At the moment, there is no shortage of content targeted at those of us who identify with anything that bears a chip be it comedy, horror, documentaries or the obvious, sci-fi. If online streaming is your thing and you happen to have a Showmax subscription (there’s a way to get three months free) then here are some of the interesting shows you can spend your free time binging on:
1. Mr Robot
Rami Malek, who stars as Elliot in Mr Robot, is your typical young and very knowledgeable engineer at a big firm who has to balance the pressures of work, relationships and maintaining a keen interest in what he knows best: computer systems and everything that revolves around them. The end result is an exhilarating tale that is currently in its third season and available as it airs, on Showmax no less. What’s really interesting about Mr Robot and our usual daily obsession, Android, is that the Android platform is a common feature on Mr Robot as he goes about intruding other people’s devices (hacking) [see].
2. Silicon Valley
For those of us who don’t work in Silicon Valley, the television show that goes by the same name is probably the best way to get to experience what goes on in the famous California valley that has inspired much of what we consume online today and whose influence in our entire lives (whether we know it or not) continues to increase day by day. However, buried deep in the daily lives of those who live and work in the Valley are con-games, deep-rooted hatred for each other and teenage-like cat and mouse games between startup team members, their founders and their funders. It’s a circus that ‘Big Head’ Bighetti, Gilfoyle, Richard Hendricks, Erlich Bachman, Jian Yang, Gavin Belson and others have mastered so well that you will lose track of time as you hastily binge watch the 20-something minute episodes spread out over 3 seasons. What’s more, there are real-world apps that we get to see courtesy of the show, like Jian Yang’s hippy See Food [Play Store download link] app.
3. The Big Bang Theory
Before Silicon Valley, there was The Big Bang Theory. Honestly, this show is remotely responsible for much of the happiness in my junior years in college that was not brought about by rooting cheap Android smartphones. I even have “my spot”, a reserved favourite seating position, thanks to Dr Sheldon Cooper, a physicist on the show who is one of the main attractions. His social awkwardness is pretty much in line with the geeky persona that many have in mind till they realize that we are human, too, and not robots.
4. Scorpion
Among my little circle of geeky friends, Scorpion is loved and hated in equal measure. It is a TV show based on a true story, or so its makers say, that focuses on the emergence of cyber threats as a critical component of modern-day warfare. A young man with a high IQ, Walter O’Brien, who hacked critical national security systems at an early age, works with a small team of nerds to salvage the situation every time something comes up. Since geeks are known to be the most anti-social of beings, they have a sane lady who keeps them grounded and in check, reminding them that they are not walking equivalents of the code they write.
5. Westworld
Have you read about Facebook’s intelligent bots that invented their own language and started to talk each other locking the humans looking after them out? Scary, huh? Well, if that’s scary or sounds scary then you’ve not watched Westworld, yet. Westworld is set in the future. A future in which you will be able to drive to a human laboratory of your choice, order a human that fits your specifications and wait as they are photocopied into a small army that can march for you and crush your competitor. If that is not scary then I don’t know what is. While the show is still hot and there are “only” 10 episodes, you will need a moment to understand what’s going on as the storyline drags on.
So, which one will it be?
