Westworld (TV series) - Ed Harris

[shootemindehead]

Week to week, it could seem slow, but I binged it in a day, so the pace feels much better to me. With three more episodes to go, we're going to be left with an awful lot left unresolved. The wait til 2018 is going to be annoying. In fact, I think it might actually hurt the show. Didn't the 'V' remake suffer from the audience getting fed up between seasons and half seasons leading to its demise? It's one thing I liked about 'Dexter'. Each run was contained and wrapped up. There was overlap, of course, but in general at the end of a season that story was essentially done. Can't see that happening here.

[Trin]

I'm only maybe 3 episodes in but I'm enjoying it. I like how they are blurring the lines between protagonist and antagonist. The plot is inventive. The pacing seems good. I don't feel like there's a lot of extra filler consuming screen time. I like the characters (both human and host). There's something about the show that goes beyond all that though. The whole sense of place is really well done. The atmosphere. The way the characters interact. The contrast between above ground and below ground. I really like the jarring way that the humans (the throw-away park guests) seem so out of place amidst the storyline that is developing within the hosts. They essentially break the 4rth wall of the hosts' narrative by running around treating it like an amusement park. And you can see how humans treating the story so irreverently is building to a disastrous result. I'm digging it. I still haven't watched the final episode of FTWD and I'm at least 2 episodes behind on TWD ... but I'm sitting down and starting up Westworld when I get home from work. Nuff said.

[babomb]

This show is fucking amazing! So much detail and character. It was a little slow to grow on me at first. But as things progressed I kept rewatching episodes and it's really incredible now. I love the 90's music done in string quartet. It's great how everything means something. Again, so much detail done elegantly. Better than True Detective Season 1. Which is hard to top.

[babomb]

Week to week, it could seem slow, but I binged it in a day, so the pace feels much better to me. With three more episodes to go, we're going to be left with an awful lot left unresolved. The wait til 2018 is going to be annoying. In fact, I think it might actually hurt the show. Didn't the 'V' remake suffer from the audience getting fed up between seasons and half seasons leading to its demise? V was hoaky though. I can understand people losing interest quickly. Westworld is arguably the best thing going right now. IMO it tops TWD. I DVR TWD and watch Westworld when it airs.

[MinionZombie]

TWD still easily wins out over Westworld for me. However, the back half of Westworld's first season (still to see the finale, of course) has really improved things and started bringing it all together, paying off the structuring of the first few episodes - so it's one of those shows that you have to hang in there for (a bit of a risky strategy in your maiden season, mind you). Revealing that there are multiple time lines being shown throughout the episodes was something I hadn't considered, and the Bernard situation continues to fascinate. I'm rather looking forward to the finale and a second season (not something I would have said after the first few episodes - I almost gave up before episode six, which was when things started to pay off and come together ... so it was a good thing I stuck around). It's not up there with the likes of TWD, Game of Thrones, or Breaking Bad, but it's a strong contender nonetheless and better than a bunch of things out there.

[babomb]

Can't comment on game of thrones, I've never even seen a preview for it. I don't care for the medeival times thing. If GoT were actually a simulation, that would be a game changer for me. This season of TWD started strong but really fizzled out IMO. I just can't find a reason to care about it anymore. Westworld grabs my attention and keeps it. I watch each episode multiple times and find new things in it everytime. I watch theories of it on youtube and listen to music from it. I've never watched theories of TWD or gave a shit about music from it. By the time Talking Dead is halfway through I'm pretty much over it until the next week. I'll take NIN and Radiohead in string quartet over "Easy Street" any day of the week. Most of all I think it's the technology and the higher levels of thought in Westworld that does it for me. Leaves a lasting impression, and gives me things to think about and look into for days to come. There's a larger scope in play, and intellectual stimulation that is just not there in TWD. With TWD what you see is what you get. When you try to think into it too much you end up disappointed at the real outcome because the story is always restricted to the source material. It's more of an emotional journey than an intellectual one and that can only take you so far before it's just reiteration. With Westworld the source material doesn't have a large fan following that the writers have to answer to if they stray too far. It's a fresh and uncharted storyline that isn't so obviously constrained. Every character they introduce has a backstory that's explored whether it's a host, guest, engineer or combination TWD is like a linear videogame you're being pushed through where you already know the premise and it's merely the visuals that keep you interested. Westworld is like an open world videogame where you don't know what you're gonna find next or where it's gonna take you. It reminds me a bit of GTA where new characters and storylines offer new missions and potentially change the overall story arc. Season 2 of Westworld is a mystery, that could take you over a cliff or into a new part of the park you never expected. Let's be honest here, Season 8 of TWD is guaranteed to be more of the same stuff we expect in every new season. The only real creative freedom they have in TWD is switching the circumstances of characters. It really doesn't leave much of an impression if it's Carl who gets his hand cut off in the show as opposed to Rick in the comics. We're 1 episode away from the break and the only episode that made any kind of impression on me was the premiere. But I'm on my 4th rewatch of Westworld now. The only episode of TWD I watched more than twice was Ep.1. And zombies have always been my thing. I've always been put off by westerns, there's really nothing about westerns in themselves that grabs me. It's the contrast between upstairs and downstairs in westworld, and the concepts of machine intelligence, the mystery of who's a host and who isn't, the indulgence of human desire and fantasy, corporate malfeasance, wealth and poverty. There's alot of meat on the bones they throw you.

[Neil]

I'm going to try to watch Season 3... I'm going to regret it I know I am...

[MinionZombie]

I'm going to try to watch Season 3... I'm going to regret it I know I am... Why so? I watched the first episode of season three and it was pretty good. Westworld has always been a show that my appreciation of has maxed out at "liked". It's far too clever for it's own good with its needlessly complicated 'reveal at the end that these scenes were before these ones, and those ones were after these ones, so actually Y happened instead of X as you previously thought' ... there's a cold smugness to that structure, and is generally more baffling than revelatory, with weeks worth of hidden timeline games kind of forgotten about by the time the reveal comes along. Stepping out into the wider world opens the scope (the second season was already feeling a bit stretched out with us still being in the park), and there were some interesting ideas being set up, but we'll see how it pans out over the coming weeks. It took me half the damn season just to finally 'click' with the first season, but then the second season got too shoved up its own arse at times - which also at times putting out some excellent material ... so season two was a mixed bag. It's all extremely well produced as a high gloss show with a big budget, but you can't help but wonder at times if it's a bit joyless, a bit too serious for its own good, a bit too cold and distanced - something which is felt all the more when you have an episode like in season two where we followed the Native American 'host', which really sucked you in and made a genuine emotional connection.

[Neil]

I actually enjoyed S03E01... Fingers crossed!

[MinionZombie]

So we're about half way through the season now. How are folks finding it? I'm quite surprised by this season. In some ways it's the best one, having freed itself of the actual Westworld island and broadened the scope of the whole thing with all this Delos stuff and gathering of data to determine which citizens are worth investing in, trying to counteract "outliers" etc. Quite interesting stuff and, thus far, it doesn't appear to be playing overly cute with the timeline ... for now, anyway, lest we get some final episode twist or something.

[Neil]

So we're about half way through the season now. How are folks finding it? I'm quite surprised by this season. In some ways it's the best one, having freed itself of the actual Westworld island and broadened the scope of the whole thing with all this Delos stuff and gathering of data to determine which citizens are worth investing in, trying to counteract "outliers" etc. Quite interesting stuff and, thus far, it doesn't appear to be playing overly cute with the timeline ... for now, anyway, lest we get some final episode twist or something. I need to get back around to it... Only watched the first one

[bassman]

I’m super excited to start season three, but I’m trying to hold out until the whole season is available before I start. Is Aaron Paul a main character for this season or is his part minor and his presence used to bring in BB fans?

[Neil]

I’m super excited to start season three, but I’m trying to hold out until the whole season is available before I start. Is Aaron Paul a main character for this season or is his part minor and his presence used to bring in BB fans? I sort of enjoyed the first episode, but I suspect like you I'll wait for all the episodes to be out before watching the rest...

[MinionZombie]

Is Aaron Paul a main character for this season or is his part minor and his presence used to bring in BB fans? He's a main character.

[Neil]

Well my friend who was ahead of me ducked out after a few episodes, and I ended up following suit.