In 2017, I got into and loved three Awesome TV Shows: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Attack on Titan, and Westworld! These shows were the three highlights of my TV watching year, I thought they were absolutely fantastic! Westworld took the top spot. Over several weeks, every Monday morning, I would watch another episode on Prime Video. It told an interesting story, with the ramifications building to a dramatic climax which I watched over and over again. But, sadly; that was the high point of watching Westworld!
When the trailer was released for Season 2; I watched it over and over again, it looked so promising and fun, like it was going down the intended route. But upon watching the show, I found it hard to understand. I thought I was struggling to understand it because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, so I started again. In the end, it took me a whole year to watch 10 episodes, and now I understand why; it was boring!
Last year, I gave season 3 a go; and it started off well, but then it got boring and uninteresting again. It was stronger than season 2, but the damage from season 2 had already taken hold. It has now been a couple of months since the last time I watched an episode; and have no intention of watching the remaining two episodes!
I first became interested in Westworld shortly before the series first started. I don’t know exactly why it was, but it took my interest. It was after this that my Mam explained to me that it was based on a film directed by Michael Crichton (my second favourite author). Took nearly a year to get round to watching it, but once I started; I didn’t want to stop.
It was a cleverly produced show; it featured a delicate plot with some interesting narrative threads. It created a whole world to get lost into, and developed it’s stories gently. It discussed philosophy and theory, whilst also focusing on direction and increasing tension. It had one of the best opening themes, and title sequences of the last decade, plus was backed up by an incredible cast; including (but not limited to) Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Angela Sarafyan, Ed Harris, and Anthony Hopkins. It was all so wonderfully weird, but also dramatically defiant.
One of the key aspects that made the first season so cool was the wonderful monologues from Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), which explained the theories and science of the world of Westworld. Westworld didn’t get bogged down in it’s science neither, as, much like a Michael Crichton novel, it found a way of sounding interesting, whilst being so cleverly detailed. It all came to a shocking conclusion that looked like it would setup the ultimate second season. But we didn’t get that!
Going into Season 2 it began to look like that the first season had caught up with the original film, and was all set up for an epic war, or a total massacre. What we got was something very slow, and un-interesting. It was sort of like Heroes; how the first season was the ultimate TV show, but season 2 went down the slow route rather than the adrenaline route. Westworld just went all over the place; chasing rabbits down the wrong holes, and creating plot threads that just didn’t make any sense. It was just so dull and, boring!
It did have it’s moments, such as a scene where Jim Delos (Peter Mullan) has a meeting with young William (Jimmi Simpson); and the episode focusing on Akecheta was really interesting. The story allows the plot to venture into other themed areas, and other theme parks, but as described in the show, season 2 was as lazily written as the narratives in those areas. Supposedly this direction for season 2 was created on the basis of trying to throw off the Reddit community who were able to piece some of the first series together, but it also made it so hard to follow.
When season 3 came along, I still had hope; so I thought I would give it a go. It started off really strongly. It created new characters played by actors like Aaron Paul, Tommy Flanagan, and Vincent Cassel; and also showed what the world was like outside of the park. It had some interesting moments, and it looked like it was going somewhere. But then it reverted to season 2 standard, and I just got to a point where I was not interested or enjoying it. So, in the last couple of weeks I decided that maybe it was best to stop watching it altogether!
I kept up hope for the show in the long run as the first season was so good, I thought it must be able to repeat that; but no! It’s tragic, but sort of ironic. It must be leading up to something big; and like Ford mentioned in season 1:
So maybe we as viewers must suffer through watching each boring season, as this patience will pay off down the line; but currently, I don’t see where it’s going, or how it will end.
I think, they maybe should have stayed in the park a little longer, and given us the Massacre we were hoping for sooner than later. I don’t know; if I get a really good reason to get stuck into season 4, I might, but I might search for moments on YouTube first before I fall into another disappointing season!
Season 1 is still probably really good though, if you fancy watching it!
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