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WESTWORLD (HBO TV)


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Whatever floats your boat...

 

I thought it felt like a severely unfocused and rushed final season which destroyed years of development in a handful of episodes.

 

I didn't cry about because I was never really that invested in the show. 

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3 hours ago, Arpy said:

Whatever floats your boat...

 

I thought it felt like a severely unfocused and rushed final season which destroyed years of development in a handful of episodes.

 

I didn't cry about because I was never really that invested in the show. 

 

IWESTWORLD Is not really a show that anyone gets emotionally INVESTED in.

Season two became totally incomprehensible in the last few episodes..

Normally, I would rewatch them to get the plot points. But, I really didn't care.

Season three probably had tons of plot holes but I just don't bother..

It's not GOT or MR. ROBOT& shows where the intricacies of the plot lines MATTER. ALOT!

 

I really don't get the claim that GOT " betrayed " it's previous characters and plotlines.

The weakness in s. 8 was in the direction of the big battle scenes toward the end of the run .I thought the final episode was excellent.

Folks who hated it just didn't like what happened to Daenrys

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3 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Folks who hated it just didn't like what happened to Daenrys

 

Yeah people romanticise that character. Probably because the actress is a pouty little fittie with nice tits. Her worldview and what she had to offer was no different to what already existed. Westeros needed a radical reformation.

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3 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Folks who hated it just didn't like what happened to Daenrys

That's one way to lump people together who share contrasting opinions as one homogeneous group. The problem isn't with Daenerys's character (although one could argue it was) but with the way it was handled in the final few episodes. 

 

As for Westworld, I think season three was a bit gratuitous in the way it dealt with certain plotlines which deserved a more expansive view. It felt disappointing to get through an entire season and nothing feeling substantial or worthwhile, which is doubly disappointing considering the last two seasons had teased the escape to the human world.

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10 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

 

IWESTWORLD Is not really a show that anyone gets emotionally INVESTED in.

Season two became totally incomprehensible in the last few episodes..

 

 

I predicted that HBO's Westworld would rock my world but I stopped watching after S1. Heck, I even started this thread!

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10 hours ago, PuhgreÞiviÞm said:

 

Yeah people romanticise that character. Probably because the actress is a pouty little fittie with nice tits. Her worldview and what she had to offer was no different to what already existed. Westeros needed a radical reformation.

Alexander the Great

Napoleon Bonaparte....

wanted to " break the wheel" also.

She was a complex and fascinating character but was destined to be a tyrant. Listen to Tyrian's soliloquy to Snow in the last episode. Great writing!

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On 6/14/2020 at 5:42 PM, bruce marshall said:

Well, [GOT] had a great last episode, despite what the crybabies think.

 

Lol ok. I will concede that the last few scenes were great. In fact, season 8 was littered with great scenes. That doesn't change the fact that the rest of the season's writing was shitty.

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1 hour ago, A. A. Ron said:

 

Lol ok. I will concede that the last few scenes were great. In fact, season 8 was littered with great scenes. That doesn't change the fact that the rest of the season's writing was shitty.

The direction of WHITE NIGHT and DEZTRUCTION of Westeros were badly handled ( esp. WHITE).

BUT...

the non- battle scenes were of the same high quality as what came before.

Think of Brienne being knighted, Sensor saving Arya, the opening scene of the last episode where Kaleesi addresses the troops...

" littered"?

Methinks NOT.

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3 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

The direction of WHITE NIGHT and DEZTRUCTION of Westeros were badly handled ( esp. WHITE).

BUT...

the non- battle scenes were of the same high quality as what came before.

Think of Brienne being knighted, Sensor saving Arya, the opening scene of the last episode where Kaleesi addresses the troops...

" littered"?

Methinks NOT.


Those were fine, yes, but they were islands in a sea of mediocrity.

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15 hours ago, Alexcremers said:

 

I predicted that HBO's Westworld would rock my world but I stopped watching after S1. Heck, I even started this thread!

Don't you have one of those gadgets to shut down threads?

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, bruce marshall said:

Any chance in he'll we'll get a third season on CD?

Not sure. The last two seasons releases came out not long after the they aired, season three went straight to digital. I wonder if CD sales of the last two may have meant it was more commercially viable for them to just put this latest one out digitally? Also, the CD release for series one was a special gatefold package, whereas season two's was a standard jewel-case, so who knows what's up with the releases?

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1 hour ago, bruce marshall said:

They were also 2 discs.

I would settle for a single😰

I disagree - quite a few of my favourite cues, including a gorgeous version of Ford's Theme, the Dolores and Teddy theme from season one, and important statements of Maeve's theme are all missing.

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37 minutes ago, Arpy said:

I disagree - quite a few of my favourite cues, including a gorgeous version of Ford's Theme, the Dolores and Teddy theme from season one, and important statements of Maeve's theme are all missing.

I meant I would settle for a single CD for season three rather than nothing physical.

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1 minute ago, bruce marshall said:

I meant I would settle for a single CD for season three rather than nothing physical.

At the end of the day, wouldn't you settle for the content over a physical release? 

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YouTube's audio is usually compressed, and if someone hasn't made the score available (other examples than Westworld) then it's not all there...

1 minute ago, bruce marshall said:

NO.

I can listen on YT if it's just about content.

 

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Just now, bruce marshall said:

True. I don't have the capabilities to download, even if I wanted to.

If you're on this forum, you have the capabilities.

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Just now, Arpy said:

YouTube's audio is usually compressed, and if someone hasn't made the score available (other examples than Westworld) then it's not all there...

 

CD or LP.

Not. Gonna . download.

1 minute ago, Arpy said:

If you're on this forum, you have the capabilities.

I don't have a p.c.

Who wants to listen on low fi or headphones? Not me.

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Just now, Jurassic Shark said:

You could burn it on a CDR, or a... LPR?

I don't want to encourage them to do digital only releases.

The only way to ensure the future of CDs is to refuse other formats.

The consumer's only power is to refuse to buy downloads.

Whatever happened to MOD?

I bought THE GREAT GATSBY score that way

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14 minutes ago, bruce marshall said:

I don't want to encourage them to do digital only releases.

The only way to ensure the future of CDs is to refuse other formats.

The consumer's only power is to refuse to buy downloads.

Whatever happened to MOD?

I bought THE GREAT GATSBY score that way

It'll take more than one person to sway that I'm afraid. We're lucky to have the specialty labels producing these physical releases as it's a niche market. CD has been heading the way of the dodo for a while, but maybe it'll have a resurgence like vinyl years later...

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15 minutes ago, Arpy said:

It'll take more than one person to sway that I'm afraid.

 

I'll join him!

 

15 minutes ago, Arpy said:

CD has been heading the way of the dodo for a while, but maybe it'll have a resurgence like vinyl years later...

 

I wonder when the Dodo will have their resurgence... perhaps in Jurassic Park 20: Dodassic Park?

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  • 1 year later...

Yeah I was not a fan of where Season 3 went... felt like it totally lost its steam. Just did not engage with me like the last two seasons did. I think it also suffers what the Jurassic series suffers when they leave the park... PEOPLE MISS THE PARK! lol. I mean sure, we did have a bit at the park in Season 3 (kind of?), which was fun enough but wasn't the main focus of course. Maybe writers of Jurassic and Westworld need to realize... leaving the park just isn't as interesting as you'd think. The story loses its identity.

 

It's why when Jurassic World was coming out and we learned that it was in a big new park, I was kind of excited at the possibilities. What if that movie had a breakout... that was then contained? It could have had all of the same excitements, but then ended with a resolution that restores the park in time to not make it be a end-all catastrophe. That way the sequels could have still been at the functional park with more crazy things happening, and then maybe the FINAL film of the series would have been the 100% antihalation of the whole thing.

 

And Westworld felt like it was doing that, at first. I was so stoked when the first season ended with just the BEGINNING of the robot uprising. And season 2 gave us all of the consequences of that. But then season 3 felt it needed to be some world domination thing and it just... no. LOL. And if you are going to do that, do you have to be so boring about it?

 

*waits for backlash from my opinion haha*

 

I'll still watch Season 4, basically giving the show another chance. I mean Season 3 did have a nice zinger with the Man In Black now finally how he basically was in the original Crichton movie haha. So that could be a lot of fun. Either way, I really hope this show doesn't go on much longer to ruin what was so good about it at first.

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I don't think the major problem was the story leaving the park behind, but how the Host uprising was handled.

 

S1 finishes with the beginning of the revolt, then S2 explores its consequences on the park. So S3 would be a perfect way for the Hosts to take the battle to the human world.

 

Intead, we had a super boring plot about an evil Bond villain who wants to control both humans and hosts. Dolores turned into a martyr at the end and everyone was happy.

 

I mean, how does a fascinating story about a machine uprising turns into a simple "good vs evil" plot? I don't want to see humans and Hosts teaming up to face a common enemy, I want to see they fighting for the control of the world.

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I think season 3 was a setup for the eventual host uprising. I agree with sentiments regarding the season as a whole, though, and thought it was a little too contrived and seemed to be contained to the one city. Hoping this coming season gets things back on track.

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I didn't hate season 3 or think it was horrible, but it was of course absolutely overall not as good as the first 2 seasons.

 

I think there are numerous reasons for this.

 

One is that the show was more unique and interesting when it was in the park(s), as opposed to a kinda generic "future" city.  The western atmosphere season 1 and 2 episodes had was great, especially when juxtaposed with a sci-fi story.  And there was so much amazing cinematography showing off those real outdoor western locations, it was gorgeous to look at.  Season 3 lost all this.

 

Also the story told wasn't as interesting.  During seasons 1 and 2 you had all these interesting ideas about AI, when does AI become a lifeform, etc - not to mention the mystery of the sabotage, the drama of who would escape and who wouldn't, the shock that eventually both founders sided with the AI, etc... season 3 was cool in theory that it tried to go into more new concepts like collecting data on people allowing for perfect predictions of the future and stuff, but it wasn't enough or as compelling.


And then there's the way the story was told, which also wasn't as good.  A lot of the storytelling was confusing; You never really had a good grasp on what the different causes were striving for and who was fighting for which cause.  And the action scenes just weren't that good.  A lot of flat, boring camera work and just not very exciting action material.

 

And finally there's the actors.  Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris were absolutely incredible in this show, and any scene either (or especially both together) had in the first 2 seasons kicked things up a notch every time.  Season 2 already suffered from no longer having Hopkins in every episode, but still got by with a compelling story and everything else.  But season 3 had no Hopkins at all (and no Teddy or Elsie or Akecheta!), and much less Harris, and even Dolores / Maeve / Bernard / etc got sidelined a lot for new Season 3 characters, none of which were as compelling as our original crew.

 

I am hopeful they can right this ship with a 4th season, and absolutely hope that the entire show will finish with either season 4 or season 5.

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My main problem with S3 was that the characters, their motivations, and their identities were so ambiguous that it wasn't only hard to follow, practically anything could happen at any time (and did, basically). S1 and S2 had their share of puzzles, (I couldn't follow everything even on my full rewatch), but the stakes were always clear. But when everything that happens becomes arbitrary and any moment a deus ex machina can turn everything upside down, and you're not even sure who to root for anyway, there are no stakes. Which means that the series still has a lot of potential, but it needs to find an anchor for the audience again, or the twists will be boring instead of shocking.

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3 hours ago, Jay said:

And finally there's the actors.  Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris were absolutely incredible in this show, and any scene either (or especially both together) had in the first 2 seasons kicked things up a notch every time.  Season 2 already suffered from no longer having Hopkins in every episode, but still got by with a compelling story and everything else.  But season 3 had no Hopkins at all (and no Teddy or Elsie or Akecheta!), and much less Harris, and even Dolores / Maeve / Bernard / etc got sidelined a lot for new Season 3 characters, none of which were as compelling as our original crew.

 

That's always the challenge with any new season of a show or sequels to films, isn't it? If you are going to (or have to) change up the characters and change focus, you better be sure it is at least JUST AS interesting. And that is super hard to pull off, since it is often hard to pull it off the first time. I mean that's why many films and series end up retconning a death of a character because they realize "oh shoot, we were a hit, and now they want more of the best thing we got rid of". I think Hopkins's death in the show was appropriate story-wise, but that put them in a trap that they couldn't walk out of without feeling contrived. I feel like they pulled it off fine in Season 2, but it was so brief when they had him back. Luckily there WERE other interesting things going on in that season (and even an additional world in the park!). 

 

Again I feel like too often a series like this thinks pulling entirely away almost from what made it successful in the first place is a way to keep it fresh... I mean it kind of worked for Fast and the Furious as a franchise, didn't it? So, they took that risk... and Season 3 was the result. So hopefully they heard enough feedback to understand what needs to be done to have people keep coming back.

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  • 3 months later...

Just finished season 2. The series is good stuff so far. It was interesting to read now all your posts about those. I stopped when season 3 posts started so as not to be spoiled.

 

I liked all the plot twists.

Different from Jay i found the Maeve story more interesting and 'relatable' than the Dolores story. I mean, i wanted maeve to succeed in finding her daughter and escape the park and live as a person, but I wanted the humans (even if they are a little unlikable) to destroy dolores.

 

 

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I found WW season 2 in most ways pointless. Unnecessary cruelty and most of all the fate of artificial androids imitating human behavior is not that interesting. To me it's a little bit like watching a toaster or a washing machine doing its job. I am missing the required compassion for that.

And I can't connect to the assumption, that in a place where you are allowed to so anything, people had no other idea than torturing, killing and raping the inhabitants there.

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I re-watched Westworld seasons 1 and 2 recently (likely will re-watch season 3 closer to whenever season 4 comes out). Season 1 still holds up as kind of a masterpiece, imo. Imperfect, but just so engaging and clever with how it was all done. Funnily enough, I was very fond of Season 2 when it came out. Didn't like it AS much, but at the time I thought it was well done. But for some reason on re-watch... I didn't like it nearly as much. There were some nice things about it, and of course it is great to see the hosts go nuts finally after all the buildup from Season 1... but I guess wash away the mystery that one had on a first viewing, it just didn't hold up for me at all on a second watch. Which really surprised me: I fully expected to feel the same way I had before, like with Season 1.

 

I was not a fan of Season 3, for many of the reasons others have already pointed out. But I DO wonder if I will like it more or less on a re-watch? Maybe removing my expectations from last time I could actually like it more than Season 2? Who knows!

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I watched seasons 1 and 2, actually preferred 2 to 1, but just sort of drifted away in interest between 2 and 3 and never got around to watching the latter.  At a certain point I decided I was done with these kinda shows that love to play coy with what they're actually doing.  My takeaway from WestWorld is that if the producers think the show would be weaker or less interesting if they didn't hide 90% of the narrative from the audience for any given scene, then they are wrong.

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