Westworld (Season 1)

[Ezee E]

Finale Prediction:
-Maeve malfunction was well-known to Frost. He uses this as part of an entire Board of Directors massacre as a massive "mistake" that happens when his new story is revealed.

-MiB reunites with Dolores. This one I feel the least positive about, but I figure he helps reawaken her and all the other hosts in the basement to uprise in the facility itself.

-Stubbs is brought to Elsie who knows exactly what's going on. It'll be up to her and Stubbs to take on Ford.

-William walks into Dolores in Sweetwater when she's revived. He's devastated and wants to go on a plan to revive her consciousness that will end up taking 30 years.

-Dolores is awakened, similar to Maeve, to kill off the entire original village, due to a disagreement that Arnold and crew had with Frost. As a result, Frost has the new "Arnold" created, and nobody blinks an eye in the real world.

-Logan is not killed...

[number8]

I figured out why I'm starting to resent this show. I like what's going on, but I dislike that they're showing them to me as a mystery.

[Dukefrukem]

I figured out why I'm starting to resent this show. I like what's going on, but I dislike that they're showing them to me as a mystery.

Yes.

[Ezee E]

I figured out why I'm starting to resent this show. I like what's going on, but I dislike that they're showing them to me as a mystery.

What do you mean?

[number8]

What do you mean?

I don't think the show should be driven by mysteries. I don't think any of these revelations should be penultimate episode twists.

[Ezee E]

I don't think the show should be driven by mysteries. I don't think any of these revelations should be penultimate episode twists.

Ah. Well, this season's basically come to an end, and majority of these mysteries will be answered. I'll be curious what they'll decide to do with season two.

[Gittes]

Maeve is a conundrum in that Thandie Newton is the most compelling actor to watch on the show but her story might be the worst.

Yeah, she's really great. Unfortunately, I've been less satisfied with this show with each passing week, and even an episode directed by Michelle MacLaren couldn't restore a more spirited connection to the proceedings. However, I'll probably be drawn back for some time because of salient treasures like Newton's performance. She really knows how to bite down on lines in ways that electrify her screen presence. Newton, Hopkins, and Knudsen are turning in the best work, but, unfortunately, the latter is now off the show (some fans had been holding out hope that she would return as a host).

Knudsen's rheumy performance during her last scene, for example, was just...remarkable and heart-wrenching. Although, the scene itself was perhaps the darkest and cruellest turn in the show. I don't think it's a laudable narrative development for a few reasons. Still, the confrontation itself was indelibly scary, mostly because of the way it was staged and its use of defamiliarization (and the way each actor gamely met the surreal demands of the scene). It felt like the ending to a short story of weird fiction, in terms of tone if not necessarily in the narrative specifics. There, the disconcerting force of a nightmare was transmitted with a level of conviction that, while occasionally bubbling up in other scenes (i.e., Newton's first lunge into a gesture of carnality/self-awareness/self-annihilation), is more often dispersed through a fog of incoherency and portent.

[Dukefrukem]

Any bets that Ford is a host created by the real Arnold as he watches from some Moon base somewhere?

[Ezee E]

Any bets that Ford is a host created by the real Arnold as he watches from some Moon base somewhere?

I had that thought a while back, but don't think so anymore. Instead, I think Ford and Arnold had different ideas for the park, and that Ford had his creation kill Arnold so he could have full control of all things.

[Spinal]

Gonna watch the finale, but I doubt I will return for Season 2. I swear, a bomb could drop and kill off every single one of these characters and I wouldn't care. This show is trying way too hard to be clever, but it has yet to show that it can consistently deliver on basic, honest human interaction. I end each episode more annoyed than intrigued.

[Spinal]

Newton, Hopkins, and Knudsen are turning in the best work, but, unfortunately, the latter is now off the show (some fans had been holding out hope that she would return as a host).

I don't understand what people see in Knudsen. I thought she was terrible in Duke of Burgundy and I think she's terrible in this. Completely dull, flat and lifeless.

[Gittes]

I don't understand what people see in Knudsen. I thought she was terrible in Duke of Burgundy and I think she's terrible in this. Completely dull, flat and lifeless.

I haven't seen The Duke of Burgundy. The following may not change your mind (and you're entitled to your own view, of course), but, in case anyone is interested, here's an elaboration of my thoughts:

I don't think Knudsen was given the opportunity to be more than steely at the beginning of the season, but she acquitted herself quite nicely during the tableside confrontation with Hopkins and in all of the subsequent episodes. There's richness in the way she juggles Theresa's power, vulnerability, and dignity (the latter word apparently came up often during the filming of her last episode). She has very expressive, intelligent eyes that feel present to the dramatic currents of her scenes. She marshals her features into this agile interplay of pride and trepidation that I found really affecting. It helped to humanize what might have otherwise been a more one-dimensional corporate foil. Also, the way her lips rest into subtle sneers and smirks amounts to a muted but potent display of arrogance and scorn. I suspect some might be tempted to dismiss this as a dressing up of banalities, but I think the onscreen results bear out my argument.

During the tableside scene, when Ford ominously announces that he "knows everything about [his] employees," the reaction shot of Knudsen is terrifically shaded: a quiet snarl and a searching yet defiant glare, whose wide-eyed parameters, as the scene progresses, also suggests a kind of hypnosis. Following Ford's thrown gauntlets, the involuntary wavering of Theresa's head subtly conveys alarmed calculations. Details like these reveal an actress who is alertly engaged with the dramatic trajectory of the scene, and who is actively working to decorate her side of the exchange with an array of nuances. At the same time, her performance style entails understatedly corralling her emotions for a more naturalistic effect. This works well, as overt stylizations — like Hopkins' delicious "under my control" line — wouldn't pair well with Theresa.

Look at the way Knudsen answers Hopkins' line about how he and Arnold "were gods, and you, merely our guest." It's this stouthearted reach for a cigarette — a gesture that, in its context, radiates contempt. She lights it coolly, and suddenly, she has the mien of a femme fatale from the 40s. Her contempt now becomes interrogative; her critical eyes narrow to serve as the vane for the arrowhead of her rejoinder: "and how did that work out for Arnold?" Such instances feel like smart but low-key performative maneuvers, much like Hopkins' absentminded smiles. When Ford amplifies his threat — "don't get in my way" — Knudsen's cigarette, once an emblem of her defiance, suddenly becomes a site of fidgety agitation, her fingers compulsively emoting the unease that her firmly set jaw is disguising.

By the end, when she rises to announce that the board will ultimately agree with her, the roiled mix of disquiet and dignity feels keenly heartbreaking (a harbinger of more distressing events to come). It would have been easy to just play that last bit as straightforwardly — or flatly — recalcitrant, but she's careful to inlay a convincing strain of discomfort. Her expression there suggests strength and self-possession, but also a certain wariness about the dangerously psychopathic man sitting across from her.

As I indicated in an earlier post, there's something discomfiting and mercilessly cruel about her story as a whole. I like it less and less the more I think about it, as there aren't enough release valves that favour Theresa. That's a narrative complaint, though. Performance-wise, she's tremendous, and the show is weaker now that she has left.

[Dukefrukem]

90 minute finale tonight

[Spinal]

Gittes, with all due respect, your writing is lovely, but I think you're making a whole lot out of a performer who is offering very little. I would, however, like to hire you to write my performance reviews for my job.

[Ezee E]

The finale was... kind of boring really, with a pretty standout last ten minutes.

All puzzles were completed in my mind. The theories that were out there were mostly complete, and I don't really think the show tried to make a "surprise" out of it either, which is fine.

Curious to see if they'll spread on to other parks now, considering a location in Maeve's note said, "Park 1."

Season 2 seems like it'd have a completely different focus. Wonder if they'll go after another legendary actor now. Bring Gene Hackman out of retirement I say.

[number8]

This series is notable for possibly being the only series where every single twist has already been guessed by fans. That seems remarkable in itself. Even Mr. Robot, which was criticized for having a predictable twist in the first season, still had a surprise or two. That said, the ending did resonate, which only compounds my previous sentiment about wishing that this story was told in a more straightforward way.

[Gittes]

Gittes, with all due respect, your writing is lovely, but I think you're making a whole lot out of a performer who is offering very little. I would, however, like to hire you to write my performance reviews for my job.

lol. I was worried that windy encomium would be seen as too purple prosy. Sorry if I came across as too forceful in the expression of my opinion. Just to be clear, I'm not saying she's the best actor on the show, but rather that I liked her screen presence and how she was careful to inject intelligence and pathos into her work before her character was hastily dispatched by the writers. It's significantly better than what we received with Tessa Thompson, whose character and performance seems much more deserving of the "dull" criticism (although, in her defence, she was way more hamstrung by the writing than Knudsen).

By the way, we're not coming at the show from totally opposed ends. In certain respects, I agree with your earlier point about the characters not effectively earning our interest or sympathy. I think that's because they were so often absorbed into the portent of the plot, which hindered a closer connection (Maeve was one of the key exceptions, though). Lost used flashbacks to avoid this. Lindelof and Cuse were much more artful when it came to excavating character while simultaneously goosing up the mysteries.

[Dukefrukem]

Hey good news everyone. They didn't Lost us.

Anyone stay after the credits?

[Watashi]

Season 2: Cowboys vs. Samurais.

I'm down.

[Peng]

Yeah this didn't need to be 90 minutes (although on first watch I would only truncate the Man In Black story). I'm of two minds about the non-linear storytelling though. On one hand, I can hear the complaints; if one strand doesn't work it can stumble hard, like Williams' adventure with Dolores, which can be fine in another more straightforward show, but when coupled with darker, more complex storylines, it just seems so surface-y (that it's on purpose doesn't help) almost all the time, with production values and Evan Rachel Wood's performance barely holding interest. On the other hand, I also think it has a purpose of effectively putting us insides the characters' headspace at certain moments; in the penultimate episode, superably directed by Michelle MacLaren, its style in glitching between revelations (even if some or most of it have been guessed already) really stimulates the falling-down-rabbit-hole feeling of having reality pulled out from under you that the hosts must have felt. Not unsimilar to the way Memento plays with structure to get us into its protagonist's head and arrive at its devastating reveal, actually. Anyway, really a messy show at times, maybe too uninterested in its characters in relative to its story ambition, but I still enjoyed a lot of it.

[number8]

I don't disagree, but "at certain moments" is the key phrase there. I don't think it's largely worth it.

[Dukefrukem]

It's also kinda weird where we are as we head into Season 2. What's the end game exactly? Self Awareness across all hosts? Skynet?

[Ezee E]

Kind of weird that it takes a terrorist attack on a board of directors for the hosts to become self-aware, and become like humans themselves... Not sure how to look at that. Also, since it was all Ford's plan, are they truly self-aware? He had everything planned for weeks that the cannibal army couldn't be stopped, that Maeve and the crew would distract security, and Dolores would kill him. So none of those decisions were really the Hosts own doing.

Season 2 can go in a whole lot of different directions. Do the hosts try to create their own society with the Board trying to get it back (with a samurai approach no less on a Nonaware Samurai World?)

Plenty of struggles, but it's so well-acted and produced that I'll stick with it. After all, what the heck else would I watch anyway?

Better Call Saul and Game of Thrones are the two other shows that I watch.

[Dukefrukem]

KAlso, since it was all Ford's plan, are they truly self-aware?

No. As proof where Maeve got off the train.

Plenty of struggles, but it's so well-acted and produced that I'll stick with it. After all, what the heck else would I watch anyway?

Better Call Saul and Game of Thrones are the two other shows that I watch.

Heh, my thoughts exactly. Aside from the Netflix stuff, TV is shit.

Doesn't really matter anyway, we are going to be waiting over a year for Season 2.

[Peng]

Wait, isn't Maeve getting off the train meant to signal that she has enough self-awareness apart from what Ford programs? When Bernard was looking over her code, he mentioned the steps underlying every part of her escape that has already been planned, including "when you reached the mainland..." before she snapped that machine in half. Her hesitating and finally making a decision on the train also corresponds nicely with Ford's last monologue in that way. And now whatever she does next will be completely on her own, not part of the coded steps.