Taking a break from the saga that is the Trump ascendency, I’ve recently binge watched the entire first season of the new HBO show Westworld and wanted to share my thoughts.
Firstly, this is the best show they’ve made since Deadwood. The writing and the acting are first rate. The show’s narrative resides in the future, when mankind has all but cured disease and death, even to the point of returning the dead to life.
Because hedonism rules the day, a park was created and stocked with robots that have actual flesh and blood, but robotic minds, living out their mundane ‘loops’ for the pleasure of their human visitors. Humans created the robots so that wealthy visitors could live out their fantasies for $40,000 per day — raping, murdering and swashbuckling until they’ve been satisfied.
As the series went on, it began to take on a religious undertone. After all, God is to humans as humans are to these robots. We are their creators, therefore God.
Then an awaking or consciousness began to “infect” the park, paving way for a very grandiose and spectacular finale.
I highly recommend watching it. However, I am unsure how they will continue the story in season 2, since things ended in a way that called for finality.
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The news of season 2’s confirmation was also fortuitous in November, since showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy let slip on the same day to Entertainment Weekly that we can expect much more detail being given to how hosts work during the second season, including how they’re powered.
“Their construction and their power source is something we’re really going to get into during season 2,” Nolan said. “So we’d like to keep that mysterious. They’re closer to biological than they are mechanical, but they don’t suffer brain death the same way we do. They’re largely indistinguishable from human beings, but their brains don’t require oxygen—which opens up interesting possibilities. Their brains are not as fragile as ours. On one hand, their cognition is controllable and malleable, but on a structural level, they can’t be killed in the same way you and I can. There are advantages and disadvantages to being a host. [In] season 2, we’ll be exploring more of the nuts and bolts of what they are—as the hosts themselves are trying to understand.”
This consideration of artificial biology is not that surprising since Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy already revealed they were breaking down the second season during the Westworld panel at New York Comic Con that we attended in October 2016.
“There were a handful of things that we weren’t able to touch in the first season, and we’re now currently breaking the second season,” Nolan had said during the NYCC panel. “One of the really nice things about TV is, you get to go again.”
Indeed, that feedback loop can begin in earnest now, as Westworld season 2 is powering full-steam ahead like a locomotive. And come on, we all know that you’re going to be wearing the black hat when it comes time to watch it.
I find the human tourist to be a bit to “amoral”. I don’t understand why someone (another tourist) does not just walk up to the man in black and sat WTF is your problem?
I have not seen every episode or every minute, but it would be nice if the story line had park management with a moral review board who could eject and ban certain tourists.
But then I would not be surprised to see season 2 start with a lynch mob or robot hosts hanging the man in black.
What would the point of the park be if the guests couldn’t do whatever they wanted?
first, bitches
Ha, thanks for the review Fly.
It’s incredibly well done. I might have to read the book to tide me over between seasons.
Stopped reading at the word Deadwood. If it is that good, I don’t want spoilers. Will check it out.
should have ended it at season 1, i am also not sure how and why they would continue after that ending ..
Rick and Morty!!! Anyone?
Maybe the best current show on Adult Swim
Michael Crichton was a genius and besides that, a wicked cool dude. He actually started out in literature but switched to medicine after he submitted an Eric Blair article under his own name to see what his teacher would think. The teacher gave him “C” which makes me think of “Back to School” when Rodney Dangerfield hired Kurt Vonnegut to write a paper on himself and got a “D”. “Hey Vonnegut you got a D writing a paper on yourself! Fuck me? Fuck you, Vonnegut!”
I’d like to see the robots in Westwood Season 2 start the process of supplanting mankind. It’s the logical narrative direction. Mankind is doomed.
Derp, Crichton’s medical background would explain the great detail employed in “The Andromeda Strain” to describe quarantine procedures, as well as the physical effects of the plague.
[light spoiler] I’d like to have seen Maeve do what she planned to do in the last episode – but I get the point about ultimately following your programming.
Don’t you remember when she brought Bernard back to life, he told her she was still following her narrative even though she thought she was self-aware? She was supposed to ride the apple store train and escape the park. When she got off the train to go look for her daughter, she is now making her own decisions. She’s completely self aware. The clues are the camerawork, it shifts from handheld camera to stationary camera (which is a trademark of the Nolan brothers – watch their movies carefully for the telltale yet almost imperceptible signs of which scenes are using a handheld camera).
Dero. Not something I notced while watching, but interesting perspective.
Was hoping for the same, as the end of the show seemed a little obvious. Obvious as it was, the last episode was amazing.
Westworld is Fake News.
lol…
Nerp, nice try Iron. fake is good watching a TV show. Black mirror is where it’s at though
Deadwood was the epic. Everything else is copycat fake news. Get the whole loop thing. But. Trains still run on a track.
I got into Deadwood like 10 years ago cocksucker. Check out Fargo?
Tough going of late dude. If ‘Girls’ is the rule. Entertainment is running hot. Seriously this silver screen takeover has gone to shit. ‘True Detective’ the first one was the last really good new show in the memory bank. Most are oldish like ‘Game of Thrones’. Dry spell.
I still plan on throttling the guy who just stopped Deadwood in mid-plot.
Glad you’re manueving, fly. At first I thought you were dead, or otherwise dispatched as weekend druunk. Okay so, tried it twice and it has to be the most BORINg syfy since that movie about Cloney and sun.
Anyway headed to a video archade – do you play?
Sound surprisingly good. Thanks for the recommend. I feared they just took the movie and screwed it up.