Mr. Robot is a popular TV series, and arguably one of the best shows to debut in 2015. It talks about big business, hacking and, to a certain extent, anarchy. It follows Elliot, a somewhat antisocial computer whiz who joins the fsociety, a force that is attempting to break the corporate cycle of capitalism and income inequality and get the truth out. Both techno thriller and psychological thriller, the somewhat dark show has received rave reviews and critical acclaim. Here’s what the New-York Times and The Guardian had to say about it back in 2015.
If you want to watch Mr. Robot but don’t have cable or are unable otherwise to access the USA Network, look no more. We’ve researched the best ways to watch Mr. Robot online without cable, digging into all of the major options that are available. For a brief introduction to Mr. Robot, keep reading. If you want to skip straight to our list of sources for streaming Mr. Robot for free, you can do so by using our table of contents.
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What is Mr. Robot?
Premise
Mr. Robot tells the story of young computer genius Elliot Alderson, who works as a security engineer at Allsafe, a cyber security company. Elliot is struggling with anxiety, dissociative identity disorder, and clinical depression. He has a complicated thought process, influenced by delusion and paranoia. Elliot reverts to hacking as a way of connecting with people, leading him to act as a cyber-vigilante.
He’s recruited by a mysterious man who calls himself Mr. Robot who turns out to be some sort of insurrectionary anarchist. Mr. Robot is the leader of F-society, a team of hacktivists with a mission to cancel all consumer debts. To achieve that, they intend to destroy the data of one of the largest corporations, E Corp, that happens to be Allsafe’s biggest client.
The show mixes social criticism with addictive storytelling. It paints a scary picture of the world from the point of view of a troubled young man. The format is unusual, with Elliot acting as a narrator talking to the viewers of if they were a voice in his head.
Production
The show, created and run by Sam Esmail who had previously written two movies, Comet and Mockingbird which he also directed, stars Rami Malek as Elliot and veteran actor Christian Slater in the title role. It started as a summer 10-episodes run back in June 2015 and a second, 12-episodes season that was ordered even before season 1 even premiered. After two seasons, the show was moved to the fall, and season 3 will start next October
An award-winning show
In the show’s first season, its artisans and actors received over 30 award nominations, winning about half of them. Amongst the most prestigious ones, the show won two Golden Globes (Best TV Series and Best Supporting Actor), three Critics’ Choice Awards (Best Drama series with Malek and Slater each also getting one), and two Primetime Emmys.
Where to watch Mr. Robot
There are a few ways you can watch this popular tv series from USA network aside from cable TV. If fact, it premiered on select video-on-demand services almost a month before its original premiere date, back in 2015. So, Mr. Robot has always been “on-demand friendly”.
The official sites
AMC lists the “official” home of the video-on-demand offering of the show as Amazon Video, while also indicating it’s available on a few other services: Vudu, iTunes, Google Play, and Xbox One. This is where you should go to watch Mr. Robot without cable.
Only one free option: Amazon Video
Amazon video is their video-on-demand service. It is also the “official” home of Mr. Robot. They have all the episodes from the first two seasons, and they can be accessed free of charge with an Amazon Prime subscription for which a free 30-days trial is available. With only 22 episodes, 30 days is more than enough to watch the whole series for free.
And once the trial is over, should you decide to keep your Amazon Prime membership—which also has several other advantages as you’ll soon discover, you’ll have to pay $99 a year. If you only want access to free video on demand, there is also the Prime Video offering at $8.99 a month, but this is actually more expensive than the yearly Prime full subscription.
For non-subscribers, individual episodes can be purchased at a reasonable per-episode cost of $1.99 for SD and $2.99 for HD or $16.99 and $19.99 for complete seasons in SD and HD, respectively.
Amazon video content can be watched on a wide array of devices, including Amazon’s own Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, along with several streaming media players including the Roku, some smart TVs and Blu-ray players, Xbox and PlayStation game consoles, Amazon Fire tablet and Android and iOS tablets and smartphones.
What else is available on Amazon video?
Amazon’s video offering impressive. They have popular TV shows such as Doctor Who, Suits, Games of Throne, Better Call Saul, just to name a few. They also have movies, including fairly recent ones such as Fate of the Furious, Lego Batman Movie, The Beauty and the Beast, Ghost in the Shell, and Rogue One, the last Star Wars movie.
And like many competing on-demand services, Amazon has its own Amazon Original series such as Transparent, the story of a middle-aged father who decides to become a woman or Hand of God, a bloody series about a judge who decides to take the law into his own hands. Other titles worth mentioning include Bosch, a police-procedural series, Goliath and American Playboy.
Other advantages of Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime is not just about free videos. Being an Amazon Prime member has all sorts of perks, the main one being free two-day shipping or same-day delivery on many Amazon items. Amazon Prime membership also gives you access to Prime Music, a music service similar to Prime videos with over 2 million songs available. As a Prime member, you can also borrow books through Amazon’s Prime Reading and get free game content and discounts on video games, thanks to Twitch Prime. Finally, Amazon Prime membership also includes free unlimited storage of your photos.
Other low-cost options
While the free trial of Amazon Prime seems to be the only way to watch Mr. Robot for free, there are several other places where it can be watched for a reasonable fee. All these are “official” sites, approved and recommended by AMC. The offering, in terms of the episodes available, is the same no matter where you go. On all services, you can watch any episode from the first two seasons.
Vudu
Vudu is another popular video on demand service now part of the Walmart family. They’re celebrating their 10th anniversary this year. Originally only viewable with their proprietary TV set-top box, their content is now available on smart TVs, game consoles, several media streaming devices (Android TV, TiVo Roamio, Roku), and on Android and iOS phones and tablets.
With over 18 000 movies and 5,000 TV shows in the Vudu catalog, there is something for everyone. They have major motion pictures (Boss Baby, Logan, The Circle), independent films, documentaries, children’s programming, anime, musicals, recorded musical performances, cartoons, and television series. The vast majority of their content is available to watch in HD. But most content is only available for purchase and download in SD, to comply with studio requirements.
iTunes Store
Does the iTunes Store need an introduction? The hugely popular service from Apple also offers the first two seasons of Mr. Robot for purchase. Available at the cost of $1.99 and $2.99 for DS and HD, whole seasons can also be purchased for $16.99 and $24.99.
The iTunes Store content can’t be directly played on as many devices as the services mentioned previously. It is easily viewable on any iTunes-compatible device such as the iTunes application for Windows or Macintosh, iPhones, iPods, iPads, Apple TV and any iOS-based device. And of course, you could always copy the downloaded file to any player of your choice to watch it anywhere, if you’re technically inclined.
And just like the other options, iTunes does not limit you to Mr. Robot. The iTunes store literally offers millions of songs for download as well as movies from Disney, Paramount Pictures, and Lions Gate Film, and some short films. They also have quite a few TV series such as American God, Grantchester, Snatch or Line of Duty.
Google Play
Like the iTunes Store, the Google Play store also offers the two seasons of Mr. Robot for purchase. Their prices are the same as iTunes’, $1.99 and $2.99 for single episodes and $16.99 and $24.99 for complete seasons. While Google doesn’t offer as many options as iTunes to watch the downloaded content, there are apps for all Android-based devices. And since you’re actually purchasing the content and not just paying for rights to watch it, you’re free to copy it to any media playing device you choose.
Content-wise, the Google Play store might not be as rich as Apple’s iTunes store but there’s still a lot of quality content. To feed your TV hunger, you’ll find titles such as Brooklyn Nine Nine, Arrow, Chicago Fire Vampire Diaries, The 100 and older titles like Friends or Smallville.
Watch on Xbox One
If you have an Xbox connected to your TV, purchasing episodes from the Xbox One store might also be a valid option. Again, this is not a free option but the costs remain reasonable. Both the by-episode and by-season costs are the same as the iTunes and Google Play stores. In fact, more than a valid option, It could be the best one if you want to watch on your TV and have no other media player connected to it.
As for the content available on the Xbox One store, it is quite similar to the offerings from the Apple or Google. They have movies, recent and older, TV series, etc. There’s something in there to satisfy anyone’s taste.
If you liked Mr. Robot, maybe you’ll want to try
So, you’re a fan of dark, complicated TV or movies with a strong psycho-thriller or sci-fi side? Perhaps you should give these suggestions a try. They are often appreciated by Mr. Robot fans.
Suggestion 1: Orphan Black
Orphan Black is a Canadian TV series that tells the story of Sarah Manning, a con artist who, after witnessing the suicide of a woman who appears to be her doubleganger, decides to assume her identity. She later discovers that there are in fact numerous clone of her and, with the assistance of her foster brother, she embarks on a mission to find out more about herself and her clones.
The series, currently in the middle of its fifth and last season, was created by screenwriter Graeme Manson and director John Fawcett. The show stars actress Tatiana Maslany who won several awards for her performance. In all, she was nominated for 38 awards and won 21, including two Critic’s Choice awards and one IGN People’s Choice awards. The show, its cast, and its crew won several Canadian Screen Awards in 2014, 15, 16, and 17.
Suggestion 2: Black Mirror
British Science fiction and anthology series Black Mirror is another example of a TV series that could appeal to fans of Mr. Robot. The episodes are standalone works, often set in an alternative present or the near future and are centered around dark and satirical themes that examine modern society. It is particularly critical of the unanticipated consequences of new technologies.
Created by Charlie Brooker, the show does not have a permanent cast as each episode is standalone and features different characters. Considered by some to be a hybrid between The Twilight Zone and Tales of the Unexpected, the show was well received in the UK as well as internationally, winning the International Emmy award for Best Series in its first year. So far, three seasons have aired.
Suggestion 3: The Matrix
While the Matrix is a movie rather than a TV series, it could most certainly be of interest to fans of Mr. Robot. It tells the story of the whole world as being nothing but an illusion (called the Matrix) put in place by a race of machines with artificial intelligence to force the human into being nothing more than their source of energy. They subdue humans into a vegetative state, preserve them in huge “warehouses”, and collect thermal and chemical energy from their bodies. A small faction of people has managed to escape and is trying to free the world from this domination by manipulating the virtual reality every human lives in.
Released in 1999 and directed by the Wachowskis the movie stars Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving, and Joe Pantoliano. It was very well received, Winning four Academy Awards. It is an older movie but, if you haven’t seen it and like Mr. Robot, Chances are you’ll love this film.
