Mr. Robot is in trouble with some viewers because its second season has been exceptionally slow. The Season 1 finale raised huge philosophical questions about the collapse of capitalism, the moral case for and against hacking, and the ways corporations might or might not be colluding with foreign powers to permanently change the world order. These are big issues and they require a big world. In lieu of advancing these plots, the second season has proliferated film and TV references, nostalgic riffs, and Elliot's efforts to fight Mr. Robot. If you're watching for the hacking, or the societal collapse, or the politics, or the philosophy, that sucks. Mr. Robot started on a gigantic canvas and so far the only part of it that's shaded in and detailed (almost to the point of absurdity) is Elliot's tortured inner life.

And it's this interactivity, that pleasant, ticklish, paranoid feeling that everything is connected, makes the show massively fun to consume. I found myself staring at the ads before and after the show, trying to figure out what was and wasn't part of Mr. Robot's universe, which had already transgressed by tweaking the sacred rules of the network time slot, and has now started messing with commercials too. Mr. Robot's fake E Corp ads were stylistically indistinguishable from USA's '90s ads.

That's FUN. More absorbing than the plot or the suspense or even the great cinematography is the show's friendly invitation to detect. People are scouring every frame for codes and secrets and (unlike in True Detective, which inspired a similar frenzy of paranoid readings) they're actually there.

If you keep your eyes peeled for IP addresses (they pop up in the unlikeliest places, like freeway signs), they might lead you to a BBS called TV TODAY where you can type in commands to see ANSI art of ALF or Bart Simpson and read bulletin boards about Doogie Howser, The Simpsons, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Full House, Step by Step, Head of the Class, Dear John, and The Cosby Show. If you want to see some other things in the BBS, try typing in the following commands: A P B P A P B. One of the images there...

...is on Angela's desk...

...in the episode. And hey: if you want to look up what "MARBLECAKE" means, that's up to you.