyst and forensics manager for Toyota Motor Sales), Michael Bazzell (security consultant and former FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force agent and investigator) and James Plouffe (lead solutions architect at MobileIron) as his advisors to oversee the technical accuracy of the show.

[82] Hacking scenes were performed by members of the technical team in real life, recorded and rebuilt using Flash animation.

In an interview with Terry Gross for the radio show Fresh Air, Malek recounted contacting a psychologist to learn about schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder, and social anxiety.

"[92] Sam Esmail has acknowledged several major influences on the show, such as American Psycho, Taxi Driver, A Clockwork Orange,[93] and The Matrix.

Robot elevates the Fight 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 see Fight Club once and pretty much get the picture, but it will take years of scholarly binge-watching to answer the questions Mr.

"[100] In an interview, Esmail explains how playing the song that David Fincher used to underscore the climax of Fight Club ("Where Is My Mind?")

Filming locations include Silvercup Studios, Queens College and Coney Island, which serves as the exterior of the base of operations for the hacking group fsociety.

[37] In June 2016, USA Network announced Hacking Robot, a live aftershow hosted by Andy Greenwald to air during the second season.

Robot Digital After Show premiered on The Verge and USA Network's websites after the third episode, and continued through the third season.

"[110] In The 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.

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.

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."

Three critics, Jeff Jensen of Entertainment Weekly, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone, and the staff of TV Guide, named it the best show of the year.

The site's consensus reads: "Unique storytelling, a darker tone, and challenging opportunities for its tight cast push Mr.

"[116] Tim Goodman of The Hollywood Reporter lauded Sam 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.

[119] Based on six episodes for review, Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly gave it an "A" grade, calling it a "noir masterpiece", and overall, wrote that "Season 3 of Mr.

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] The Mr.

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 through PayPal to viewers under the guise of "cancelling $100k in consumer debt".