(Necessary disclaimer: this is all my opinion even if I don't present it as an opinion) Something Westworld frequently failed to do in all the build-up towards reveals and twists was make the build-up interesting. Moody music and admittedly excellent acting don't make up for everything. If characters aren't your #1 important thing when watching television shows, you probably enjoyed Westworld a hell of a lot more than I did.
That said, I don't think Westworld is like Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones tends to have a lot of episodes where not a lot happens and then they have an explosive episode that makes you remember why you watch the show. But Game of Thrones cares about characters. They arguably have TOO many characters in fact. The "not a lot happens" episodes aren't too bad because you care about the characters. It's a basic facet of storytelling. (If you think I'm a Game of Thrones fanboy, it didn't even make my top ten dramas last year. It just reminds me of that show in that specific way)
Secondly, I feel like the internet kind of ruined Westworld a bit. Part of the fun of watching Westworld is finding the easter eggs and figuring out the twists. Except not for me. I like being shocked. I don't want to figure it out. A good twist is hard. You can't make it too obvious or it's not much of a twist. You should also at least telegraph it a little or it will come out of nowhere. The twist that William was the Man in Black had become obvious for a few episodes. I'm not sure if I would have figured it out without the internet, but it just became blatantly obvious once I did. So it wasn't a very good twist even if the finale very much treated it like it was. (An example of a good twist actually is Bernard being a host. But then I stopped caring about him. You're just not going to make me care about the fate of a robot who can come back to life.)
What redeems Westworld as a show worth watching is the actors and the cinematography. The actors suggested a better show than what I watched. Evan Rachel Wood is pretty phenomenal as Dolores having to play two different versions of characters, channel genuine emotions, and be able to revert to the "robot" stage. Ed Harris pretty much does his Ed Harris thing and I loved every minute of it. Anthony Hopkins is Anthony Hopkins.
I mean seriously, the acting talent is so incredible I can forgive you if you thought you were watching a great show. Jeffrey Wright is pretty much always good and there's Thandie Newton, whose storyline was linear, easy to figure out, and thus perhaps the most compelling - in no small part due to Newton. Then again, finding out someone else created this storyline for her removes some of the appeal even if it makes more sense and makes her more tragic. If she's not pulling the strings, she's just another robot being a puppet for someone else. The escape is a good encapsulation of the show: visually interesting but since I don't care about any of the characters, there's no tension on if anyone will die. I mean sure nameless redshirts getting gunned down in the process, but who really cares? There's no stakes.
I don't want to spend too much time on this, but can I also say that the dumbness of Felix and Sylvester ruins that too if you think about it at all! They have literally all the power. They can control her. They for some reason choose not to control her. And apparently Felix, who seems like someone terrified of violence, is cool with the escape where tons of actual human beings died? You kind of just need to forget all that for that to work.
Anyway, I don't know if I'll be tuning into season two. I was bored or disengaged with the show more than actually enjoying it. The actors do their best. It's an acting ensemble that could easily fool you into thinking you were watching a great show. I was fooled. For the majority of the season, I thought I was the one missing something. But I don't think I was. I think this show was as exactly as good as I've always thought of it: a mediocre show propelled by the cinematography and actors.
Grade: B-
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