Summary: Teddy is given a backstory by Ford involving somebody named Wyatt who shot up his village. Teddy goes on a mission to hunt down Wyatt but is attacked by mysterious cultists. Dolores fights back against Rebus and actually kills him before escaping and running into William. Bernard talks with Ford who reveals that he used to have a partner named Arnold who died. Stubbs and Elsie chase down a stray who acts out and mysteriously kills himself.
The Good: There were a few parts of this I can confidently say is good. Teddy's hunt for Wyatt is basic fun and is easy enough to follow. It's enjoyable enough but still flawed (see: The Bad). Ford once more steals the show with a fantastic speech about Arnold. It was filled with mystery and Anthony Hopkins' performance is just fantastic to watch. There was so much fascinating content in that scene and it raises the most intriguing questions of the show so far (see: The Unknown). Dolores killing was another cool scene that paid off of some set up from previous episodes and this episode with Dolores being unable to kill things. It's a nice bit of progress to emphasize that the hosts are growing in their ability to disobey their programming. It was nice to get some actual character development for Bernard to make us start to care for him. He has been the most easily likeable so far and it was good to get some backstory and character for him. We still don't know his motivations but he is easy to like which makes him the first character I have a chance for caring about in this show. After complaining about the lack of character development, this is a good response to my complaints that hints that this show may still grasp some memorable characters. The Bad: It's hard to care about the hosts since they aren't real characters. Teddy and Dolores' relationship falls completely flat because of this and their scenes are incredibly bland because I know that what they say isn't what they really feel since it is all programmed. It really takes away from my engagement and prevents me from becoming emotionally invested. Teddy's individual storyline was basic fun but even still it completely disappointed because I couldn't bother caring about Teddy. And it also is completely uninvolved with the main plot because I'm completely sure that Wyatt is just programmed and there isn't anything interesting about him that I want to discover. Not a whole lot happened here. In a show so fixated on plot over characters and story, it's flaws in emotional attachment become very apparent when there isn't a whole lot going on plot-wise. There were several stretches n this episode when I was starting to get a little bored and lose interest. The Unknown: What does the Man in Black want with Dolores? Why was she remembering him? Has he traumatized her in some way? Why did he want Dolores to shoot him? Does he want the hosts to obtain consciousness? Why was Walter talking to Arnold? Why is that programming still here? Is somebody keeping it there, like Ford perhaps? Why did Walter hold a grudge? Is Maeve not the only one to start experiencing memories? Is this something in all of the hosts? Did somebody put this in the hosts? How did Arnold die? How was it covered up as an accident? What did he do? What was his relationship with Ford? Was Ford involved in it at all? Does the accident have something to do with the incident? Is there any significance to Bernard still talking to Dolores like Arnold was? Why is Bernard talking to Dolores? What does he see in her? Is he following the same path as Arnold? Is Wyatt's cult group made of guests since Teddy couldn't kill them? Or is it just a stronger host that can't be killed by other hosts? What was with the stray? Why did it go astray? What is with the Orion carvings? Why did it wake up from sleep mode? And why did it kill itself? Kissy had hat thing under his scalp for the maze? Could the stray have been trying to access that in some way by bashing his head in? Best Moment: Ford talking about Arnold was interesting and fascinating. Character of the Episode: Bernard this time for developing and because I don't want to give this to Ford every episode. Conclusion: This was an entirely unspectacular episode. Less development, less memorable moments and less mystery. There were some flaws as usual but still some solid storyline progression. This was certainly enjoyable to watch but it was a step down from the last 2 episodes and I can tell this episode will be forgettable once I'm further into the show. Score: 58
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Summary: Two visitors, Logan and William arrive in Westworld and explore the world. Logan is rash and an asshole whereas William is kind and hesitant to hurt the hosts. The Man in Black finds a host named Lawrence and uses him to attempt to find the entrance to the maze. Maeve acts up and is taken backstage but she wakes up ad sees the realty of her world before being put back to sleep. Lee presents his narrative to Ford, but Ford doesn't like it and rejects it, choosing to create his own narrative which he has been working on.
The Good: This was a solid episode, even if it did dump another mass of mystery on our heads. There were several genuinely enjoyable scenes here that I felt weren't dominated by confusion and mystery, which there was a LOT of (see: The Unknown). First of all, I love that we got to see the entire park in the eyes of a newcomer. We know nothing about Westworld and that made some of the first episode a little confusing since there was very little information offered. In this episode we learn a ton however by looking at everything through William's eyes as he arrives in the park with asshole friend Logan. We learn more about the hosts, the attraction of the park, what the guests are told and given before arriving and so much more. These scenes worked very well because they provided a lot of extremely satisfying answers mixed in with necessary exposition and world-building which will surely be very useful to help us understand what is happening in future episodes. The Maeve storyline was also very good for the most part. The scene with Elsie and Maeve was very good as it helped us understand more about the hosts and how they work, specifically tackling things like the dreaming of hosts. It's nice to get more concrete answers for little things like this as it helps add to the sense of immersion we get in this show, which is probably its strongest aspect so far. The world feels genuinely thought out, fleshed out and filled with depth. The show even tells us in the spectacular ending dialogue from Ford (see: Best Moment) about how people always come back for the finer details. More on that later though, and for now let's get back to Maeve. I enjoyed the scene where Maeve escaped into the real world. the host incidents are rapidly increasing and it continues to add to the sense of tension and dread that the show is producing. There will obviously be a host outbreak at some point, but it's not a matter of if, but when. The show is using this to its full potential to build tension and suspense, though there are some flaws with this focus on tension (see: The Bad). I really enjoyed the scenes with the Man in Black too, specifically the ones with Lawrence with his family. I thought the scenes were visually cool, but more importantly they helped build some sympathy for the hosts. With a lot of the cast being robots, it is very hard to get invested to their programmed personalities, so we absolutely needed some cruel actions like these to help us start sympathizing with the hosts. Logan's antics help with this as well. It makes it easier to relate with the hosts if we see them being misused by the humans, and I think the Man in Black scene did the best job of getting me to start to feel some sympathy. We are going to need more scenes like this to demonstrate why we may want to vouch for the hosts over the humans in charge and the guests. If executed properly, this could be a very good exploration of some morally gray territory. Of course I loved Ford once more. Anthony Hopkins has been superb in the role and he was easily the highlight once more. I never liked Lee and I still think he is shallow and annoying, so it did some good to see Ford bring him some comeuppance for being a general dick with his final speech. But as I said before, more on that speech in Best Moment. The Bad: The biggest problem with this show so far has been characters. It has done so many little things well which is very impressive, but it doesn't mean as much if it can't get the most basic aspect of storytelling right. Right now I'm intrigued by the plot, but I can't care less about the story. The characters themselves are dull to me and that takes away from a lot of the experience. We are introduced to William and Logan in this episode and I feel that we are meant to like them and grow attached to them but I just can't. Logan is an asshole so I don't care about him and William is just extremely generic. Without depth to their characters, I don't care about anything they do. The other characters are suffering as well. I don't care about a single person in charge of management, even the ones I'm supposed to like, including Bernard and Theresa. Their relationship was completely cold to me. Even Ford, who has been the best thing about the show so far, is too mysterious for me to actually care for him. He just interests me, nothing more. Now I'm not saying these characters are bad in design, but I haven't been given a reason to care for them which is a problem because it means I won't be able to get emotionally invested in the show and the individual character arcs. And of course, if I don't care, anything that happens won't be memorable or powerful. Unless this flaw is rectified, this show will likely not hit a score of 70 ever again, leaving it at good but not threatening great. The plot is messy but I think it has been very well done, because I only have one minor flaw with it. I don't like that there is discord between park management. A multimillion (maybe even billion) dollar company needs to take care of everything, yet it seems like nobody cares about hierarchy or even bothers to listen to each other. This is notable with Maeve, as Bernard wants her taken off, but Elsie completely disobeys orders and puts her back in the park. We don't see any consequences coming to Elsie for this decision either which makes it feel more perplexing and awkward than anything. The Unknown: Once more I'm left with so many questions. What is the maze? Where is the entrance? Why does the Man in Black want to find it? How did he learn about it? Why did the girl say the maze isn't for him? Why do all the park people just let him do what he wants? Was my theory of the Man in Black saving the park from the previous incident correct? Has he earned a right to visit the park as much as possible because of this or something along the lines of that? What were with Maeve's memories? Why did the Man in Black want her? What did he do with her? Why are her memories being triggered now? Will this happen to other hosts too? Why did Maeve wake up when she wasn't supposed to? What is going on with Dolores? Why and how does she have a gun? What was with the one scene with Bernard? What did he want from her? He implies that they have had previous talks as well. What were they about? What is the significance of Bernard and Theresa's relationship since it was treated as a really big deal? What was Ford doing on the hill? What was that steeple in the ground? Could it be the entrance to the maze? How does it relate to Ford's narrative? Is the maze Ford's narrative? Best Moment: Ford's speech at the end about what people truly want was so fascinating. It offers tons of possible insight as to what Ford's motives are, which are still murky. He clearly understands people and hosts very well though, which makes him very interesting as his knowledge could have a massive impact on or understanding of the story. I love that Ford completely shut down lee because of his ability to properly understand what humans want, whereas Lee is only doing what he wants. I also love that Ford's monologue completely explained to us in a very subtle way why we come back to this TV show. In a way the show is the park and we are the guests who keep coming back to learn more of the fascinating details about it, and that to me is a very good piece of writing that feels nearly fourth-wall-breaking but not quite. Character of the Episode: Ford. Conclusion: This was another strong episode. Though there is a major flaw with the lack of memorable characters, the show remains fascinating to watch and there were loads of great details given here to get us to start theorizing. Score: 66 Summary: Westworld is an amusement park created by Robert Ford which consists of several lifelike robots, or hosts, that make it feel like a real life world. Guests are allowed to go in and can even kill the hosts, which are then fixed up by the staff at night. There is a mysterious man in the park who has been coming for 30 years with a secret agenda. An update was created by Ford but it's causing many of the hosts to malfunction and they are getting dangerous.
The Good: Westworld chose to open its season with massive amounts of mystery and intrigue which leaves our heads absolutely spinning trying to piece things together. It's such an ambitious choice and I think it's one that really works because it instantly makes this engaging television which leaves you desperate for more. The hook of this episode is the desire for answers, which I think it creates seamlessly in the first five minutes and it manages to explore it fantastically for the rest of the hour, even going as far as to top the mystery and intrigue that other great shows like Lost created. Of course this mystery-grounded introduction does leave room for some flaws (see: The Bad), but as long as those flaws can be corrected in future episodes while answers are slowly revealed, this can be another great TV show. The show had an absolutely enthralling first scene which set up the setting, characters and premise of the show in a wonderful way. The early plot twist that Teddy was actually a host was a good surprise which provides a great hook to keep the viewer watching for the rest of the hour, with a lot of speculation going on in their head (see: The Unknown). I also like the choice to show the same sort of scene over and over again to establish that the story will take place over many days, and more importantly to establish the repetitive nature of the lives of the hosts in order to help us sympathize a little more with them. It's a great choice from a cinematic perspective and it also pays dividends in the story which makes it a very smart inclusion. I like the issues with the update being shown over and over. It adds a large sense of tension, letting us know that these robots are very unstable and we can't be sure what they may do next. The escalation of the malfunctions is excellent as we climax when Dolores actually kills a fly, despite the creators of the hosts saying "they can't even harm a fly". It's a great scene that lets us understand the impending danger ahead which will surely keep us on the edge of our seats. Speaking of keeping us on the edge of our seats, I thought the shootout scene was really well done. By no means will we care about the people involved, and the show knew that so it kept us hooked in a different way: the show kept us interested to see what Lee's programmed speech was, which I thought was very smart. It didn't add tension to the scene, but rather it built anticipation in a splendidly organic way to ensure that we wouldn't get bored by the constant violence which was on display. The scope of this show is really impressive. It has aimed really big and I absolutely hope it can succeed with its huge storyline. Additionally, I think the shooting of the show is excellent at conveying the grand scope of the show as many glorious shots display the vast mystery of Westworld. The Bad: The nature of putting so much mystery in this show makes it really tough to review it. So much is put in The Unknown, and not enough in The Good. I enjoy the mystery, but it can't really be considered a good story. TV shows need a good story for us to really be emotionally invested as we can almost always relate in some way to a character's personal story arc. This show doesn't give us any story, and rather it hammers in a lot of plot. Sure it's intriguing to find out where the plot is headed since so much is unclear, but without a memorable story to keep us hooked in, it becomes a real chore to spend an entire season just watching a mystery slowly unfold. Of course this major flaw can e fixed if we can get real characters on the show who we can relate to and grow attached to. The human we have so far are totally generic and two-dimensional, whereas the hosts are robots and as such can't exactly be considered characters since they aren't even real. And as a side note, Lee's character is totally obnoxious and clichéd. I really don't need to see any more of him unless he receives some proper development so I can have a reason to care for him. The Unknown: So much to put in here. What is the time period exactly? How far into the future is the story taking place? We know that Westworld has been open at least 30 years due to mentions of an outbreak from 30 years ago. What was that outbreak? What caused it? What happened? How was it resolved? Who is the man in black from the intro scene? He says he has been going to the park for 30 years, meaning he was around for the outbreak. Was he a part of it? Did he cause the outbreak? Could he have saved the park from the outbreak? Is he plotting for another outbreak? What are his motives exactly? What did he do with Dolores? He said he had a history with her, so what is that history? Why did he specifically target Dolores and Kissy? What was that on Kissy's scalp? Is it a symbol? A map? What does it mean? And why does the man want it? How does he plan to use it? Ford is another mysterious character. I was tempted to put him in The Good, but we know too little about him. What are his motives? Why did he create the hosts? What does he want to do with them? How is he able to control them like that? Did he program them to be controlled by him somehow? Or is he a host too? We have seen the host twist in the intro scene, so I'm betting that one of the human characters is a host. My money is on Ford programming himself to be a host at this point. What did he mean by his "we are as good as we are going to get" speech. It hints at his motives, but doesn't come anywhere close to revealing them. What is the problem with the update? Is it the reveries which are causing things to go downhill? What is happening to the hosts exactly? Why are they getting so confused and receiving non-programmed lines? Why did the fly affect the sheriff? Why did the picture affect Peter? Why was Dolores able to kill the fly? What is significant about Dolores? She is the oldest host, so does that mean anything? Could she have been modelled after a significant person in Ford's life, seeing as she is the first host? What was with Walter going on a killing spree? Clearly the reverie of milk caused him to murder with the milk, but why didn't he die when he was shot? What caused him to keep going? Why did Elsie kiss Clementine? What was the point of that scene? It felt extremely awkward and out of place, so I was tempted to place it in The Bad, but I get the feeling there is some significance to it. Where were Walter and Peter sent away to? How many other hosts are there? Where is Westworld exactly? Is it in a desert? Space? Underwater? Seeing the leaking water in that one room makes me suspect it may be underwater with a fake sky, but I'm not completely sure about that. Best Moment: I really enjoyed Ford's speech. Anthony Hopkins is a brilliant actor and the scene had loads of interesting mystery. Character of the Episode: Ford. Conclusion: This was a very unique pilot episode. It completely lacked in character and story development, but the mystery is so gripping and exciting to follow that it makes this pilot one of the most engaging and genuinely thought-provoking I have seen. I think it should be considered a great pilot because of what it accomplishes. It's just up to the rest of the series to correct the errors that this episode did make. Score: 71 |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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