Television Tuesday: "Westworld," Season Four

The first season of, "Westworld," was fascinating but felt like a ton of build-up. The second season delivered basically everything I wanted and was amazing. Then we had a messy but entertaining third season (some folks hated it even if I thought it was alright). Now, the fourth season has wrapped as of a couple weeks ago and I've taken some time to think about it. Overall, I would say it isn't as fantastic as the second season but is without a doubt a return to form in terms of being entertaining and at least making a semblance of sense. Spoilers follow this paragraph, so be warned.

"Westworld," loves to play around with our sense of time, doesn't it? The first and second seasons did it a ton and the third mostly avoided that technique, but after the fourth season seemed really straightforward at first, it threw us a big juicy curveball at the halfway point of the season. It turned out a good half of the show was taking place 20-ish years ago from the present and the, "Bad guys," as they were had already won. Tessa Thompson's kinda-Dolores-kinda-Hale had turned almost all the remaining humans into slaves for robots/hosts with the assistance of a host-version of the Man in Black/William/the always deliciously villainous Ed Harris. 

Aaron Paul gets a lot more to do this season of, "Westworld," as Caleb and if I could offer one major complaint it would be Evan Rachel Wood does a ton less and is mostly removed from...well, everything, that occurs within this season (the excuse is that she's basically hooked into the city writing storylines for the humans, but I would've liked Dolores (or, "Christina," as she is now called) to have a bit more of an impact on this going-ons this season. Jeffery Wright and Luke Hemsworth make a fantastic duo as the all-business Bernard and jokey Stubbs, and Thandie Newton's Maeve continues to be a superb character as well. Yes, Westworld has always been a show absolutely packed to the gills with a stupendous cast. I'm just glad this latest season has a stronger plot for them to portray.

Oh, I didn't even mention how pleased I was that James Marsden's Teddy Flood (or at least a kinda-sorta version of him) is back after missing out on the 3rd season. I also was a big fan of new cast member Aurora Perrineau who plays, "C," and is later revealed to be the adult version of Frankie, Caleb's daughter (again, the timelines can be wild on this show). Ariana DeBose is superb as Delores/Christina's roommate too, even if she ends up barely utilized in the rest of the show outside of the city simulation Dolores/Christina made for herself. Assuming the show gets a fifth season (I worry about that with so many shows getting canceled at HBO MAX), maybe she can come back and do a bit more.

With so many characters, "Westworld," does quite the juggling act letting everyone get some scenes in whilst telling its increasingly twisty story of hosts not just rebelling against humans, but totally turning the tables. If you don't like weird and sometimes convoluted sci-fi then, "Westworld," has never been the show for you. However, should you not mind a sometimes-confusing-but-quite-fun ride this program almost always fits the bill.

4.5 out of 5 stars.

Television Tuesday: "Westworld," Season 3 Has Finished, It Was Alright

In the end, season 3 of, "Westworld," was disorganized but entertaining, with amazing actors and great technical effects and atmosphere compensating for a so-so plot. In other words, it was, "Westworld." In all seriousness, however, I am one of those people who think the 2nd season was amazing (I liked the first season a lot too, of course, but season 2 was better) and I've always enjoyed the amazing talent on this show (Jeffery Wright, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, Thandie Newton, a Hemsworth brother, Tessa Thompson, Anthony Hopkins in earlier seasons and even more great folk), but season 3 was a bit lacking and seemed all too impressed with itself.

When I say Westworld seemed too impressed/pleased with itself I refer to its tendency of liking to reveal a twist and act like its some Earth-shattering revelation--everyone is so shocked--when those of us actually watching at home just kind of mumble, "Okay," with vague interest. The last episode of this season was basically a lot of, "The Westworld Affectation," as I call it. We see the last Dolores copy, we learn Serac (Vincent Cassel) has been a willing puppet of Rehoboam, Dolores actually wants to exterminate humanity, no she actually wants to set it free, Caleb (Aaron Paul) knows her from his time in the park as a military recruit, Dolores wanted to be absorbed by Rehoboan all along, et cetera, et cetera.

Someone as good as Vincent Cassel ended-up a bit wasted on this show,
but many actors are better than the material on, "Westworld."

Past seasons of Westworld usually had a stand-out episode or two, but season 3 lacked that, it just had some great moments--ones that were mostly affectation-free. Bernard meeting his human predecessor's wife (played by Gina Torres who also portrayed her way back in season 1) for real (when he, "Was," Arnold) actually really got to me, as his dementia-stricken wife vaguely recalled him (as Arnold) and the heartbreaking loss of their son. I don't know what about it made me tear-up other than how it's so well-acted and a moment of genuine emotion in a show that often can be as lacking in feeling as a robot (no offense meant towards the show's hosts, of course).

As for other moments that really grab watchers, the penultimate episode with Ed Harris as the Man In Black/William facing all the versions of himself in an alternate-reality therapy program and going way against the program and killing them was a hoot too. Frankly, Ed Harris has always made William a much more interesting character than he has any right to be--a lesser actor would make the lack of actual characterization for William quite apparent. "Westworld," seems to know this as even though it seemingly kills William in the post-credits scene, there's a robotic version lined-up and ready to wreak havoc too.

"So...where do go with all this in Season 4?"

Besides some stand-out moments, like the ones above and a couple others (the sex-club fight scene set to an orchestral version of The Weeknd's, "Wicked Things," for another example) it was a fun show with the highest-quality production, but a lack of much content that only manages to be as good as it is thanks to an amazing cast, stellar atmosphere, and those little moments that hint how the show could be more...before it falls victim to its aforementioned, "Westworld Affectation." I thought season 2 had enough ingenious bits to be one of my shows of the year of 2018. Season 3 was good, but I can already tell you this ain't making any best of the year lists for me for 2020. "Westworld," was renewed recently for season 4 and I am legitimately curious where it could go. Hopefully, whatever it does we'll get some James Marsden. I missed him this season.
3.5 out of 5 stars (for the entire season).

Television Tuesday, but It's Actually Monday: "Westworld," is Back!

It's been two long years, but, "Westworld," is back with season 3. HBO wants to get us hooked on a show so we pay them a subscription fee, so this weekend was free and allowed us to easily watch the first episode of this new season. From looking at the internet opinions seem quite mixed. I quite liked it, and was surprised how there were some mysteries introduced but the show felt pretty straightforward. I mean, think of how wonky season 2 was and compared it to the lack of much time-jumping shenanigans.

Some people are sad we are more-so out of the park (although there are clear signs we are going to be visiting more, "Worlds," within the park this season), but I think it makes sense to have shifted the focus from Westworld itself to the rest of the World impacted by its existence. Evan Rachel Wood was a lot more of a villain in season 2 but seems to be on more of an anti-hero path now which works nicely, Aaron Paul is a brand-new addition to the cast (and the only human main character now) and does a fantastic job as an ex-soldier named Caleb dealing with bad economic straits and PTSD. We've also got Tessa Thompson although which host is inhabiting her body is yet to be seen.

A number of other fantastic folk have yet to appear (Ed Harris) or only pop-up at the end (hey there, Thandie Newton/Maeve), but I'm sure they will be making an impact. Oh, and I have always been a fan of Jeffery Wright's Bernard Shaw too, and he's up to something. Basically, the cast is awesome and even people who dislike the show agree with that assessment. I think the changes in focus for the show are a natural evolution as simply staying in Westworld forever would have been boring--the show can illustrate how, "Westworld," changed everything without just being Westworld. I think that is the biggest point of disagreement for those who watch the show.

I think there are people who liked it when the show was more self-contained with season 1 and others who think it didn't really take-off until the 2nd season--that's me. It's a damn good show and I'm excited to see where this season goes, maybe I'll have to get the HBO app for some weeks to watch this and some other content while we are all trapped in our homes for the next forseeable weeks due to COVID-19.

"Westworld," Season 2 Reflections

Fantastic With Some Annoyances

Note: This review contains spoilers and assumes reader familiarity with the show and its characters

I recently finished catching-up on my DVR’d episodes of the 2nd season of Westworld. I was able to watch it on HBO thanks to giving the cable company Hell when it was time to renew our contract--in order to keep us as customers they threw HBO in for free for a year or so. I of course liked season 1 a great deal but my two biggest criticisms of it were that it was essentially all build-up and it spread 5 episodes worth of great content out over 10 episodes, making watching it feel at times like a slog—an enjoyable slog, sure, but a slog nonetheless. Season 1 ended with the long-promised robot rebellion we were promised kicking-off however, and answered a few big questions (e.g William WAS the Man in Black in the past, to name the biggest reveal) making it look like when season 2 began we would finally be getting the mayhem only hinted at in the finale of season 1. Well, having now watched all of season 2 I can state it is mostly what I was hoping for—a lot of enjoyable payoff from all the place-setting, and still some annoying aspects.

Westworld loves to jump around in time. It is like a little affectation it can’t quite help. It made sense in the first season as Dolores came to terms with being a Host who was accessing scattered past memories that were supposed to be locked-off, and helped to allow the kinda-shocking reveal that William was the Man in Black (it wasn’t a total surprise as lots of people saw it coming and I’m still amazed I didn’t predict it as normally I’m decent at guessing a twist). That said, this season we had the present with Bernard figuring out what killed almost all the hosts, a recent-past where the majority of the story takes place with the robots beginning to rebel, and then snippets of decades ago featuring when Logan became interested in Westworld, when Willam/the young Man in Black slowly consolidated power, when an Indian in Westworld realized it was lie, older William losing his wife, and of course a stinger after the credits of season 2 set apparently far into the future. Yes, part of the challenge of watching, “Westworld,” is just figuring out when the Hell a scene takes place.

Bernard's sense of time is all kinds of scrambled this season.

To the show’s credit it takes advantage of viewer confusion at times to make some clever moments occur (like when Bernard first realized he wasn’t really in a cave with Elsie but instead in a memory), and it was cool to flash way back in time to when Arnold was still alive and Westworld was a plucky startup, but the whole thing with, “Two weeks ago,” slowly catching up to the present felt a little like some unneeded chopping-up of that story. It resulted in the story-line for Bernard seeming a bit messy and at times more like it was a framing device for everybody else’s yarn. Jeffery Wright is such a good actor though that even when Bernard’s plot lagged it was entertaining.

Speaking of exciting stories, what Maeve (Thandie Newton) and crew were up to didn’t really intersect with anybody’s plot at all except right at the start and near the very end, but by being removed from a chunk of the time-jumping shenanigans it actually was allowed to be the most straightforward and entertaining story. While Westworld can at times be tricky to sum up, Maeve’s plot summary this season is an easy, “She wants find her daughter and will do whatever it takes,” that results in all kinds of wild events occurring from a visit to another park (“Shogun World,”) to the development of a fascinating new power to mentally, “Speak,” to other hosts and control them. It was some stellar stuff and possibly only rivaled in quality by the heartbreaking and mostly self-contained eighth episode that followed the sorrowful life of an Indian named Kiksuya (Zahn McClarnon) in Westworld.

William/The Man in Black

Now, in regards to an story-line that wasn’t necessarily entertaining/fun but was fascinating there is William AKA the Man in Black (played as suitably terrifying by Ed Harris). There was a bit more time-hopping than I would have liked, but his plot has the wildest developments that ended up of course having a great impact upon Dolores’ robot revolution and Bernard realizing some dark truths about the park. The plot basically draws a bit from the wackier sequel to the original, “Westworld,” movie, “Futureworld,” which creator Michael Crichton was not involved with, interestingly enough. Basically, we learn that there are motions in place to transfer human minds/consciousness into Host bodies by saving data about everyone who has ever visited the park, and a degree of success has been had, but its still quite buggy after years of efforts. William has been involved in this from the start, working for the corporation that owns the park, Delos.

One compliant I've often seen online is that there isn't much reason given throughout either season for why William is such a terrible person, but I actually am fine with the bare-bones attempt at clarifying his personality. He didn't have anything too specific occur, it is just a, "Stain," that has always been in him that he tries to deal with and hide. He's just a person who buries his monstrous nature as deep as possible under a guise of kindness and philanthropy. There isn't much too him in that sense, and that's the point. One character who ends up being straightforward to the point of becoming sadly bland however is Dolores.

Yes, I haven't spoken a ton of Dolores, who is a focal point much of the first season and in this one kicks-off the whole thing with robots killing humans. That's because her character seems like little more than a way to drive the story forward for a lot of the show, with Evan Rachel Wood's amazing acting as a conflicted young woman coming to nature with the dark truth of her reality in season 1 now relegated to 90% of the time being a bloodthirsty fiend willing to kill almost anyone--human or host--who gets in her way. That 10% I left out are for the few scenes she gets to emote anything besides anger and violence such as her sweet scenes with her, "Father," Peter, and with James Marsden's Teddy. Speaking of Teddy, he really gets a bum deal most of this season, hesitantly tagging along with Dolores, being reprogrammed by her against his will once she thinks he's too weak, and then killing himself before at least getting to go to the robot heaven at the end for all his trouble and heartbreak. Marsden is a great actor and always seems to get stuck playing characters who get the short-end of the stuck (Lon Hammond in, "The Notebook," Cyclops in the, "X-Men," franchise), just once I'd like to see him play a guy who comes out on top! Still, with him now gone along with some other characters we will be following what looks like a plot of Bernard versus Dolores for season 3. With the parks all seemingly closed will we see more of the real world now, or peek into the parks that maybe exist but we haven't visited? Time will tell.

The 2nd season of, "Westworld," gives me a lot of the action and plot development I felt the first batch of episodes lacked. Certain story-lines impressed more than others and the show's love of jumping-around through time is at some points a hassle, but overall it was a fantastic time and I loved it. I look forward to what season 3 holds for sure and hope at least some of the great characters who seem to possibly be dead (Maeve, NOOOO!) return. Oh, and if I may contribute to one ongoing internet debate, Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth) clearly was stating he's secretly a host in his last scene. It explains a lot.
5 out of 5 stars.