SummaryThe sci-fi western series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy was inspired by the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name and is set at a Wild West theme park created by Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) with human-like androids where guests are encouraged to indulge their desires.
SummaryThe sci-fi western series from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy was inspired by the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name and is set at a Wild West theme park created by Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) with human-like androids where guests are encouraged to indulge their desires.
There is plenty of action and violence in the first half of the season, but what will empower the show’s longevity is its metaphysical theme, the exploration of the meaning and definition of human existence.
It takes a bit for Westworld to get back up to full steam, but by episode three (five hours were made available to TV critics), this futuristic, violent drama returns to fine form, introducing new parts of the park (Shogun World!), new characters and apparently new technology goals on the part of Delos, the corporation that owns Westworld.
Is there a smarter show on Television than Westworld season 1? If so, please make suggestions in the comments. We’d like to find one. Our take: Westworld makes people feel stupid. Some people hate that. We happen to love it. Because we’re idiots. :)
Rather than reflect the panicky, competitive rush that results in all these half-thought, half-finished, fairly expensive and certainly mediocre series, Westworld demonstrates the proper way to spend a lot of time and money in a meticulous fashion.
You want to see the robots turn on their masters. Canny series creators Jonathan Nolan (co-writer of “The Dark Knight”) and Lisa Joy know it, and they cleverly string you along with some disturbing questions about human nature.
If it all sounds like “Westworld” is still ridiculously narratively divided and convoluted, it undeniably is, and the show continues to have a frustrating habit of over-writing itself into ridiculously long passages of exposition. ... But it’s encouraging to see actors like Harris, Wright, and Paul have more fun than they were in the drag of a third season.
Westworld looks terrific; its directors have shot its Western locations to stunning effect. But its warmly saturated outdoor scenes and its surface slickness aren’t enough to mask the indecision, condescension, and hollowness at its core.
Amazing show with amazing acting. I love everything about this show. If you like shows that make you question reality and what it means to be human then you need to watch this show.
I know this kind of reasoning sounds kind of clichè, but believe me when i say that there are some TV-shows that improve with time and gets constantly better, this one, sadly, is the exact opposite.
Season 1: 10/10 - One of the best tv-show season of all times, absolute must watch, you might consider stopping there.
Season 2: 6/10 - Still enjoyable, kinda starts ruining the plot for the fact that they want to force an unlikely plot twist, the plot twists of the first season were perfectly blended with a very good and engaging plot, the ones in season2 can't really blend with the plot, they are just there for the sake of being there, plot-holes start emerging. Anyway, if you haven't stopped at season1, you should REALLY consider stopping here.
Season 3: 3/10 The disaster blossoms, all the characters and their narrative arcs get extremely convoluted for no other reason than being convoluted and creating, once again and even more, plot twists that just weren't setup properly and come out as forced and unhinged from everything, the plot-holes become craters. You stopped caring for most of the characters at this point, the original immersion is gone (ok, that was obvious, but it hasn't been replaced by anything meaningful), if you watched this entire thing, i'm not gonna tell you to stop anymore, because...
Season 4: 4/10 - It gets slightly better, it start trying to patch up the huge plot-holes and nonsense that season 3 created, it does that in kind of a poor-way and it gives a bit of closure to the entire narrative, it's not good, but it's as bad a season 3 either, there is still nosense and unexplained decisions that appear to make no sense at all, but that's it, you didn't stop at season1, and that's what you get.
It's a real shame, i can't really say how they could have built upon the ending of season1 to create more equally legendary seasons, maybe there really wasn't a way, but i can tell that the completely failed at that.
Season 1: pretty good
Season 2: pretty good
season 3: pretty good and at times brilliant
season 4: Total garbage
Season 4 becomes bad at the point where science fiction becomes bad. When writers are clearly not up to snuff with the current science and wisdom. No computer no matter how much data and capacity it has can predict the future with any degree of certainty because of the butterfly effect."Any path will lead to the end of civilization? What an utter utter utter **** Post millennial depressed teenage hipster blah! And ion the end that's what this series amounts to.
Idée intéressante que ce parc d’attractions géant dans lequel les « invités » (les humains, les joueurs…) viennent s’éclater dans ce jeu de rôle western grandeur nature peuplé par les « hôtes » (les androïdes, les personnages-non-joueurs…) !
C’est assez fascinant au fil de quelques épisodes, il faut le reconnaître, au fur et à mesure que les mécaniques du « jeu » y sont dévoilées : un jeu de rôle où tout un chacun suit les quêtes qui lui tombent dans le bec. L’ouest sauvage est évidemment ce qu’il est, sauvage et violent, car en vérité comme dans un jeu vidéo, tout se résoud inéluctablement par une partie de cul ou un massacre. Ainsi se déroulent les scénarios, imaginés par les G.O., les Gentils Organisateurs…
Ou plutôt le grand manipulateur incarné par l’excellent Anthony Hopkins toujours vert et bon pied bon oeil. Jusqu’au jour où bien entendu, nos chers andros, nos « réplicants » se mettent à se souvenir et à prendre conscience.
Le but au moins atteint par la série est un vieux thème de la Science-Fiction : l’avènement de la conscience chez les machines et le questionnement de celles-ci face à leur créateur… A moins que le créateur n’ait cherché que ce but ultime, à savoir créer la vie elle-même… à ses risques et périls !
Donc, la base est louable et saine ; cependant elle aurait mérité un bien meilleur développement, surtout pour en arriver là où elle en arrive, c’est-à-dire une fin assez convenue qui ne réinvente pas la roue dans cette première saison.
Passé cet émerveillement de la découverte, Westworld part en effet en vrille et se perd dans les méandres et les rebondissements aberrants de son intrigue à tiroirs, et de chaque tiroir sort un polichinelle. Ainsi, à chaque épisode se succèdent des retours en arrière confus et des révélations obtuses qui plombent davantage encore l’intrigue qui part en morceaux incohérents.
Quant à l’ambiance particulièrement sinistre, si elle entend instiller un malaise, elle y parvient parfaitement puisqu’on se croirait dans un mélange d’abattoir et de camp de concentration high-tech. Si cela sert éventuellement le message véhiculé et lourdement appuyé, cela tient également d’une complaisance malsaine, en témoigne la violence omniprésente qui n’a pour but finalement que de faire parler d’elle, en tant que série glauque, voire dégueulasse.
Enfin, concomitamment à ses aberrations scénaristiques, Westworld nous fait trop souvent prendre des vessies pour des lanternes : sur une foule de détails, la série cumule les invraisemblances sans sourciller, mettant à mal le monde sur lequel elle est construite, monde qui s’avère sous n’importe quel angle totalement bancal.
La saison 2 ne fait hélas que confirmer cet état de fait, en plus de rendre encore plus évident l’un des défauts majeurs de la série : sa lenteur inexpugnable ! dès le premier épisode de toute façon, un énième rebondissement nous prend encore pour des cons : le type là, c’était un robot lui aussi ! ben voyons… il faudrait arrêter de confier les scénars à des stagiaires parce que ça fait désordre…
Et donc, cela confirme une fois de plus ce que nous pensions : à trop vouloir en faire, Westworld se perd définitivement en cours de route et sombre dans la provocation gratuite ; elle perd du coup toute la richesse de ses enjeux. Quel dommage, car Evan Rachel Wood y est magnifique !