Re: Series Mr Robot
Daniel
The Robot Series is a series of thirty-seven science fiction short stories and six novels created by American writer Isaac Asimov, from 1940 to 1995. The series is set in a world where sentient positronic robots serve a number of purposes in society. To ensure their loyalty, the Three Laws of Robotics are programmed into these robots, with the intent of preventing them from ever becoming a danger to humanity. Later, Asimov would merge the Robot series with his Foundation series.
The series started with the story "Robbie" in the September 1940 Super Science Stories (appearing under the title "Strange Playfellow", which was not Asimov's title). Although it was originally written as a stand-alone story, the following year Asimov published a series of additional robot stories, which fit into a narrative that was then put together as the book I, Robot.
Most of Asimov's robot short stories, which he began to write in 1939, are set in the first age of positronic robotics and space exploration. The unique feature of Asimov's robots is the Three Laws of Robotics, hardwired in a robot's positronic brain, with which all robots in his fiction must comply, and which ensure that the robot does not turn against its creators.
The stories were not initially conceived as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robots. They all share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality. Some of the short stories found in The Complete Robot (1982) and other anthologies appear not to be set in the same universe as the Foundation universe. "Victory Unintentional" has positronic robots obeying the Three Laws, but also a non-human civilization on Jupiter. "Let's Get Together" features humanoid robots, but from a different future (where the Cold War is still in progress), and with no mention of the Three Laws. Some characters appear in more than one of the stories, and the manufacturer of the robots is often identified as the (fictional) corporation U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men.
The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are both considered classics of the genre, but the later novels were also well received, with The Robots of Dawn nominated for both the Hugo and Locus Awards in 1984[1] and Robots and Empire shortlisted for the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1986.[2]
One source of inspiration for Asimov's robots was the Zoromes, a race of mechanical men that featured in a 1931 short story called "The Jameson Satellite", by Neil R. Jones. Asimov read this story at the age of 11, and acknowledged it as a source of inspiration in Before the Golden Age (1975), an anthology of 1930's science fiction in which Asimov told the story of the science fiction he read during his formative years. In Asimov's own words:
It is from the Zoromes, beginning with their first appearance in "The Jameson Satellite," that I got my own feeling for benevolent robots who could serve man with decency, as these had served Professor Jameson. It was the Zoromes, then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own "positronic robots," all of them, from Robbie to R. Daneel.[3]
The 1989 anthology Foundation's Friends included the positronic robot stories "Balance" by Mike Resnick, "Blot" by Hal Clement, "PAPPI" by Sheila Finch, "Plato's Cave" by Poul Anderson, "The Fourth Law of Robotics" by Harry Harrison and "Carhunters of the Concrete Prairie" by Robert Sheckley. Not all of these stories are entirely consistent with the Asimov stories. The anthology also included "Strip-Runner" by Pamela Sargent, set in the era of the Elijah Baley novels.
There is also another set of novels by various authors (Isaac Asimov's Robot City, Robots and Aliens and Robots in Time series), which are not generally considered canon. They are loosely connected to the Robots series, but they contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books.
Mr. Robot is an American drama thriller television series created by Sam Esmail for USA Network. It stars Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity engineer and hacker with social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and dissociative identity disorder. Elliot is recruited by an insurrectionary anarchist known as "Mr. Robot", played by Christian Slater, to join a group of hacktivists called "fsociety".[8] The group aims to destroy all debt records by encrypting the financial data of E Corp, the largest conglomerate in the world.
The pilot premiered via online and video on demand services on May 27, 2015. In addition to Malek and Slater, the series stars an ensemble cast featuring Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Martin Wallstrm, Michael Cristofer, Stephanie Corneliussen, Grace Gummer, BD Wong, Bobby Cannavale, Elliot Villar and Ashlie Atkinson. The first season debuted on USA Network on June 24, 2015, while the second season premiered on July 13, 2016, and the third season premiered on October 11, 2017. The fourth and final season premiered on October 6, 2019, and concluded on December 22, 2019.
Mr. Robot received critical acclaim particularly for the performances of Malek and Slater, its story and visual presentation and Mac Quayle's musical score. The series has gained a cult following.[9] 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 received numerous accolades, including two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Peabody Award.
The series follows Elliot Alderson, a young man living in New York City, who works at the cybersecurity company Allsafe as a cybersecurity engineer. Constantly struggling with social anxiety, dissociative identity disorder, clinical depression and drug abuse, Elliot's thought process seems heavily influenced by paranoia and delusion.[10] He connects with people by hacking them, which often leads him to act as a cyber-vigilante. He is recruited by a mysterious insurrectionary anarchist known as Mr. Robot and joins his team of hacktivists known as fsociety. One of their missions is to cancel all consumer debt by encrypting all the data of one of the largest corporations in the world, E Corp (which Elliot perceives as Evil Corp), which also happens to be Allsafe's biggest client.[11]
Sam Esmail, the show's creator and showrunner, is the credited writer on the vast majority of the episodes.[42] In an interview, Sam Esmail shared that he is fascinated by hacker culture and wanted to make a film about it for around 15 years.[43] In the production, Esmail consulted experts to give a realistic picture of hacking activities.[44] Another inspiration for Esmail, who is of Egyptian descent, was the 2011 Arab Spring, mainly the Egyptian Revolution, where young people who were angry at society used social media to bring about a change.[45][46] He has said that Elliot is a "thinly-veiled version" of himself.[47]
Esmail had originally intended Mr. 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.[48] 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.[49] He removed 20 of around 89 pages of the script then written, and used it as the pilot for the series,[50] and what was to have been the end of the first act became the finale of the first season.[48] Esmail took the script to film and television production company Anonymous 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 to Mr. Robot in July 2014.[51] After an exhaustive search to cast the lead role, it was announced in September 2014 that Rami Malek had been cast as Elliot;[52] the remainder of the roles in the pilot were cast later in September and October.[53][54]
USA picked it up to series with a 10-episode order in December 2014.[55] Production began in New York on April 13, 2015.[56] The pilot premiered on multiple online and video on demand services on May 27, 2015,[57] and the series was renewed for a second season before the first season premiered on USA on June 24, 2015.[58] In December 2015, it was announced that Esmail would direct all episodes in the second season.[59] In June 2016, it was announced that the second season's episode order was increased from 10 to 12 episodes.[60] The 12-episode second season premiered on July 13, 2016.[60] On August 16, 2016, USA renewed Mr. Robot for a third season to air in 2017.[61][62] The third season debuted in October 2017 and consisted of 10 episodes. All episodes were directed by Esmail, just as in the second season.[31][63] On December 13, 2017, USA renewed Mr. Robot for a fourth season.[64] In August 2018, it was confirmed that the fourth season would be the final season.[65]
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.[66] 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.[66] To portray the unusual, often confused worldview of lead character Elliot Alderson, Franklin Peterson, who edited three Mr. Robot episodes in the first season and six in the second season, used creative editing styles that included jump 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.[67]
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.[68] 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.[69]
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