Mr. Robot Image by USA Network
‘Mr. Robot,” in its second season, seemed to show up on the scene out of nowhere. Partly this may be because it aired on the USA Network, and so the first season didn’t make an impression until it hit the binge-watching warehouse of Amazon Prime. Or maybe, more likely, it’s because the show was a few steps ahead of its cultural moment. In either case, it’s breathtaking. Both in form and substance, it points the way toward a new way of looking at and talking about America. The spikey, nervous aesthetics of the show — the deep focus camera work that places the characters in uncomfortable positions vis a vis their locations, the washed-out, yet simultaneously garish color schemes, the heavy, ambient music that’s used for narrative purposes, discomforting the viewer in much the same way that cheesy soft rock is used by lesser shows to yank the tears from your eyes — all evoke the anxious experience of what it’s like to live now. But furthermore, the cast, all of whom are excellent, break from both of the usual types of homogeneity that our cultural products usually use to indoctrinate us with their lies; these actors and the characters they play are not just multiracial, but also multiethnic, by which I mean that they’re allowed to be human beings with multifarious cultural roots, not just rich, successful people who happen to be something other than white. This show evokes the economic and culturally diverse reality of present-day New York City better than any art out there, in any form. Which shouldn’t be a surprise. It was created by the grandly talented Egyptian-American writer-director Sam Esmail, who’s married to the American Jewish actress Emily Rossum.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion My Jewish moms group ousted me because I work for J Street. Is this what communal life has come to?
- 2
Opinion Stephen Miller’s cavalier cruelty misses the whole point of Passover
- 3
Fast Forward How Coke’s Passover recipe sparked an antisemitic conspiracy theory
- 4
Opinion Passover teaches us why Jews should stand with Mahmoud Khalil
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion I operate a small Judaica business. Trump’s tariffs are going to squelch Jewish innovation.
-
Fast Forward Language apps are putting Hebrew school in teens’ back pockets. But do they work?
-
Books How a Jewish boy from Canterbury became a Zulu chieftain
-
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a hammer, investigators say
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.