Westworld (HBO)

Because we all wanted a season 4, right?  Right?

Well, you're getting one anyways.

Just came here to post that!

And no, we didn't. S3 shit the bed, hard and stinky.


Yet: NGL, I'm still gonna watch. At least an episode or two. See if they've bounced back from the lows of the last season.

Fuck yeah! I enjoyed season 3, though will cop to its flaws. Huh. Didn't think they'd renew it; figured the showrunners moved on. The third season finale could work fine as a series finale.

I can't be arsed to dig up the article, but I think Nolan and Joy might not be as hands-on for this season, as they got a deal to develop a FALLOUT series for HBO.

If so, that's probably a good thing.

it's an amusement park with killer robots. How do you fuck this up?

Judas Booth wrote:

it's an amusement park with killer robots.  How do you fuck this up?

Just replace "Life" with "Shitty writing" and you have your answer.

Still can't believe how this show jumped several sharks in that last episode. Almost as bad as the GoT series finale.

Judas Booth wrote:

it's an amusement park with killer robots.  How do you fuck this up?

1) Get rid of the amusement park

2) ask us to accept the killer robots as the good guys

3) Tease us wih a little bit of Ingrid Bolso Bernal and then completely ditch her

Schwartz wrote:

3)  Tease us wih a little bit of Ingrid Bolso Bernal and then completely ditch her

This might be the show's greatest sin.

Having watched the first season and bailed out at the start of the second, I've wondered if there's any there there to the show at all, apart from "Yul Brynner sure looked cool and scary as a killer robot, didn't he?"

I still think the first season is borderline great, and has actual things on its mind. S2 is too in love with its own narrative fuckery; the fractured timeline short circuits (hee) any impact or ideas it's trying to convey.

S3, if my comments over in TC are any indication, was going strong for most of its run and then absolutely shit the bed in the final two episodes, particularly the last.

It's up to better minds than mine to determine whether S2 and S3 added anything of substance to the conversation begun in S1. (My own take is "No, they didn't" but like I said: better minds are needed.)

I absolutely could not get into Season 3. It just became such a completely different show that I just wasn't interested in.

You're not wrong. Leaving the park essentially made it a different show.

It's like if JURASSIC PARK suddenly left the island and spent an hour on InGen fending off a corporate takeover. It might be a compelling story and make perfect logical sense, but where the hell are my dinosaurs??

I definitely watched all of S3 but I couldn't tell you a thing that happened. This show is a prime example of a storyteller convincing themselves that complexity of plot is equivalent to depth of themes. And so it thinks that the intellectual challenge that comes from exploring heady ideas and weighty themes is the same as the challenge that comes from making the basics of your plot obtuse and fucking impenetrable.

Schwartz is also not wrong.

Indeed, Schwartz absolutely nailed it 100%.

S3 was both interminable and vaporware. My spouse and I struggled to remember plot details, and then decided it didn't matter, because we'd already planned to let it go. Bummer, as there are moments and plotlines in S1 and S2 that are, relatively speaking, amazing and meaningful. Some of the greatest performances in TV history happened on this show.

But not by Aaron Paul. Or Tessa Thompson.

If nothing else, WW has made an actor out of Thandiwe Newton. Bravo to her.

Judas Booth wrote:

If nothing else, WW has made an actor out of Thandiwe Newton.  Bravo to her.

Yes! She's fantastic and I hope she's able to continue to use the raised profile she's had from Westworld to get good work - sadly something that would be tough at her age, regardless, and her being Black doesn't help in that regard.

Wife and I are rewatching 2 & 3 to get ready for the fourth. Just finished 2 and gotta say, it still hits. It does get 'EVERYONE IS A CYLON' at the end but I think I enjoyed it more the second time through. Easier to follow and process what's happening.

Kiksuya is still one of the best episodes of the show.

Anotber thing: of course Dolores has a dim view of humanity...the only people who can come to the park are rich assholes! Assholes so rich that they very likely have some sort of defect because well, they're so fucking rich, and you don't get that way by following high ideals.

Anyways, onto season 3!

S2 is fine. It's fine. Nolan & Joy get a bit too fond of tangled narratives for its own sake.

S3 is ok up until the final 2 or 3 episodes and then shits the bed HARD.

Hmmm...

Just wrapped up episode 5 of season 3. It felt like a season finale. Dolores released the Rehoboam information, the world is in chaos because of it; Dempsey is dead; Serac has lost control. William is in an asylum. Stubs and Bernard are reunited. The last shot is Dolores and Caleb getting onto a plane and setting out for more free will. There's enough with the Outlier idea to tease you for the next.

And I will admit, I remembered most of that. It gets vague after this; was taken by surprise when they let Rehoboam out.

So even though the landing is shaky, does Season 3 at least make sense in a narrative fashion? I checked out after Season 2 but thought I'd dive into the first couple episodes of Season 3 just a couple of weeks ago. What I saw so far was good enough to keep going, but based on what I'm reading the last few eps appear to be prime examples of the showrunners crawling up their own asses. Should I continue or focus my attention on something else? Just wondering....

If you're asking if you can follow it, the answer is yes.

If you're asking if the characters make relatable, believable decisions and is the season arc satisfying?

The answer is a hard no.

it's the very definition of 'shitting the bed.'