I re-binge-watched Westworld Season 1 last week, so I could start watching Season 2, and binge-watched Season 2 the past few days. Amazing stuff as expected! Like chocolate cream for the mind.
I was already blown away by Season 1 when I watched it two years ago so re-watching it wasn’t a surprise, but I didn’t have too high hopes for Season 2 as many shows have a good first season and then mess it up in the second or third seasons. Season 2 of Westworld seemed to start off that way with too many action sequences and fighting but it all made sense as one went along and things started to get very interesting from around Episode 3 (the one with The Raj). The only sort of boring episode for me was Episode 8, which was about the Indians and their visions, but it too was a good episode and I have no complaints or anything.
It’s amazing how Westworld touches a lot of topics like visions, heaven/ hell, fate, God, AI, humans vs. robots, slavery, afterlife, computers … a whole bunch of topics that seem unrelated on the surface of it but which you can connect like the writers of Westworld did. I liked the Episode 8 with Indians for this – how they explained their visions and goals, which are different to everyone else, in the context of Westworld.
Every episode somehow managed to be more human by going more into the backstory of the characters and yet also very Westworld-y with all the topics the show handles. I didn’t expect the “twist” in the last episode. I was expecting something, and I was expecting Bernard to be in the centre of it, but boy they took things to a different level! I never had so much fun with an unreliable narrator, or generally being confused but knowing there’s a reason behind it all! (And that’s another good thing about Westworld. Unlike other shows of a similar nature, they don’t leave anything hanging. You know that by the last episode things will make sense … there’s nothing left unanswered).
Over all, a great show. Think Matrix (the first movie) and the way you mind opened up when you watched it. That’s Westworld, over two seasons. You get a similar mind opening at the end of each season with some bits and pieces sprinkled across the episodes. Season 2 especially, I get the feeling the writers had a lot of fun with the characters, the music, the camera world (the whole Shogun World piece is so darn creative!). Season 2 is lighter on content than Season 1 so they had to stretch things a bit I think, but it was fun the way they did it and I enjoyed it a whole lot. :)