While waiting for American Gods (according to Neil Gaiman on twitter they’re filming it, so there’s hope), I’m really happy to be watching Westworld again. And even though I have to lament a little lack of Thandie Newton and I fear the whole “where’s my daughter” thing will go down in shit, the man in the black hat is developing to be a damn fine plot. Ed Harris is simply magnificent and Evan Rachel Wood keeps above water with grace and mastery of her highly difficult character.
The natural development of this season seems to be the connection between artificial conscience and the strive to fight death: hosts are trying to stay alive, to break free from their loop, and humans seem to be doing likewise. While their destiny is connected to a linear path, a loop means salvation or, at least, eternal preservation. We’re very far away from Michael Crichton‘s work and correctly so: there’s no fight between natural and artificial life in our Era, distinctions are a lot more blurred than that. We learned that the hard way at the end of Season 1, when Bernard was revealed to be who he was. In this second season, privacy and the power of information sets in a major theme while we learn that the true business value of the park rests in studying guests and learning, from their behavior, what they like and what they want in the outside world. Entangled narrative timelines, also being one of the breakthrough revelations for season 1, seems to be still a thing in this second season and we’re happy about it. It is also made clear that we will see more of the “other parks”: who’s waiting for tomorrow’s episode “Welcome to Shogun World”?
No Comments