I enjoyed the episode enough and the season overall, but it did dip in quality on the backhalf. It would of benefited from either a longer season or dropping some subplots.
The show wasted its strongest actor, Jeffrey Wright, this season. I'll still come back for season 4.

radewart wrote: ↑

May 5th, 2020, 6:40 pm

I enjoyed the episode enough and the season overall, but it did dip in quality on the backhalf. It would of benefited from either a longer season or dropping some subplots.

I think the subplots should've had more meat. I'd have preferred to watch Caleb's buddies carrying out another job or two, and giving us an insight about how Rehoboam uses these outliers. Instead we got Maeve fighting Nazis and William flashbacks.

People, plotpoints, motivations are suddenly introduced and it just felt hamfisted. The overall structure of a season is a mess.

Westworld is focused on surprising audience and it doesn't do it well. I personally would've preferred if there were hints as to what the characters are working towards and trusted it's audience to put two and two together and anticipate eventual clash of characters.

For example, It's so frustrating to watch this show waste its potential.

Despite hating most of the season, Evan Rachel Wood is a really great actress.

So before I start season 3, I'm rewatching season 2 because I feel like I didn't understand a lick of it after about 3 episodes in.

Upon review, it feels like the show is purposefully obfuscating things to make it seem "deep". Or maybe I'm just literally too dumb to "get it".

Like, the later part of season 2 seems like it devolves into characters just sort of brooding at each other and reciting their personal philosophies.

Now, you'd think this would would lend to a complexity that makes the people seem real, but it makes it hard to kind of "side" with anyone. Compare it to, say, Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones, where characters are horrible to each other and yet you still sympathize with them and side with them. I don't feel that with this show.

There's also a part of me that feels like the show played itself out in season 1 and already explored the major themes of identity, reality and morality. Now, it's just sort of a rat race. Everyone is sort of samey, making it a huge power grab and I guess you just have to decide which character is "cooler" and root for them.

Hopefully season 3 changes it up.

Cilogy wrote: ↑

May 19th, 2020, 10:54 am

So before I start season 3, I'm rewatching season 2 because I feel like I didn't understand a lick of it after about 3 episodes in.

Upon review, it feels like the show is purposefully obfuscating things to make it seem "deep". Or maybe I'm just literally too dumb to "get it".

It's not you.

viewtopic.php?f=17&t=13996&start=2140#p1174144

Jonah and Lisa Joy sadly think their show is much deeper and cleverer than it is. That's exactly the crux of the central issue with the show. S3's first half is a beautiful course correction. The last half is possibly the worst run of the show.


-Vader

Vader182 wrote: ↑

May 19th, 2020, 1:58 pm

Jonah and Lisa Joy sadly think their show is much deeper and cleverer than it is. That's exactly the crux of the central issue with the show. S3's first half is a beautiful course correction. The last half is possibly the worst run of the show.


-Vader

My thoughts exactly. I'd even go so far as saying this has really put a damper on my excitement for anything from Nolan-Joy going forward. I had major problems with S2 and some of the stuff in S1, but S3 was very disappointing.