Mr. Robot

Innie and Outie Mark S’s little VHS kerfuffle at the end of Severance Season 2 is child’s play compared to the mutli-season blood feud between hacker supreme Elliott Alderson (Rami Malek) and his alter ego, Mr. Robot. The award-winning USA Network drama follows Elliott and his developmentally stunted and perpetually traumatized gang of digital anarchists, known as F Society, as they try to free humanity from the shackles of evil corporation E Corp (Get it?) while also avenging the deaths of a few of their parents at the greedy hands of its senior executives. Not only does Mr. Robot feature the best performance in Malek’s sensational career; it’s also one of the only shows from the last decade to match Severance’s unique blend of psychological thriller and sci-fi. While Mr. Robot leans more into cybersecurity while Severance’s focus is on sci-fi consciousness splitting, the show does a brilliant (and at times better) job of illustrating the internal struggles between two diametrically opposed halves of the same person.

At one point, Mr. Robot shoots and almost kills Elliott, takes over his consciousness without his consent to plan a deadly attack, and uses his childhood trauma to manipulate him. That alone is enough to draw parallels between Mr. Robot and Severance. There’s also the mysterious and diabolical corporate overlords of both shows, the computer work leading to real-world consequences, and the, at times, claustrophobic cinematography that really makes these two shows cousins from the same dystopian family tree.