HBO Show: Westworld

[Bammer]

I did not give a shit about this show with how season 2 played out, but goddammit Aaron Paul is pulling me right back in

At a glance it looks like a completely different show now. Maybe there is hope.

[Superblood Wolfmoon]

Was that Jussie Smollett? As if there weren’t already enough reasons to pass on this.

It’s Kid Cudi.

[Simple Torture]

Westworld: Now With Nazis!

[Bammer]

I made it to 0:27 before I couldn’t take it anymore.

[Simple Torture]

I can't believe this show premiered in 2016 and I'm still not sure if I'm into it:

[Simple Torture]

This show's transformation into a mid-tier Black Mirror episode is now complete.

[psychobain]

a lot of Matrix on it

[Mecca]

This, uh, wasn’t a great second episode

[psychobain]

I agree

I liked the season premiere though

More Aaron Paul please

[Ensign9]

Episode 1 and Aaron Paul's 27 different wigs was decent enough to keep me interested.

Episode 2 was a tedious slog more interested in playing the "greatest hits" than it is in telling an interesting story.

[Ensign9]

Oh, and the D&D cameo was rage-inducing. Weiss about to lay waste to Drogon with that saw was as appropriate a metaphor as ever I've seen, however.

[Mecca]

I have very little desire to watch the latest episode. Is this show dead?

[E.H. Ruddock]

It's gotten so bad

[psychobain]

Ill keep watching for Dolores and AP

[Simple Torture]

I've always been impressed by the show's intricacy and attention to detail. I've never been entirely invested in its characters or the outcome of the plot. This is a very odd perspective for me, as I usually quit on shows that I feel no connection to. I think its themes can be super cheesy and simplistic on the surface, but deep below it asks some interesting questions, which are very hard to crack. None of this has really changed in regards to Season 3: the main plot in the "real world" doesn't really strike me as anything worth investing a ton of time in ("What if algorithms, like, really ruled our lives, man?"--yes, there was already a Black Mirror episode about exactly this). Aaron Paul's character is a dud. The role of the Serac character is being so purposely obfuscated that it's just so obvious that he's hiding something. The recent reveal of the hosts' identities was I think the latest glimmer of a thread I'd like to follow, but I'm not sure if it's going to fizzle out in the end like most things. Ed Harris remains a standout. Without spoiling too much, the one beat this season that really got me, that made me go oof in my soul was when that kid realized someone had gotten replaced with a host--it's a simple little thing that makes so much sense (i.e., adults wouldn't recognize that another adult has been body-snatched, because we spend so much time putting up facades and masks to code switch during our interactions with each other; but a kid would be able to tell right away when the intimate connection is severed), and I wish the show did more of this. Also Maeve is still on the show, I guess?

So if you were off of the show before, I really don't see this season being something you'd enjoy, is what I'm saying.

[Simple Torture]

I do also want to give credit where credit's due: this show still sounds and looks great. The theme is still probably the best part.

[Ensign9]

I have very little desire to watch the latest episode. Is this show dead?

Ep 3 was better than Ep 2. It looks amazing. Ep 4 was the best of the season solely because of Ed Harris.

[Ensign9]

Woof.

Car chases don’t work well at 25mph.

The way they executed the Genre drug trip was half-assed at best. Why even bother with it?

Well stated from The A.V. Club review of this episode’s storytelling: “it’s weightless, flat, information that has all the dramatic value of reading a Wikipedia summary.” Exactly. All the more frustrating because this show is capable of doing so much more with emotional weight. Hell, just look at Ed Harris last week.

[Ensign9]

This show is going down the shitter.

One minor thing from the latest episode: they represent society descending into chaos with a failed robbery at a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Pair that with how underpopulated the environments have been this season, the wooden performances and it has the same problem the Matrix sequels did when they focused on philosophical monologues instead of character development and stakes. Show me what’s at stake; don’t tell me to care about the human race when you don’t care enough to actually show us.

Season 3 is what an AI would create if you told it to make a show.

With the exception of Jeffrey Wright and Ed Harris, none of these actors look or feel like actual adults; just emotionless facsimiles.

[Mecca]

Why is this show?