Post by Leo of Red Keep on Mar 18, 2020 12:10:07 GMT
Westworld impresses the half smart. It had a nice riddle character for the first half of it's first season, even though I felt a strong urge to quit watching the moment they had Dolores speak of freedom at the beginning of what I think was the 4th episode already. The thing has always been nonsense, it just kept getting worse as it went along, then became outright disgusting.
Maeve walking around unhindered with Felix in the 6th was another alarm bell. It told of some major contrivance taking place for the sake of the action to come. As if Ford was secretly watching over it all and arranging for it to happen. Shortly thereafter, the cartoon cats at the bottom of the hierarchy, whose job it was only to clean and repair "killed" hosts, were able to alter Maeve in ways that fundamentally changed her, disrupting her storyline without having to ask for permission or anyone being notified of it.
But the big fuck-up was when Bernard was revealed as a host. It was not a surprise because the Internet had somehow puzzled clues to it, yet it made the whole worldbuilding fall down by contradicting itself. We had been told and shown how intensive training hosts had to be, yet were to believe that a copy of Arnold had been made to such perfection on the side no one ever noticed. The next season would "explain" this by showing Dolores as the maker, the same one who was still somehow struggling within her loops and being interrogated by Security Stubs outside of them. Rules had been set only to be thrown away for the sake of twists. The intricate story had turned into the proverbial game of chess with a pigeon who kicks down pieces, shits on the board and claims to have won. All that remained at this point was violence, skin and music. I liked the music.
By the end of the 7th episode, there was no point trying to piece things together anymore. The William twist had also been guessed and while the look, behaviour and speech of both actors made it implausible, it was yet to be. After all, it would be more of a Big Shocking Twist® if it made less sense. At least some similarity in the person would have been needed. Now, it seems they did it again in the 2nd season, with Dolores acting just like the person she was not and could not possibly know.
When I see people complain about the "masterpiece" of the 1st season not being renewed in the 2nd, I wonder what they understood of it. I saw someone speculate that some re-writing took place after the first half of the 1st season, explaining how things went to junk in the 2nd half. I believe that.
There's a long burial of the 2nd season too: