NBCUniversal Television Distribution, USA Network
I feel the need for a typographic cleanse and Mr. Robot is just the man for the job. The sexiness I speak of is not recent Golden Globe winner Rami Malek (who also made an appearance in PT Anderson's The Master) but the dangerously delicious typography and opening credits. Creator Sam Esmail has remarked on his inspiration in using different title cards for each episode.
“I love how a film opens. It’s almost always the best part about a movie: The first images of whatever I’m about to watch fill me with awesome anticipation. It’s so incredibly important, but it’s also fucking exciting. It’s a blank canvas that you can do anything with because you have nothing before it to worry about, no context—you’re creating the context. All filmmakers obviously treat this very differently. Whether it’s slow or fast, with a bang or with a seduction, it is the purest way to set down the gauntlet and demand the viewer’s attention. It’s telling them, buckle up because we’re about to go on a fucking ride. If done well, it can be incredibly visceral and disarming. Most of my favorite films tend to have amazing opening and/or title sequences—Pulp Fiction, Blue Velvet, every Kubrick film, to name a few.”
For Mr. Robot, the visuals set behind the distinctive red lettering peel away more layers of information and insight. Our hero Elliot balances his social anxiety disorder, clinical depression and drug use alongside his day job as a cybersecurity engineer and his night job as an anarchist hacker. While the mood and tone for each episode is set, the title sequence says everything you need to know loud and clear up front. And Sam Esmail is right, for ten episodes, Mr. Robot has taken us on a thrilling, paranoid and delusional fucking ride. And I love every seductive visual of it.