Westworld Series 2

[Lost Oliver]

Well what do we think?

I really like it.

[Ja'moke]

Same here. The first season sometimes got a little bit lost ('Lost') in its puzzle box of mysteries, but I felt it came together nicely at the end, and there's some really strong performances to lift some of the weaker material.

I've seen the first five episodes of Season 2, because I'm recapping it (premiere recap here for those that care: https://www.tvinsider.com/681842/westworld-recap-season-2-premiere/), and the character focus is a lot tighter and less reliant on the mysteries, though there are still lots of questions, but they tend to get answered relatively quickly. Episodes 4 and 5 in particular are pretty special.

[Lost Oliver]

Thanks Ja'moke. Will be reading your catch-ups throughout the series then. Was it you who did the TP ones? Loved those.

I really bloody liked the first series an thought this might miss something sans Hopkins but it has started off just as strong. The British guy still pisses me off though. Surely he's destined to fuck Maeve over.

[phantom_power]

I thought the British bloke was better in this episode. They are leaning into his dickishness and he delivered the line "I wrote that" pretty well

[Chairman Yang]

Holy bananas that was an exciting opening! They're really not fucking around getting the story moving along.

I also love how it throws out Ford's messianic designs from S1 in favour of everything immediately going off the rails.

[Ja'moke]

Thanks Ja'moke. Will be reading your catch-ups throughout the series then. Was it you who did the TP ones? Loved those.

I really bloody liked the first series an thought this might miss something sans Hopkins but it has started off just as strong. The British guy still pisses me off though. Surely he's destined to fuck Maeve over.

Aye that was me who did the Peaks recaps.

And yeah, British guy was the worst part of S1, but I feel like he's put to better use this season as a comic foil for Maeve. He doesn't seem quite so overbearing.

[Uncle TechTip]

Some nice writing there, credit to you!

[Small Man Big Horse]

I enjoyed the new episode but didn't love it, it felt solid and interesting and I'm looking forward to where they're going next, but I don't know if it'll ever be a favourite show of mine.

[Ja'moke]

First episode was very much a table setter, putting everyone in their place. By episode three things really start moving at quite a pace, bringing stories together much faster than S1. I guess they realised that a lot of people guessed the twists early on last season, which made the pace feel much slower.

[Neomod]

Is there a good Westworld podcast anyone can recommend?

Oh and one thing. if you can get to the resort by train how come they needed to land via boat?
The logistics of a place like that would obviously mean they needed road links.

[Jack Shaftoe]

I also like the British bloke more - is he going to be the Gaius Baltar of the series? Other than that though, I found it a bit meandering and hard to follow, particularly as I keep wondering they don't, I don't know, fly troops in by helicopter or something. I've also never quite got the rules, do the 'hosts' die when you shoot them in the head, or not? I guess they don't, but now no-one's going to revive them, so it's a bit different. I've gone off Mrs Blonde Woman now she's started hanging people too.

Also, are their other 'parks' on the same island?

[Gulftastic]

If I was being made to stand on a rickety cross with a noose around my neck, I think I'd kick off my high heeled shoes.

[Mister Six]

I'd keep them on for the extra cm of height.

Oh and one thing. if you can get to the resort by train how come they needed to land via boat?

There are multiple x-worlds on the island (we saw Samuraiworld robots last season and a tiger in the new one) so presumably you boat into a central terminal, then get the train to whichever world you wish to visit.

The island appears to originally have been China-owned so perhaps there's an issue with Chinese air space that stops people flying in. I wonder how much of the outside world they'll show. Not too much, I hope - believability is already hanging by a thread for me, and I don't know if adding to the outside world will help or hinder that.

[Mobius]

Obviously very early days and I'm sure it'll take shape in a few episodes but at the moment I don't really know who we're meant to root for.

Really couldn't give less of a shit about Thandie Newton trying to find her daughter.

[phantom_power]

Obviously very early days and I'm sure it'll take shape in a few episodes but at the moment I don't really know who we're meant to root for.

I think that is sort of the point isn't it?

[Ja'moke]

I'm not particularly bothered about Maeve finding her daughter, but Maeve is my favourite character, mainly because Thandie Newton is a great performer and she gets the best lines.

I think that is sort of the point isn't it?

I think so, yeah. It's about the paths the hosts decide to take now they have free will, and their choices might not always be pleasant. Personally, I think the show is heading for a Dolores v Maeve clash somewhere down the line. Dolores is acting very "human", revenge orientated and wanting to control others. Maeve, while also ruthless at times, is more reasonable and empathetic.

Though, we still have to question how much their coding is still playing a part. Dolores had her character combined with the evil Wyatt, so is that what's causing her blood-lust, or is that her own choice?

[Mister Six]

At what point did Dolores become Wyatt, and how? I completely forgot that bit between seasons. Was it Anthony Hopkins' doing?

Also what was Hopkins' motivation in the first season? A long-term plot to free the robots, or petty revenge because they were going to take the park away from him, or a combination of the two?

[Ja'moke]

At what point did Dolores become Wyatt, and how? I completely forgot that bit between seasons. Was it Anthony Hopkins' doing?

Also what was Hopkins' motivation in the first season? A long-term plot to free the robots, or petty revenge because they were going to take the park away from him, or a combination of the two?

The Wyatt thing was Arnold's doing, it was his attempt to stop the park from opening, by combining the Wyatt character with Dolores so that she'd kill him. That's why Dolores kept having flashback's to the massacre last season, she was the one responsible, but only because Arnold programmed her to do so. It didn't matter though because Ford brushed it under the rug and still went ahead with opening the park.

Ford's motivations are still unclear I think. He said at the end of last season that he finally realised that Arnold had a point about the hosts' ability to gain consciousness, but that they needed to experience suffering to truly to gain free will. And so that is what he manufactured over the years. He obviously didn't appreciate the Delos execs and whatever their motivations are beyond the park, so I think there was some petty revenge mixed in there too.

[Mister Six]

Cool, cheers. So the stuff with Wyatt building a cult and that - that was what Dolores was getting up to off the clock, and not an actual planned narrative? Or was Ford reviving that as part of his plan?

God, I feel like such a dolt.

Also, didn't Ed Harris's arm heal up fast? I really liked this opener, although it felt a bit fragmented, but that annoyed me.

As soon as he had his arm broken last season I thought, "Hold on, that's going to be a pain to write around." So it's slightly baffling that they now appear to have done that on a whim rather than as part of a larger design.

[Ja'moke]

Harris had his arm broken? I can't remember that, though I didn't do a full rewatch before the new season. I remember him getting shot in the arm in the finale and smiling about it because the hosts were finally fighting back.

I can't remember much of the Wyatt cult stuff either. I think a lot of that was just Dolores remembering her past, maybe?

[Mister Six]

Hmm, looks like it was a dislocation, not a break...

[Viero_Berlotti]

I thought the first episode of series 2 was awful, made me wonder why I thought the 1st series was any good. This was just bad sci-fi, like some grade z shite that would've been on late night channel five 15 years ago. Those white rubber suited android things were dreadful. Like something stolen from some late 1990's bollocks Star Trek spin-off that everyone had forgotten about. Forbidden Planet are selling action figures of them, reduced to a fiver, covered in dust and nobodies bought one since 1998.

I think what I liked about the 1st series was the idea of this functioning amusement park and the tension that came from the existential angst of the hosts as they operated within it. Now it's all been blown apart and there's dead bodies everywhere and that wank British guy still stinking it all up, it's lost its appeal.

[Pdine]

I liked it apart from the lynching scene, where the writing was shitty and ERW somehow made it even worse in performance.

[mothman]

There was some suggestion end of last season that Maeve wasn't acting quite as autonomously as she thinks she is. Perhaps choosing to stay in the park, rather than following her (built in?) impulse to leave, is the part of her that does have free will choosing to revolt against the narrative she thought she'd transcended. Or maybe she's still following a narrative and doesn't know. So I'll stay invested in her search for now. Plus TH is brilliant in this.

[mothman]

At Delos Sr.'s retirement party there was a woman in a white dress seen from behind who looked an awful lot like Six from Battlestar Galactica. Probably just a coincidence - if it was intended, they'd have put her in a red dress, surely - or was it?

[Mobius]

Episode 2 was dead boring.

Thandie Newton running about in the nuddy was alright

[Mister Six]

Mrs Six thought that second episode was too slow, but I rather enjoyed it. I appreciated its focus, especially after the chaotic flitting to and fro in the first instalment, and despite what I said upthread I did appreciate the glimpses of the wider world.

Nice to see the McPoyle back, and having Mother Superior from Trainspotting turn up as a foul-mouthed exec was pleasingly bizarre. I'm not sure whether the big data stuff feels prescient given the recent Facebook farrago, or played out because of it, but I'm intrigued to see where it's going all the same.

Was that Hopkins conversation cut together from old footage? It had a slightly awkward, choppy quality, but perhaps he (literally) phoned in the lines because they didn't have the dosh to get him in the studio and/or de-age him. Not sure.

Also, lovely to see her from St Trinian's without muck all over her pretenaturally pretty face. Phwoar, etc.

[Mobius]

Episode 2 was dead boring.

Thandie Newton running about in the nuddy was alright

God I'm an awful eejit. I just read a few reviews and thoughts on the episode because everyone is talking about Dolores outside the park, and Peter Mullan & Giancarlo Esposito being in it and I don't remember that at all

Turns out I just downloaded and rewatched S01E02 without realizing. I turned to my partner after the episode finished annoyed it was just all flashbacks and shit we've seen before..

In my defence the show does jump about a bit, but even so, I feel like pretty daft..

[Mister Six]

I was wondering when TH got nude in that episode...

[Mobius]

I'm genuinely concerned I managed to watch the whole thing and aside from being slightly annoyed they rehashed stuff, had no idea I was watching an episode I'd seen before, that's a season out of date...

Didn't blink when Theresa and Elsie popped up... Bernard shagging Theresa was weird, but I just thought oh it's a flashback or summat...

Sticking with my guns though - boring episode that hasn't advanced the story along enough for my money.