I avoided spoilers but there is a spoiler section at the bottom. Be warned.
Westworld is the name of a wild west style park filled with life like robots called "hosts". The super rich can pay to go into the park and do, whatever really. Kill the hosts, have sex with them, whatever. There are even narratives built in so that a guest can go bounty hunting, get in large battles with Civil War soldiers, and even PG stuff like, painting. The hosts are programmed to go on a loop until a guest interacts with them in which they can lead them on one of these narratives or just kind of do whatever the guest wants too. The hosts are given personalities so some are more willing to go along with a guest than others but it is all part of the illusion.
Horses are also robots
The rules of this universe are cleverly shown in the first episode. Hosts can't harm guests (sorta). If a host shoots a guest, nothing happens except for a...bullet (?) bouncing off the guest. Guests can go white hat or black hat if they wanna play a hero or villain or bounce back and forth (this is used mostly as a framing device though). They arrive via train in the main town of Sweetwater, which is supposedly the least extreme part of the park even though a giant shootout/robbery takes place there like once a week or something.
The first episode establishes the rules so well it's almost TOO WELL and begs questions. What about guests harming other guests? We never see one shoot another but they certainly kick the shit out of each other. Even the hosts can beat up on guests, some of which actually knock out the guest. How much harm is allowed? Every time that happens though it seems like guests have some sort of Wolverine style healing going on (broken arms are fixed quickly) yet this is never explained. Also, I'm not sure if the guns are real and shooting real bullets or not. There is some sci-fi staple rules that got ignored here. How does this technology work?
The other half of the setting is the lab/park control center/employee housing/resort (???). It's stylized for effect rather than logic. For some reason, the lab has dozens of basements that have little to no lighting (people go down there with flashlights) and those floors seem to be leaking water everywhere. This company can build a cutting edge park with advanced AI but can't hire a plumber? And why is everything so dark? Even the main labs seem lit with 20 watt light bulbs and yes I know that isn't a thing.
But damn does it look cool.
The characters of this show are all over the map. Westworlds main protagonist, Dolores, is a host and the primary emergent AI robot. Evan Rachel Wood does well with a plodding plot and with writing bordering of pretentious. Her character spends most of the season confused and wandering while having flashes of badassery. I hate that so much of this season has her be kind of a foil for the viewer rather than a character in her own right but the finale makes it look like she might finally come out of her shell after 10+ fucking hours.
The other characters in the park is a guest named William, who spends most of the time being a dweeb, and his friend/co-worker Logan, who is an asshole. The show makes it clear we are supposed to root for William but he's soooooo boring. Then there is the Man in Black, played by Ed Harris, who is super fun to watch because it really looks like Harris was having a ball playing a sadistic yet cool headed monster. He's a villain black hat guest who spends the entire season looking for a mysterious maze. There is also a host named Meave, who is great, and also an awakening AI. She is a...what's the word for a boss prostitute? Not a pimp. Madam? Anyway, it's a sort of brothel/saloon (she has to pay for drinks so she doesn't own the establishment) but she spends half of her screen time in the lab. She is kind of an anti-thesis to Dolores' own emergent AI, often being more pragmatic and self interested. Oh...and there is also Teddy, another host, who spends a lot of his time getting killed.
Uh...lady of the house? Madam of the night? Queen bee - no that's Missy Elliot.
The lab characters include corporate board members Theresa and later, Charlotte, who are boring business ladies with maybe a dark side? OOOooooOOoo. Bernard is one of our main lab characters who is one of the lead programmers of the hosts. Jeffery Wright puts in a great performance playing Bernard despite his character often getting saddled with paint drying pacing. Bernard has not one but TWO major twists happen to his character (arguably three!) in separate episodes that could have been easily combined into one. Other lab characters include Elsie who I loved despite limited screen time and Felix who is barely a character. He spends the season doing things because he is scared and that is literally it (see spoiler section).
Then, there is Robert Ford, played by Anthony fucking Hopkins. Ford is the most fleshed out character in the entire season and one of the biggest question marks about this entire show.
Or Hopkins made him the most fleshed out character. I'm not entirely sure.
For example, the hosts are always repaired if not completely rebuilt if they are killed. They get their programmed minds back, have their recent memories erased, and sent back into the park. Guests, meanwhile, can't be killed so...everything that happens in the park lacks stakes. This is an action drama where nobody can die so the story is entirely reliant on mysteries, particularly, the self-actualizing AI's.
Ford complicates things because he is basically God. He can control every host in the park with seemingly a thought. He created the park (with a missing partner named Arnold who is this metaphorical ghost influencing the hosts) and the board of directors of the parent company that owns the park wants him out. It's tricky though because the company thinks if they fire him, he will just destroy the hosts code with his god like powers. Only he knows every detail of the code and not even Bernard knows as much. Also, Ford continuously talks about his "new narrative" without giving the viewer any details and this drags through the entire season.
It's a great thing they got Hopkins to play him because Ford is neither hero nor villain through the season. Okay, without spoiling anything, he leans more villain but the company also seems evil so who knows? Outside of Delores and Bernard, no character seems totally in one category or the other, either due to good characterization (Ford, Maeve) or bad (William, Theresa, Charlotte and several others). Ford, as god, is practically the only character with any agency. He is the only character that can progress the plot and why he is present in almost every episodes final scene.
I don't know if it's the Hannibal in him never leaving but he's still creepy.
This is a problem and why I have a hard time nailing down this show. How do you have an ensemble cast with only one character who can change anything? Every one else seems to sort of wait for things to happen, have things happen to them, or in the case of the Man in Black, go on a goose chase that Ford can manipulate. Everyone seems to be puppets of Ford. Everyone. So the amount of self-actualizing from the hosts coming from a part of themselves, or from Ford bestowing it onto them* is questionable and undermining one of the shows strongest themes.
*Yes, yes, I know. Spoiler section.
The show spends about 0.78 Ghost in the Shell's worth of discussing consciousness. It's less about if the hosts are "alive" but if they have consciousness. Memories are a recurring theme, almost oppressively so, as Dolores and Maeve start to remember previous versions of themselves. Ford seems either incapable, or unwilling, to fix this "glitch" found early on in the season (feel free to draw more God parallels there) yet is still capable of bending them to his will. Ford spends a lot of time going on expository monologues that sometimes diverge into heady philosophical stuff....but so much of it seems off (spoiler section again).
The season spends a lot of time building up to its finale and while the payoff is quite good, I can't help but think some of that could have been spread out. Things do happen in the season but so much of it has so little consequence that it feels like filler. There are a couple exceptions, one of which isn't even confirmed until episode 9 (spoiler sectiooooon), but every story line and every character seems delayed until Ford says it is okay. The finale shows promise that a season 2 will be better paced now that shit got real, but it was a drag to watch this show on some episodes.
Luckily I like Ghost in the Shell which can drag on and on and ON with philosophical cyberpunk debates about AI until anything actually happens so this wasn't a big deal breaker for me. Still though, Westworld needs to spend more time having the plot move forward and less time pondering what it all means.
The Walking Dead is brought down by awful characters, hack writing, forced conversations, and repeated plots but has great set pieces and at least its repeated plots usually didn't stall (except the first half of season 2). Westworld has some good characters, others that haven't been given a chance, and others that are boring. The writing is usually good but will occasionally bog down as the show wants to show a character but not have them actually do anything that progresses the plot. Still though, that plot, as slow as it was, was consistent and should drastically change next season. There is a lot more to work with here than with "survive zombies and bad people".
SPOILER SECTION BELOW.
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LAST WARNING. SPOILER SECTION
I have a point for each (spoiler section) above plus some more thoughts.
1. Felix is a balls character. He spends most of the season making slight variations of this face...
...with surprisingly little dialogue. "He gets scared from Maeve then does everything she asks." I just wrote the characterization for Felix.
Also, I liked Elsie. Too bad she got killed off so fast. She is the thing I mentioned as not being confirmed until episode 9. It would have been nice to have her around though. We have next to nobody on the lab side worth rooting for now except Bernard.
2. When Ford talks about the hidden brain behind God in the "God creating Adam" painting, it's pretty much the only explanation we get that Ford did not influence the AI self-actualization. I think he may have aided Bernard by allowing him to see all his memories, but he always seemed to have doubts. Was the realization that Arnold was right, that the AI had achieved, or was going to achieve, consciousness known from the start of the show? Or, did Ford come to this realization during the season? That I don't know.....BUT....
3. In the finale it is shown that Maeve's whole escape storyline was written by Ford. Maeve does seem to still be his puppet even though she claims everything was her own choices. Her deciding to get off the train and go look for her daughter might be her only real choice. (This is some messing with free will, Ghost in the Shell stuff with this story all of a sudden. I hope this is explored more even if Ford is dead). Maeve WAS aided by Ford. So, that begs the question....was Dolores too?
4. Yes point 2 and 3 contradict but I think it was on purpose. I wonder if Ford's plans are so influencing that they continue even after his death.
5. Remember security dude (the guy who was friends with Elsie) who got jumped by the Ghost Nation in episode 9? Think he's dead?
6. The William is the Man in Black twist didn't completely shock me as I read about the fan theory before it happened. Still, that was poorly foreshadowed in characterization. William shows villain style tendencies far too late.
7. Finally, about Dolores and William's adventures. It appears that she was physically walking through the park, hallucinating her previous memory of William. How much of what she said to William was her just talking to a ghost and how much of it did she actually say to William? Considering the time difference between the William we see, and the Man in Black, Dolores may have been hearing Arnold's voice and have been searching for him for decades. If that is the case, how did nobody notice? Did Ford hide this? If what she says is just her talking to a ghost and she didn't actually say those things in her real memory, then this point is moot but I don't think that is the case. AND, when Dolores forgot about William, how was her AI self-actualization journey delayed?
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