I have a love/hate affair with absurdity on television. Often times, it's done to be cool or LOL SO RANDOM without any actual merit or reason for it to be around. But sometimes a show finds just the right combination of wackiness and message that it becomes high art, and that's what happened in this week's episode of Mr. Robot.
And it involved ALF. Yes, the cat-eating alien life form from the late-'80s NBC sitcom ALF -- itself an exercise in absurdity -- made a cameo in Mr. Robot and it was everything you could have hoped it would be.
But like I said above, it wasn't just a headline-seeking gimmick to get people talking today. The first dozen or so minutes of "Master Slave" -- one of the series' best episodes, easily -- was a time capsule to the glory days of 1980s and 1990s sitcoms as Elliot (Rami Malek) imagined that he was inside a family sitcom starring the Aldersons, down to the Full House title font, 4:3 aspect ratio, pastel fashion and laugh track.
However, the whole sequence was darkened by some black (and spurting red) comedy, including set ups and gags about Mr. Robot's (Christian Slater) cancer, a memorable shot in the faux credits sequence of Angela (Portia Doubleday) crying over her mother's casket during her funeral and Elliot's mother (Vaisnavi Sharma) -- who still doesn't have a name, btw -- putting out her cigarette on Darlene's (Carly Chaikin) arm and then punching her in the face. I don't remember The Facts of Life doing that during its run.
Yet throughout all this, Elliot was the lone actor in his own play who remained confused by the transformation. Thinking Mr. Robot had won their battle for control over Elliot, Elliot acquiesced but Mr. Robot told him that lies are sometimes essential to protect us from the truth. We all do it, it's a natural defense mechanism. I've promised myself that I will go to the gym "tomorrow" for the last month but I haven't broken a sweat since June. Sometimes it's easier to lie to yourself then stare the truth in the face.