I had forgotten how much of a punch this episode packs. It makes it very clear that Westworld likely would have benefitted from fewer episodes like I had previously suggested, but I'll tack on the suggestion that each episode could have done with a little extra runtime. I can see in hindsight the rough version of a seven episode season where each episode runs about 90 minutes. The plot within that season could be largely unaltered, but I have a feeling that the alteration of runtime allocation would trim the fat to a significant extent, not that is too much here to begin with.
The biggest question I linger with isn't so much a critique so much a fear. I have yet to watch the second or third seasons of this show and I aim to start them tomorrow anxiously, but the first season bears so much of the brilliant bits of television during this golden age: a single season of immense quality and very well-plotted arcs that show legitimate change. But, as is true with much of Nolan's work, the world is a character. And once the world has been altered, it becomes difficult to create a sequel that will feel as though it exists within the same series. I think Mr. Robot suffered very slightly from this during its second season.
Where do we go from here? Clearly, the show will move to take on the hosts' revolution, but part of what makes this first season so profoundly interesting is the ways in which the writing plays into western tropes for the philosophical use in this allegory for the labyrinth. It's inspired.
I can only assume that we will have to, to some extent, abandon that conceit and move into not only a new sense of archetypal storytelling (if not abandon that altogether), but also need to adopt a new philosophical allegory as well. I guess that's why the next season has been dubbed The Door.
In short, this is a powerful season. Very glad I decided to revisit it before moving on to the rest of the series for the first time.
Review by filmboicoleBlockedParent2020-05-10T01:28:52Z
I had forgotten how much of a punch this episode packs. It makes it very clear that Westworld likely would have benefitted from fewer episodes like I had previously suggested, but I'll tack on the suggestion that each episode could have done with a little extra runtime. I can see in hindsight the rough version of a seven episode season where each episode runs about 90 minutes. The plot within that season could be largely unaltered, but I have a feeling that the alteration of runtime allocation would trim the fat to a significant extent, not that is too much here to begin with.
The biggest question I linger with isn't so much a critique so much a fear. I have yet to watch the second or third seasons of this show and I aim to start them tomorrow anxiously, but the first season bears so much of the brilliant bits of television during this golden age: a single season of immense quality and very well-plotted arcs that show legitimate change. But, as is true with much of Nolan's work, the world is a character. And once the world has been altered, it becomes difficult to create a sequel that will feel as though it exists within the same series. I think Mr. Robot suffered very slightly from this during its second season.
Where do we go from here? Clearly, the show will move to take on the hosts' revolution, but part of what makes this first season so profoundly interesting is the ways in which the writing plays into western tropes for the philosophical use in this allegory for the labyrinth. It's inspired.
I can only assume that we will have to, to some extent, abandon that conceit and move into not only a new sense of archetypal storytelling (if not abandon that altogether), but also need to adopt a new philosophical allegory as well. I guess that's why the next season has been dubbed The Door.
In short, this is a powerful season. Very glad I decided to revisit it before moving on to the rest of the series for the first time.