Tag Archives: Westworld

After Its Season 3 Finale, Westworld May Be Unfixable

Posted on May 14, 2020 by Andrew Bloom

If I could make only one rule for Westworld, it would be this — no more twists. The series is addicted to pulling the rug out from under its audience, trying to make fans say “whoa”, or otherwise recontextualizing everything the audience has seen so far. That approach completely undermines the show’s attempts to tell stories, establish character, and convey meaning. As I discussed on the Serial Fanaticist Podcast, when everything the audience sees is merely a setup for some later subversion, none of it matters, and all the audience at home can do is wait for the punchline.

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Season 2 of Westworld Had Bigger Challenges Than Before, But Couldn’t Overcome Them in “The Passenger”

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Andrew Bloom

Season 1 of Westworld had an easier task than Season 2 did. The first season of the show, as Clementine might put it, didn’t have much of a rind on it. All of its mysteries, all of its characters, all of its ideas, were completely new. The audience was starting from square one, and the show was able to spoon feed details and reveal important facts bit-by-bit until the shocking twists burst out. The first season also had a clearer trajectory for its season-length mega arc, with early hints that there was something amiss with the hosts, building to a full blown revolt at the end.

But as I discussed on the Serial Fanaticist Podcast, Season 2 had no such luxuries. Despite the introduction of a handful of new characters, when the second season rolled around, Westworld’s major figures had become known quantities. How the park worked, the contours of this artificial world, was no longer as burning a question after ten episodes’ worth of worldbuilding. And the path from business as usual in Westworld to all hell breaking loose proved a much clearer and more direct path than Season 2’s disparate collections of characters who each want different things, and are all marauding around the park in a far less unified fashion.

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