[TV] Westworld

[Immitis]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

i mean, from what i can tell the majority of people go to westworld to have tons of sex or to just have fun hanging out in a fantasy world and theres supposed to be other places besides westworld.

i personally wouldnt give a fuck about westworld but say, a star wars world where i can fuck aliens, or a fantasy world where i can fuck ghosts

that be pretty cool.

[Kronik85]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

I think his purpose so far in the 2 episodes I've seen is to provide mystery. Whilst other guests are killing boars in Elwynn Forest he's trying to get attuned for Molten Core.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

By the looks of things most people are there to LARP, fuck and drink. I don't think the draw for the guests is strictly gaming, infact Hopkins just said the same.

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

I feel pretty bad when the guests inflict acts of cruelty upon the hosts and graphic violence always has shock value. It's illogical because in truth they aren't humans but it does serve to highlight the darkness within the guests. The hosts definitely feel emotion and they react like humans so they entirely unsympathetic to the viewer.

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

I'm intrigued but obviously YMMV.

[Coeryn]

The scene with Bernard and his wife alone made episode 3 a 10/10. Great acting, great conveying of feeling, hnng the feels.

[PACOX]

I didn't get to pay much attention to the original movie when I watched it but it seems like they're start to blend the storyline from the movie into the show? They're obviously aren't going for a 1:1 recreation of the movie but they're certainly taking aspects from it. My only fault with the show as of now is that its mostly been mystery. Its intriguing enough to keep me watching though.

[Rothg]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

It's very interesting that you think this way. I've been feeling the opposite, it's very interesting to me. It seems very clear that pretty soon here were going to have a host attack a guest, or have some of the key hosts figure out what's going on and go after their creators. at which point the stakes are obviously higher.

[Shinzai]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

The stakes would be the AIs potentially turning against the guests. Of something going wrong and a guest suddenly dying. The motivation of the man in black, is that he's trying to solve a mystery. Something he's figured out over decades of exploration in the area and a deep understanding of how things work in Westworld.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

From what we've seen, guests are placed in extremely dangerous situations, where they cannot be killed. Why do people enjoy rollercoasters for decades? If everything goes 100% correctly, they'll never die and the rides never change, so what is there to enjoy? In Westworld, your every interaction with the cast causes the story to change. By killing or helping a key character, you experience a part of the 'ride' that you would never have seen otherwise. That's what the man in black shows us. There are layers upon layers of detail to the game and it appears to have some kind of decisive conclusion, that it's taken him this long to figure out.

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

Due to the fact that it's another extension of how casually violent the guests are. This isn't something a normal person would do. A number of the guests seem to be prone to violence and when he actually uses a knife to pin the AI's hand to the table, it makes you wonder if there's an actual boundary between what he would do to an AI, compared to a real person. To me, he gives off an air of Christian Bale's high-flying business sociopath in American Psycho.

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

I'll have to disagree.

[Feredir]

I was watching last night when it struck me, could the people who tend to the hosts, Bernard and Ashley for instance, be advanced constructs, completely unaware that they too are nothing more than the creations of Dr Ford?

[RobertoCarlos]

I was watching last night when it struck me, could the people who tend to the hosts, Bernard and Ashley for instance, be advanced constructs, completely unaware that they too are nothing more than the creations of Dr Ford?

Possibly I haven't seen episode 3 yet if they hint to that but going on first 2 eps I don't think so. A big focus was the latest update to the hosts, so I think it's fair to say the current hosts in westworld are the best they can do. Plus remember the old man cowboy model that can't shake hands. It wouldn't be that safe to have AI protect AI. I'm more interested in ed Harris character. Is he really a guest or a host that tricked the programming so that he scans as a guest and can find his way to the real world.

Also how can people say this show is shallow. It's about AI in a future western setting. That's awesome. And it's more than just a game imo. You would get people not wanting to leave irl

[Tradewind]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

Well it is only 3 eps into the 50 or so it's going to have, yes it is definitely a slow burn. But they're world building here, 1973 film aside, they don't really have the advantage that GoT had with a whole whack of books and a lengthy fanbase and wiki's to provide all that world building meat in advance. They gotta start from scratch. As for Ed Harris' motivations, maybe you missed it? The guy's been coming to Westworld since it opened (some 30 years earlier), or as suggested he might be another host that's tricked the system (though I doubt it tbh). He's trying to find the next level, whatever that may be. Whether it's another world, the home base where the business is running from, or if he is a host gone mental access to the real world, who knows. It's a mystery :E Maybe he's related to the corporate side of things in the story thus far, what with Luke Hemsworth telling the subordinate in ep 2 "that guest gets whatever he wants."

He might even be part of a rival entity. Think about Jurassic Park, a book/movie that recycled a lot of what was in the 1973 Westworld film. You had a corporate rivalry (more so in the book anyway) between Hammond's InGen and Biosyn. It could be entirely possible that there's another business, or even multiple businesses, working on the frontier of AI and android robotics. Maybe Ed Harris is part of that.

Last episode, it's become clear that the guns, as fake as they may be, can in fact hurt the guests. Jimmi Simpson's character got laid the fuck out by one. They're like rubber bullets/paintballs almost. One of the underlying themes thus far is just how much control do these people actually have over these machines. "If their root code were to ever be damaged." Have a little bit of Asimov's rules getting tossed around there. We've already seen Delores can kill a living thing, Maeve attacked the body shop guys and then the Stray attacked Stubbs (Hemsworth). I'm also pretty certain that the gun Delores found isn't a pre-programmed Westworld gun, but a real one. It won't surprise me if she ends up killing a guest with it as part of her "barn rape" narrative and that's when shit really hits the fan.

idk if the fork-hand was meant to be "shocking" really. Though it's a somewhat hamfisted means for the show runner there to get the "guests indifference" angle across. But when you consider that this is basically a story about a robotic revolt, it makes sense to really drive the point home that the guests are pretty much huge assholes to these robots. You're meant to sympathize with the machines. That should be obvious.

Maybe this is something better suited for binge watching for you?

[fakaroonie]

Absolutely amazing show. So much potential, it's crazy.

It will be cancelled after 3 seasons.

[Sorshen]

So much potential, but they're squandering it on free gunfight violence.

[frogger237]

idk if the fork-hand was meant to be "shocking" really. Though it's a somewhat hamfisted means for the show runner there to get the "guests indifference" angle across. But when you consider that this is basically a story about a robotic revolt, it makes sense to really drive the point home that the guests are pretty much huge assholes to these robots. You're meant to sympathize with the machines. That should be obvious.

Maybe this is something better suited for binge watching for you?

I think it was to show how the repeat customers just see all the hosts as just machines built for your every desire because they've gotten so used to it/jaded while the newcomers tend to see them more as actors at first.

[Tradewind]

I think it was to show how the repeat customers just see all the hosts as just machines built for your every desire because they've gotten so used to it/jaded while the newcomers tend to see them more as actors at first.

Yes I totally agree. Think my brain moved on to the next point before finishing the thought lol, because I totally was going to write that to go with it, but seem to have completely forgotten to...and convinced myself I had D:

[Deleted]

Well, personally, I think that "shallow" is definitely something this show is not.

It's tackling with some extremely complex and deep questions, such as, and, I won't tag this since it doesn't go into any specific events but be warned nonetheless, when do the hosts stop being simple toasters and when they become people, since they've clearly been given very complex software, such that can basically even learn, and obviously, become sentient and conscious.

Is it OK to use them as nothing but "things" for rape and murder, when they so closely resemble us; where is that line, if the gradient goes from games that we have now on the PC for example where we can murder people, to something like this park. Does it count as cheating (on your spouse) if you have sex with a robot? What if you rape that robot? Is that OK? I mean, it's just a robot, just a "thing", isn't it?

The characters, humans, seem to have depth to them as well. They're not just your typical two-dimensional bland archetypes. At least not all of them.

The show is doing a great job mixing in contemporary online gaming tropes with very complex philosophical questions about morality, personal responsibility and playing God. I suppose it might be a tad too deep for some, and thus it might be failing for people who expected more...straight up action and thriller from it.

[RobertoCarlos]

So as I was starting to doubt Bernards intentions this Arnold chap turns up. I'm gona guess Dolores is connected to him somehow as she is the oldest host and also special. He probably fell in love with her and gave her all kinds of special coding imo. Or if not her someone else that would spread the arnold concise virus. Whoever it was planted the photo at the farm for Dolores dad to lose his shit and its spread from there.

Also evan rachel woods is a 10/10

[Endus]

Eh. Feel the show is kinda lame and pointless. There are no real stakes- which makes the motivations of someone like Ed Harris illogical at worst, implausible at worst.

Things are written as though these people are in a video game essentially. However, playing a game with God Mode enabled is not very fun for long. The show somehow wants us to buy people are enjoying god mode for 30+ years?

Every time the show uses techniques meant to covey tension, danger or shock in the theme park it falls flat. Like when that guy stabs the old man with the treasure hunt quest in the hand. Why would that be shocking to me the viewer knowing the inherent premise of the show?

Westworld is as shallow as a puddle so far.

I really can't agree.

Westworld isn't a "video game". It's a theme park. Saying that the guests don't face any actual threats is kind of silly; how much "threat" is there to guests at Disneyworld? They're there for titillation, to "experience" the Old West, to playact some silly stuff, to let off steam in gruesome ways they never could in the real world, etc. The only person who's really there for a "game" is the Man in Black, and it's underscored pretty heavily that he's exceeding what Westworld overtly exists to present; his search is more like a hugely violent search for the Hidden Mickeys at Disneyworld rather than actually experiencing the park as it was designed.

The entire POINT of the show is that the guests are never under any real threat; it's a totally safe environment. They never need to worry about what the hosts might do in response. It's also pretty clear that it's stupidly expensive; this isn't something you go "play" every weekend or something, it's an experience most people save up for years to enjoy a single week at Westworld, unless they're filthy rich.

Ed Harris is weirdly obsessed, yes. But there are people weirdly obsessed with Disney, too.

Theme park. Not video game.

[Deleted]

Theme park. Not video game.

Although, there being obvious quest givers and quests, as well as scripted events does give it some similarities with current day MMOs and such. Well, personally I can see those similarities in it anyhow. Then again, aren't MMOs like WoW for example considered "theme park" games?

[Sorshen]

Anthony Hopkins's character says people come to Westworld to 'discover themselves'. They like it that it seems so real. Well, it seems most people tend discover they're murderers and rapists. And the staff in unfazed. Just cleaning up after them psychos everyday.
Others seem to come for the whores. Lots of whores.
Murder-robbery-rape theme park for the couple that came with a kid?

[fakaroonie]

Yeah the maintenance of that huge world is unreal, there must be like thousands of people working just for the cleanup. Let alone restructuring and etc.

[Wikko]

Well they did address the issue with knives and other sharp object. They only give out "weapon priviliges" to some of the hosts. So most of the hosts are programmed to never pick up an axe or a knife. I also think that dolores is/was programmed to never being able to fire a gun (she couldnt fire the gun from his boyfriend host, even though she was aiming a box or something) and the same glitch that allowed her to swat the fly is the same as her being able to shoot the other host at the end of the episode. So she's basically rewriting her own code at the moment