Watch it now: ‘You’re the Worst’, ‘Mr. Robot’

You’re the Worst

Logline: Two jerks destroy everything to try to have a relationship.

Verdict: Stephen Falk’s You’re the Worst is about really unlikeable people. They’re self-destructive, dismissive characters who seem to lack even the basic empathy. The misadventure revolves around publicist Gretchen (Aya Cash) and idiot writer Jimmy (Chris Geere) as they embark on a romantic relationship. Over the seasons, we’ve seen them slowly loosen the toxic layers and begin to see one another as real people. Along the way, their equally dysfunctional friends Lindsay (Kether Donahue) and Edgar (Desmin Borges) become part of Gretchen and Jimmy’s self-destructive orbit. You’re the Worst is an odd, underrated darling of a show: while showing these thoroughly unlikeable characters act in stupid, self-destructive ways, it isn’t afraid to reveal the vulnerability of human emotions with an uncommon edge of maturity. As the current subversive season is brought to a close, one has to wonder if the relationships and dynamics will reset. Can the worst really repair themselves?

Mr. Robot

Logline: Vigilante hacker sluggishly struggles to contain his own revolution that has crippled the world.

Verdict: Spoiler alert! Spoiler alert! Sam Esmail’s Mr. Robot follows mumbling hacker Elliott Alderson (Rami Malek) and his alternate personality Mr. Robot (Christian Slater) into a third season of a dystopian world mid-collapse. The second season amped up the subversive narrative of the series, climaxing with a twist that brought the claustrophobic show into perspective. After a sharp, focused first season, many thought the series had became too self-contained and cinematic for its own good. Mr. Robot S3 seeks to break through those criticisms by building on the world-in-peril trope. The pace is suffering even more than it did in season two, but the cinematography and set design continue to hold their own. Christian Slater (as the titular Mr Robot) continues to own every scene without chewing the scenery, and Portia Doubleday (as Angela Moss) continues to improve.

When Mr. Robot came onto the scene in 2015, the dystopian devastation it depicted seemed a million miles away now for some – now, not so much. S2E2 was a little too much Elliot and not enough Mr. Robot, but a ride in Sam Esmail’s multi-layered universe is always fun (although not for Joanna Wellick this episode).