2. Mr. Robot
Voiceovers are overused in television, but the one way conversation between Mr. Robot protagonist Elliot and the audience raises the bar. He’s a genius computer hacker working a menial cyber security job, but he’s also painfully introverted, suffers social anxiety and has trust issues bordering on paranoia. With all this baggage Elliot is sucked into world changing events via a mysterious hacking group called F Society.
Elliot speaks dispassionately but feels immensely, taking daily doses of Morphine to suppress his intense sadness. The show’s trick is making us Elliot’s constant companion, no matter how confused about things he becomes. He’s afraid men in suits are following him, so pretty quickly so do we. If Elliot feels like something’s amiss, it will niggle at a corner of our brain as if they’re might just be a vast conspiracy lurking out there, waiting for us to get too close.
Ultimately, this is what’s so compelling about Mr. Robot: the idea that, as Elliot slips deeper and deeper into the hacker underworld, there might just be an unknowable cabal lurking somewhere out of sight. Rami Malek should really get an Emmy nod for his portrayal of Elliot somewhere down the line, while Christian Slater adds depth and charm to the hacking leader Mr. Robot. Paranoia permeates through every pore; no series this year has managed to say so much about the way we use information.
1. iZombie
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No show proved that networks can still deliver quality drama this year better than iZombie. As the recently zombified Liv adjusts to her new life of eating brains to stay human, unraveling the mystery of how she became a zombie is harder to pinpoint. Adapted with charm by Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas from a critically acclaimed comic book, iZombie takes a seemingly overstuffed genre and fills it with pathos and just the right amount of heart.
See, Liv Moore (geddit?) is a doctor, so when she discovers she needs brains to survive she finds herself a comfortable job in a morgue. Only trouble is every time she eats brains she temporarily takes on some of the owners’ personality traits. Over the course of the first season Liv takes on the traits of an online video game addict, a high school cheerleader and a horde of other personalities. Each episode can be taken on its own, but there are running storylines through the whole series, including the criminal rise of zombie entrepreneur Blaine and the slow downward spiral of Liv’s ex fiancée Major.
The writing is witty but full of heart (more so than Veronica Mars) and it’s a ton of fun to see how a different brain will alter Liv’s disposition each week. Rose McIver manages to nail it every time while also being funny, vulnerable or strong whenever the show needs her to be. It’s the best show of the year guys, and it still hasn’t been picked up by a UK channel.
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