There's no dialogue or hints about the plot, but the visuals are as striking as ever.
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The Man in Black is back to ruin everyone’s perfect day in Westworld S4 teaser
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*Loved* the first season, second season was an intriguing but convoluted and confusing mess. Just realized now that I didn't even watch the 3rd season. Huh.
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I'm guessing this is the season where "human evolution" is that we're all transplanted into robots... or the discovery that we've all already been transplanted into robots which is why they're able to predict everything?
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The third season was extremely wild in its ride and I had to watch twice.
It left a bad flavor because it totally upended a lot, and is probably why people were mad, but will never beat the final season of Mr Robot, which in the first episode I was already mad.
It left a bad flavor because it totally upended a lot, and is probably why people were mad, but will never beat the final season of Mr Robot, which in the first episode I was already mad.
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Transplanting human consciousness into robots doesn't work—that was one of the big revelations in S2. Though the Man in Black did seem to think that eventually they'd figure it out.
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One of my favourite series of these later years. Waited way too long for this. Looks like a nod to the past and things for the future. Seems we might finally get the payoff with the flies too.
Anyone else thought the Man in Black was in the tank with the two rings opening?
These violent delights…
Anyone else thought the Man in Black was in the tank with the two rings opening?
These violent delights…
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Hmmm... I'm not sure what to think. I had seriously mixed feelings about Season 3, to the extent that I didn't care what happened to anyone by the finale, so I'm a bit taken by surprise that they made Season 4 - not because I decide what's good, but because I hadn't given the show another thought since S3 concluded.
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OldLadyJosie
Ars Tribunus Militum
Oh man, I had managed to completely forget about that, and now I'm mad again.
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No, that was one of the big reveals - it hadn't worked because the AI kept trying to make them too complicated. Turns out a simple set of rules would predict all human responses. If you can do that, you absolutely could make perfect "uploaded" humans.
I loathed season 3. Particularly the big ending "twist" where "oh Dolores wasn't evil!"
Utter bullshit. Mostly I kept watching hoping for Bernard to do something worthwhile, but it just never happened.
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The first season was just brilliant. So good that it might have set up the rest of series to fail because I couldn't imagine topping it.
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So we're going from "everyone's a Cylon" to "everyone's in the Matrix"? Seems on brand for this show. I'm undecided if I'll hate watch a fourth season.
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As most people I really liked season 1. Season 2 was interesting but convoluted and season 3 I didn't care for at all. I thought the pacing was weird as well. After completing the final episode I distinctly remembered thinking "That will be interesting to see how they tie up in the last couple of episodes". I didn't realize I had watched the season finale because I didn't think it felt like a season finale. I was a bit disappointed when I realized a few hours later that that was it.
While season 3 left me on a sour note I will, for better or worse, watch season 4.
While season 3 left me on a sour note I will, for better or worse, watch season 4.
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I liked season 1. After that it was clear that there were no ideas of merit left and it would have been better served with a definite ending instead of extending it for bucks.
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@Jennifer/Lee
Thanks for the article.
We (wife and I) saw season 1 and somehow completely forgot about the show
So now we have 2 seasons to catch up on
Thanks for the article.
We (wife and I) saw season 1 and somehow completely forgot about the show
So now we have 2 seasons to catch up on
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@Jennifer
There is some dialog at 30 seconds in… "This place is f***ing wild, I cannot believe this is your first time" as Dolaris is walking up the stairs and three men are walking down it."
It's is very quiet though…
There is some dialog at 30 seconds in… "This place is f***ing wild, I cannot believe this is your first time" as Dolaris is walking up the stairs and three men are walking down it."
It's is very quiet though…
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Oh my goodness yes.
I loved all three seasons for very different reasons, and this will be the perfect excuse to revisit them to be ready for whatever WTAF season 4 will bring.
I loved all three seasons for very different reasons, and this will be the perfect excuse to revisit them to be ready for whatever WTAF season 4 will bring.
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I couldn't even bring myself to hate-watch the second series. There's only so much nonsense I can take before my brain simply shuts down, only to be revived by Star Trek or Stargate SG-1.
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I think we had different takeaways. My impression from Forge-Logan's speech re: humans being deterministic is that the consequences of figuring out that determinism were great for simulating humans—that there's a simple model that one can follow in order to perfectly simulate any human's responses to any set of stimuli, so long as you could read their DNA.
The can't-put-a-person-in-a-host-body problem, I thought, was a completely separate problem. The issue wasn't that there wasn't "room" in the host pearl/chestnut, or that the attempts to do the implanting were too complicated—it's that the human mind just freaks the F out when implanted in a host body and eventually goes unstable.
Or, put another way, there doesn't seem to be any issue with human minds living in a simulated space (see Ford taking up temporary residence in the Cradle, for example, and explicitly saying such). The issue is with those human minds then being uploaded into a host body and falling apart.
Though maybe I need to rewatch, since I also recall later in the Cradle scene Ford derisively comparing Delos' efforts to copy a human mind to a child trying to reproduce a symphony by whistling it. Maybe there's something there that I'm not picking up.
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I'm curious to see where they go with this. Although the series lost a lot of gravitas with Anthony Hopkin's departure.
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Intriguing visuals and style, but S3 was also very stylish with little substance, so I'm not really chomping at the bit for S4. If it's another season with tons of setup and barely any payoff, then everything after S1 deserves to consigned to the memory hole like the Matrix sequels.
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I especially liked the timing of the lyrics when doing a close up on the Man in Black at the one minute mark…
"I thought I was someone else… Someone Good"
"I thought I was someone else… Someone Good"
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"Champing" The idiom is "champing at the bit". My apologies for the annoying pedantry, but I've been seeing a lot of that one lately. (In your defence, it does mean something similar.)
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Even more ominous & appropriate was "You're going to reap, just what you sow". Plus I love that album, & now I'm really missing Lou Reed.
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Even more ominous & appropriate was "You're going to reap, just what you sow". Plus I love that album, & now I'm really missing Lou Reed.
Yes, I thought that too.
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It was strange, but I still enjoyed the third season, so I'm fully onboard for four; I'm intrigued to see where it goes, and the trailer isn't really telling us anything, which I'm all in favour of.
Not saying season 3 was perfect, it was a bit all over the place at times, but I still enjoyed it and that's all that matters. Can the show ever be as good as season one again? Probably not, but it's still good.
Not saying season 3 was perfect, it was a bit all over the place at times, but I still enjoyed it and that's all that matters. Can the show ever be as good as season one again? Probably not, but it's still good.
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Wait, are you saying that you're struggling to accept the premises of Westworld, but Star Trek & Stargate make sense to you? WTAF????
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I really enjoyed season 1. It was crazy and complex and the ending was perfect. Season 2 felt like they didn't really know what to do with their world and characters. Season 3, well, not sure. It was such a departure from the original setting. In some way, it was a whole new show, more like a spin-off or a reboot?. In that sense, it did feel a bit sparse. One thing that struck me was how empty their cities/world were. But did it look cool! I'm curious where they want to take their story in season 4. I'm also curious whether they can tie everything together, it's a bit all over the place, with like, at least 4 different story arcs (Dolores, Maeve, Bernard and Charlotte).
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There's an old saying I can no longer find or recall the source of:
"The Queen died. Six months later the King died."—that's a story.
"The Queen died. Six months later the King died of grief."—that's a plot.
Season 1 told a story, just like The Matrix told a story. What came after was trying to explain it, which isn't storytelling. I mean, I *like* exploring the Westworld future (not that I like that future for itself, but as a place to explore knowing nobody really has to live there? Yeah.). But storytelling is magic. It's art. Unless they've got some genuinely stunning surprise coming, playing out the consequences is just running out the already-predictable plot. I mean, do they want to talk about the possibility of redemption? Are they going to posit that grief is not actually unending, that William might somehow recover his humanity after what his coming of age unleashed in him? I simply can't imagine them pulling that off. Everybody Loves Raymond managed a miracle, but there's nothing gentle or comedic about the Westworld story, and the last lines of that trailer don't exactly promise a change.
"The Queen died. Six months later the King died."—that's a story.
"The Queen died. Six months later the King died of grief."—that's a plot.
Season 1 told a story, just like The Matrix told a story. What came after was trying to explain it, which isn't storytelling. I mean, I *like* exploring the Westworld future (not that I like that future for itself, but as a place to explore knowing nobody really has to live there? Yeah.). But storytelling is magic. It's art. Unless they've got some genuinely stunning surprise coming, playing out the consequences is just running out the already-predictable plot. I mean, do they want to talk about the possibility of redemption? Are they going to posit that grief is not actually unending, that William might somehow recover his humanity after what his coming of age unleashed in him? I simply can't imagine them pulling that off. Everybody Loves Raymond managed a miracle, but there's nothing gentle or comedic about the Westworld story, and the last lines of that trailer don't exactly promise a change.
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I hope they cut down on the complexity for complexity's sake. S1 had some extraordinary reveals about what was going on. When everything clicked into place it was a genuine surprise and it made you rethink everything you watched. That was brilliant. By S3 though, it really felt like it would be impossible for any reveal to truly shock because you're so used to not being able to trust the show.
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That isn't the problem. Each season is the story of the awakening and self-actualization of a character. Dolores in S1, Bernard in S2, Jessie from Breaking Bad in S3. S1 was, admittedly, a particularly sublime story. The whole thing was, for the most part, a retelling of Dolores' achievement of self-awareness from her own (nonhuman and nonlinear) perspective.
In some ways, that's easier to achieve. The whole cast is written around the plot. The audience isn't yet familiar with your storytelling methods (in this case, the out-of-sequence timeline). The writers and producers probably had years to refine the plot.
So when they use the same methods to tell Bernard's awakening as well as the reconstruction of his own fragmented memory it's less successful since you see what's coming and everything is bit less polished and some characters are "just there" even though they're not integral to the new plot.
Hence, the discarding people, places and tropes left and right in S3 and trying something distinct from a human perspective. There's still some trademark flashbacks, being the literal representation of a man reliving his own PTSD, but the whole plot is basically linear. TBH, I'm still undecided on S3. They set a lot of things up, made a fair number of pronouncements, and how I view S3 will depend on how S4 answers the setup.
To borrow your comparison with the Matrix, Reloaded made some interesting points, only to abandon them for a non-stop action sequences in Revolutions. Which makes both seem underwhelming.
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Fool me once (season 3), shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
I don't care how much of a turnaround they may or may not make in this fourth season, I'm not going to watch it on principle after that dumpster fire of a third season.
I don't care how much of a turnaround they may or may not make in this fourth season, I'm not going to watch it on principle after that dumpster fire of a third season.
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Oh, this show's still going. Season 1 was great, but I only made it 4 episodes in to Season 2 before giving up. Is there a payoff that makes it worth plowing through?
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DaVuVuZeLa
Ars Tribunus Militum
No, and that's why it was such a slog to watch. This is a show that shouldn't have gone past two seasons.
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