Westworld - TV Series

[radiator]

Saw the second ep last night - really enjoyed it. I like the actor they've chosen as the (apparent) protagonist. Never seen him in anything before, but he has an interesting look. Hopkins on fine form, and the [spoiler]mystery being teased with the Man in Black[/spoiler] goes deeper. (shall we start a spoiler/speculation thread?).

There's also a smart/funny recurring motif that anyone who's ever played an RPG or MMO will no doubt appreciate.

While I have doubts as to how there will be enough scope and story to sustain it beyond the first season, I'm fully on board for now. Great stuff. Lovely to have a premium, expansive genre epic like this to occupy me for the GoT off-season.

[JOE SOAP]

While I have doubts as to how there will be enough scope and story to sustain it beyond the first season

The way they've set it up suggests that given enough time and money they can go anywhere with it. I've never seen anything on TV with such an ambitious yet open-ended premise. There's as much scope as they can handle.

[radiator]

I agree that the concept could have limitless potential if they were focusing primarily on the guests and smaller stories, but they're clearly going in heavy with the wider narrative/mythology stuff. My main point is how will the story be able to sustain itself once can they do once the robots inevitably start going nutso?

[PsychoGoatee]

I agree that the concept could have limitless potential if they were focusing primarily on the guests and smaller stories, but they're clearly going in heavy with the wider narrative/mythology stuff. My main point is how will the story be able to sustain itself once can they do once the robots inevitably start going nutso?

Worst case scenario (some kind of robo-pocalypse), we've got a new Walking Dead kind of status quo on our hands. How could they ever get years and years out of that? 

Really though, HBO doesn't seem too worried about keeping a show on for many years. I get the feeling the story will just go on for as many years as naturally feels needed. Assuming it's a hit.

[JOE SOAP]

I agree that the concept could have limitless potential if they were focusing primarily on the guests and smaller stories, but they're clearly going in heavy with the wider narrative/mythology stuff. My main point is how will the story be able to sustain itself once can they do once the robots inevitably start going nutso?

I'm more inclined to think they can go quite far with the broader story - possibly stories - and they've embedded plenty of big ideas to suggest that robots losing-their-shit may just be the starting point of a lot more. One of the central themes at play is the idea of narratives - the buzzword of the show - as the bedrock of people, community, civilisation and the power of those who control them. The last shot of Ep. 2 is this idea hung up southern style like a big neon sign. That can develop in many ways.

[Link Prime]

The Scandanavian woman delivers every line completely flat, like she's just reading the dialogue phonetically off cue cards

I didn't pick up on that.
Sidse Babett Knudsen is a fine actress, and I assumed she was offered the role due to the fact she could portray and authority figure with icy detachment quite convincingly.

First episode didn't blow me away either, but it was good enough to bring me back this evening for a 2nd helping.

[Grugz]

being probably the only person in the world who hasn't seen west world ,I did see this and enjoyed it though did get tricked into thinking the guy on the train was a guest and ed was a robot who'd over ridden his bullet damage , didn't get the reference to the flies on eyeballs but that made more sense at the end in a nice portent of things to come.

[Fisticuffs]

Ed Harris would play an INCREDIBLE older Dredd.

Just sayin'.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Four episodes in and the show continues to be excellent.

I wish we could make stuff as good as this.

[Link Prime]

Caught up with Ep 5 last night.
It's compelling viewing, but there's just something stopping me from enjoying it wholeheartedly.

That nagging sense that I've somehow missed a key plot point just won't go away.

[radiator]

Anyone else getting a bit fed up with this show?

It started strong, and still occasionally has some brilliant touches, but just seems to be falling into the Lost trap of introducing new mysteries instead of adequately resolving the ones it introduced in the previous episode. I mean, how many plot threads are we supposed to be following now? It smacks of a lack of both focus and confidence, and it's compounded by the fact that so many of the storylines are, imo, vaguely defined and underdeveloped. Eg, why should I care when a twist reveals that a character has a secret agenda when I don't really have a handle on what their deal was in the first place?

I'm also simply not convinced anything really makes a great deal of sense and/or contradicts itself, from the 'rules' of how the park operates, to the motivations and behaviours of characters like Ford.

People are throwing out wild 'fan theories' left and right, and it feels (much like that other Bad Robot production The Force Awakens) that people are desperately trying to patch over gaping holes in what is (in my opinion) simply not a very well written or constructed story. This also happens with Game of Thrones, but the difference for me is that both GoT the TV show and the ASoIaF novels are so richly textured and so rigorously plotted that there is substance to support such speculation and debate.

To be honest, as with TFA, whenever a plot revolves around a nebulous 'map' or 'maze', I start to worry - it screams lazy 'mystery box' storytelling. Ditto plots where everything seems to revolve around the machinations of a vague but ominous corporation - another Abrams/Bad Robot staple - in this case 'Delos'(?). They mention the name of this company like it's important or has weight, but as someone passively watching the show, exactly why should I care?

The very fact that a leading fan theory contends that [spoiler]what we're seeing is playing out in two separate timelines separated by 30 years[/spoiler] - and that nothing we've seen can directly contradict this - to me is a testament to what a mess the structure of the show is thus far. And even if that turns out to be correct, I fail to see the point in any case. It's just tricking the audience for its own sake.

[Satanist]

Anyone else getting a bit fed up with this show?

No I'm fucking loving this and don't like to judge a mystery half way through. If it does pull a Lost then I'll fucking hate it so time will tell. Saying that there was a bit of a stupid move on last nights episode, ep6 spoiler...[spoiler]when he had the chance why didn't he reduce intelligence instead of improving? I'd have sent her back to stone age.[/spoiler]

Regards that fan theory I think the main thinking behind that is [spoiler]there are 2 different versions of the WW sign[/spoiler].

[Professor Bear]

I get that the residents have to be robots rather than actors in case the guests want to have sex with them, but why are the horses robots?

[JOE SOAP]

I get that the residents have to be robots rather than actors in case the guests want to have sex with them, but why are the horses robots?

In case the guests want to have sex with them.

[dweezil2]

I get that the residents have to be robots rather than actors in case the guests want to have sex with them, but why are the horses robots?

In case the guests want to have sex with them.

Also, probably cheaper to patch-up a robot each time, rather than buy a new one, they don't need feeding and they can be computer controlled, unlike a real one!