Right- there is no caring or investment. I kinda felt bad when Caleb died, but it was all a trick on the viewing public. They keep doing that shit, and there is only so much “it was only a dream, etc” the public will stand for.
But that does explain why Caleb didn’t just kill Hale. That would stop her from whispering orders, anyway.
Also- why did Maeve die from a single shot when others took a whole magazine of high powered rounds and then stood up?
I mean it’s a show that airs on Sunday at 9pm. I’m sure I’m not the only one who watches it on Monday night a good portion of the time.
I liked how Charlotte gets what she wants and it ends up making her bored. And now the hosts are questioning the nature of reality and their existence. Human William screwing with robot William’s head was great.
I’m still enjoying it and think this season is a return to form. I’m interested to see where robo-Caleb comes into play - I wonder if he was ‘brought online’ after Charlotte realized Maeve was found and brought back and she intends to use Caleb to find a weakness.
She’s not the only robot on the show. I’m still team original-flavour Dolores.
That was a fantastic acting job by Aaron Paul! Really captured the sort of horror one would feel when faced by the corpses of your previous incarnations as you are trying to get out. Really enjoyed Charlotte realizing her ‘perfect world’ simply isn’t for the hosts she made it for.
I do wonder if there is ‘real Caleb’ in the depths of Delos as there is a real William. I do wonder what Charlotte’s plan is for the 239th Caleb.
If Hale is really a defective Dolores pearl in a Hale body, why does she act so much like the original human (and later host) Hale?
We also need a list of who’s a human (divided into caged and free range) and who’s a host these days.
I’ll watch the final two episodes, but mainly out of sheer bloody-mindedness.
Same here. Last season was terrible and this one is better but not good.
I’ve cooled on the show. It’s just not that compelling any longer.
It went from a beautifully styled smart show that warranted thinking about and puzzling over to one that falls apart if you think about it at all.
Still beautifully styled though! And well acted.
I feel like the game Detroit: Become Human did a better job at making the audience feel emotionally invested in android characters than Westworld does, at least the past two seasons of Westworld. I’d definitely recommend this game to any fans of Westworld who are also into games.
I’d say it’s pretty damning of the show’s drop in quality if there aren’t even any new posts in this thread after last night’s penultimate episode.
I just came looking for the thread to gripe.
Thank you for bumping it. I’m very disappointed that there is one more episode to go. It now feels like work to get through this.
Agreed but some small props for doing the unexpected at least? I certainly didn’t see most of that coming.
There are several points I am confused about. My issue is that I don’t think the effort of thinking it out is worth it.
Yet I will watch the finale …
Same, but if they somehow get a season 5, I’m going to pass.
Hopefully I live up to that statement.
< Westworld Tower Sound >
“You will watch season 5.”
The Twin Peaks horse showed up again
In addition to the issue of “when there is a seemingly unlimited number of vessels for a character’s consciousness, or an unlimited number of different timelines, or both, the viewer will ultimately lose incentive to have any emotional investment in the characters” that I mentioned above, I have several more gripes:
Part of the initial appeal of Westworld was that it was set in, ya know, a Western setting. That was a setting that worked; why did they have to change it up into a generic “it’s the future but it’s kinda like now but more advanced” thing?
There’s good “large scale” world-building when it comes to the aesthetics, but basically no “small scale” worldbuilding where you feel like the world is inhabited by normal people or even “normal hosts.” What do the low-level paper pushers think or know about Delos or what it does? Is there a lower middle class or underclass in this future? Where are they, what do they think about it? What do the older people who can remember a less futuristic world think about the situation?
Aaron Paul is a great actor, as he demonstrated very clearly on Breaking Bad. Why then has he been squandered on a relatively one-dimensional character who spends most of his time grimacing in agony?
Where is the comic relief? We never get even a tiny touch of levity.
I appear to be in the minority, but I’m really happy with this season. It feels like it’s returned to Season 1’s level to me. Intricate, thoughtful and thought provoking. I’m enjoying a lot more than most programming out there.
That’s clearly not true as there have been any number of multiverse or time loop shows and films where people do care about the characters. You just need to become emotionally invested in something other than whether or not they survive.
I think it’s because ultimately there are much larger themes at play than the morality of using sentient AI as glorified sex dolls and amusement park animatronics in a live action Red Dead Redemption game. So at some point you are going to need to see the larger outside world (particularly if you are going to end the first season with a robot uprising). Unsurprisingly, that world is going to look like the standard “not to distant future”. You know - basically Manhattan, except all neighborhoods are now Hudson Yards,
Wasn’t that sort of the point of Season 3 and Caleb’s story arch in it?
A better question is why does host Caleb degrade like poor old James Delos but host William / MiB never does?
We could have done with more Bernard & Stubbs.
Personally I liked the finale and would be fine if that’s how the show ends.
I think it was mentioned that Host William is mostly Hale (or Halores) with William’s memories added - host William always knew he was a host. With Delos and Caleb, they think they are humans until faced with the truth that they are a host and it’s that juxtaposition that they can’t handle.
I enjoyed this season very much as well. The ending did seem like it was written as a potential series finale if they don’t get greenlit for S5. But I would like to go back to Sweetwater one last time for one last test. Maybe they could get Anthony Hopkins back?
I’ll be honest; in the end, I couldn’t keep track of who was still human and who were robots. I think one version of Aaron Paul’s character was still human, as was one of Ed Harris’s character. But was anyone else?