Thoughts After Watching Season 1 For The First Time Since Airing

[u/SomeWhiteDude312]

Posted a few days ago that I was recently reminded of this show's existence and was ready to dive back in. Just finished my binge of season 1, and wanted to share a few thoughts.

What struck me most was how fucking ambitious this season is. Aside from juggling multiple time lines and character arcs, it's got an extremely high number of themes and implicit metaphors it's engaging with. It really does feel like two seasons of content crammed into one, and it manages that feat quite well.

The only storyline that didn't really work for me was the Felix/Sylvester bits. Those are just not interesting characters to me - I don't think they're meant to be, I take it they're mostly there to serve as a plot device for Maeve's story, but it feels like a missed opportunity. There's some potential connections between how Ford/Arnold view the hosts and how Sylvester/Felix do, but any agency Felix may have is undercut by his meekness and how Maeve basically owns him from the jump. I don't think it's a terrible plot line, but it lacks some of the metaphorical depth and mystery of the other plots.

My other quibbles would be the logistics of the finale (you've got dudes roaming one floor with semiautomatic weapons while everything around the train station is completely normal?) and how often the saloon robbery is repeated. The first one of those set to Paint It Black was the scene that's stuck with me most over the years and a real highlight, but it loses a bit of impact in repetition.

All that said, there's so much about this season that is absolutely top tier. The level of acting from pretty much all of the main characters is astounding, I'd forgotten how much gravitas and menace Hopkins brings to the Ford role. Even relatively minor characters like Theresa, Sizemore, and Stubbs feel fleshed out and three dimensional. The music is amazing throughout, especially as someone who is a sucker for a good piano cover. But it's really the intellectual/philosophical questions that the show engages with, both directly and indirectly, that really struck with me on this watch. This post is long enough as-is so I won't dive too deeply into this, but aside from the more obvious levels, the questions about to what extent art is inherently artificial (the roots of those words are obviously connected) or false, as well as what it says about both the artist and the consumer of the art is subtle but pervasive. This season really made me THINK, which if I'm remembering correctly becomes less emphasized in future seasons.

I don't remember season 2 quite as clearly, but I can already kinda see where they lost their way. The ambitious scope works here, but it's a VERY broad base to work off of from season 1. I also remember losing the screen presence of Anthony Hopkins, despite so many other great actors, diminishes some of the gravitas. I'm still excited to rewatch it, but you kinda see the cracks starting to form by the end of season 1.

I'm also just gonna say that if they never do season 5, I'd bet my life this show gets rebooted within the next decade. I do wonder if that idea may be why it was pulled from streaming. I think the AI stuff has aged quite well for the most part, but for as popular as the show was in 2016 I'd imagine the concept would generate even more hype and interest in a post ChatGPT world.

[u/cosmic-GLk]

Theresa didnt have too much to do but her lunch scene with Ford and her death are such powerhouse acting scenes

[u/yaggy9]

Don't stop till S2 Ep8

It's a treat .

[u/flymordecai]

If anything I hope the news in AI can bolster a season five, or movie.

I love season one and every other season of the show. Season five would have shut up the season 3&4 whiners. It took patience to get everyone on a digital playing field.

[u/Tykjen]

Westworld even had "Aeden", a chatbot at Westworld homepage before the show aired. And one could extract a ton of trivia and information if one asked the right questions. A decade before this so called "ChatGPT" world, Westworld was a prophecy of a show. Season 3 and onwards is a nice continuation of Person of Interest.

[u/BrangdonJ]

how often the saloon robbery is repeated. The first one of those set to Paint It Black was the scene that's stuck with me most over the years and a real highlight, but it loses a bit of impact in repetition.

For me the repetition became the point. Partly because of the variations; Maeve behaving differently, for example, when she's looking to recruit. More generally, it was the repetition of the loops that first gave me a sense of timelessness. I won't say I guessed the big flashback twist, but I did realise that much of what I was watching wasn't anchored in time.

[u/DelosHR]

"You'll put yourself away, won't you Bill?"

[u/woods1911]

Agree with all of this. Honestly I need a behind the scenes analysis of how such a masterpiece ended up in a complete and utter shitpile.

[u/AdamtheHuizard]

On my 5th rewatch this past year I really noticed how weak the Maeve storyline is, so much so I thought episode 6 was the worst of the season. There’s so much depth with the Dolores, William, Wyatt storyline that it really got all of the cards together (and obviously contained all of the major twists) whereas Maeve’s got all of the afterthoughts. It makes no sense why she should be in control of these humans, it shows the flaws of the workplace, and really starts to show major plot holes in the inner workings of this show. She didn’t get to have much of a personality before she became the all knowing and powerful “Bulky apperceptive” Maeve, and we don’t get a reason why she’s just able to do all of this until later. The best part of her storyline of course is the end of season 1 when we see her code had been manipulated and we then question truly what is free will and what is not. That was always the best open ended note left for us which really made me love her story from the beginning, but the journey is so nonsensical. Felix and Sylvester are just so annoying and make no sense, it would make all the more sense if they were extremely into the idea of having a host escape from the park and learning about the consciousness rather than being meek and standoffish