8 Shows To Fill That Mr. Robot Shaped Hole In Your Life
The time's come to say goodbye, friend, but it's a good a time to say hello to some new ones.
Hello, friend. Okay, okay, that was lame, but how else would you open this? So that's that. Mr. Robot is over and it honestly feels like the end of an era, but at least it'll go down as one of the defining shows of the decade, slickly evolving over its four years on air from paranoid techno-thriller to a poignant meditation on trauma and the ramifications of it.
Sure there were some slip ups along the way. We're looking at you in particular, Season 2. And, for fear of spoilers, we'll just say this: blue light? The hell was that? But, come on, every show slips up here and there and, and big picture, those little gripes don't really detract from what amounted to a truly phenomenal show and now we're all left feeling a little empty, aren't we?
But don't despair, beautiful people. I'm here to tell you that all is not lost. There are a multitude of shows out there that will break your mind, break your heart, and drop your jaw just like Mr. Robot did, but for brevity's sake we picked eight of the best.
8. Homecoming
It seems only fair to kick off this list with Mr. Robot creator Sam Esmail's latest offering, doesn't it? Homecoming follows Heidi Bergman, lead caseworker at a secret government facility known as The Homecoming Transitional Centre. On the surface, the facility appears to be something of a halfway home for recently returned soldiers and... come on, you know where this is going. When has a secret government facility ever not been shady? Safe to say, it doesn't take long for cracks to appear in the facade.
Homecoming boasts an incredible cast too. Julia Roberts stars as Heidi, in possibly her best role in years. Meanwhile she's supported by Mr. Robot alum Bobby Cannavale - doing his usual smarmy best - and Boardwalk Empire's Shea Wigham, who plays Thomas Carrasco with a perfect balance of sympathetic and just plain pathetic.
The show also flits between past and present, with the aspect ratio conveniently changing depending on where we find ourselves, just to save any confusion. The flashbacks deal with Heidi's time at Homecoming whilst the present deals with Carrasco investigating Homecoming and Heidi, who now works in a small restaurant.
From the get go Homecoming throws mystery from all angles, and the big one at its centre begs to be unravelled. Despite the fact that this is cut from the same paranoid cloth as Mr. Robot, Homecoming is far more digestible and accessible than Esmail's first outing. You'll easily burn through its eight twenty five = minute episodes in a single evening and, trust us, you'll be desperate for more.