Westworld TV Series

[Hydra009]

Arcs are multi-episode plots.  Babylon 5 was noted for that.  As opposed to some shows where the characters basically started from scratch each time, like Star Trek or any sitcom.

Westworld is defintely a serial tv show.  Every episode flows from the previous episode.  You can't miss an episode and still understand what's going on.  Hell, you have to rewatch episodes to fully understand what's going on.

[Cavebear]

Depends on what you mean.  But 4 characters go through major character arcs in the first season.  Not bad for 10 episodes.

Character arcs sound good but probably not quite the same as a I mean.  Arcs are more situations that develop over months at least, where hints of developments show slightly at first and them episodes later you realize that THAT'S why he did that (or some such thing).

I suppose that is cheaply common in soap operas, but not often seen in sci-fi.  Dr Who does that sometimes.  ST:TNG did it badly with Wessley and better with Data.

But in Babylon 5, it wasn't character arcs but universe arcs.  I read something by one of the writers saying that they had planned out a whole ending before the wrote the begginning, and everything led to the end in slow arcs skipping entire episodes sometimes to get to one point months in the future.

Naturally, it isn't in repeats...  Too complicated.

[SGOS]

Character arcs.  Foreshadows and twists?  There are two so far after 7 episodes.  One I anticipated just a few minutes before the revelation.  Others seem to be under development as I'm not so sure about Character X or Y as I was at the beginning.  I'm experiencing a bit of what I used to in time travel stories, potential problems that arise in artificial intelligent beings as happens when considering traveling in time.  The first three episodes were confusing.  I watched each one twice, trying to keep up.  By episode four, I'm starting to feel like I've found my bearings, partly because I've come to accept that a couple of the major plot lines cannot be understood at this point.  This is a very good series, on par with Dexter and Breaking Bad, where each episode does not resolve itself, but are part of the overall plot.  It lends itself to binge watching, where you don't have to wait weeks before the next episode.  But soon I'll be done with season 1 and I'll have to wait a whole year for the next binge, and that will drive me crazy.

[Cavebear]

Character arcs.  Foreshadows and twists?  There are two so far after 7 episodes.  One I anticipated just a few minutes before the revelation.  Others seem to be under development as I'm not so sure about Character X or Y as I was at the beginning.  I'm experiencing a bit of what I used to in time travel stories, potential problems that arise in artificial intelligent beings as happens when considering traveling in time.  The first three episodes were confusing.  I watched each one twice, trying to keep up.  By episode four, I'm starting to feel like I've found my bearings, partly because I've come to accept that a couple of the major plot lines cannot be understood at this point.  This is a very good series, on par with Dexter and Breaking Bad, where each episode does not resolve itself, but are part of the overall plot.  It lends itself to binge watching, where you don't have to wait weeks before the next episode.  But soon I'll be done with season 1 and I'll have to wait a whole year for the next binge, and that will drive me crazy.

Perhaps I've underestimated newer series...

[SGOS]

Holy Smoke!  What a first season.  I just finished the final episode, and I'm trying to put my mind back together.  I've read two books by Michael Crichton, I think, and this doesn't seem like the same writer.  In the past, Crichton wrote in a  linier format.  Maybe this was too, but I'm not sure, and I'm not just talking about the obvious flashbacks.  Eventually, I didn't know if I was watching flashbacks or the present time.

There is a philosophical concept that time is not linier, but that the past, present, and future are all happening at the same time.  I put no stock in that, but Westworld kind of captures the spirit of that particular brain fart.  Perhaps after a second watching, I'll sort through that and decide if this was linier or not.  Or maybe not.  Much as been resolved in the final episode, but I still have a ton of questions about what just happened.

Last year, I read some user reviews.  Maybe from Amazon.  I can't remember.  Many people bemoaned the egregious use of nudity.  For some, that's all they noticed.  Not even a comment about the plot, the twists, and the complexity.  Just comments along the lines of, "If bare breasts are all you want, you may find this series interesting."  Sheesh!  Talk about living in different worlds.

[Hydra009]

Holy Smoke!  What a first season.  I just finished the final episode, and I'm trying to put my mind back together.

Yeah, that last 5 minutes or so was quite a doozy. 

There is a philosophical concept that time is not linear, but that the past, present, and future are all happening at the same time.

Block time - not so much that everything's happening at once, but that future has already happened in exactly the same sense that the past has already happened.  The big picture is that spacetime is an unchanging 4-dimensional block.  That picture doesn't gel with people's subjective experience, but very little of reality meets that standard.  If I held a boulder in my hands and told you that it's mostly empty space, you'd likely consider me mad.

Many people bemoaned the egregious use of nudity.

Considering all the nasty stuff that goes down in Westworld, it's odd that nudity is a big complaint.  It's so strange that you can show violence galore without consequence but an f-bomb or bare breast sends the moral guardians into conniptions.

Just comments along the lines of, "If bare breasts are all you want, you may find this series interesting."  Sheesh!  Talk about living in different worlds.

Softcore porn would be way more efficient for that.  Besides, the context of a lot of Westworld's nudity (body heaps with sad music playing) isn't exactly an enticing scenario.  At least, I'd hope not.

But yeah, Westworld has a lot more to offer than mere titillation (in fact, that's the show's metanarrative).  Imo, anyone who would sum it up as guns and tits isn't be smart enough to be hired as a security guard at the titular park.

[Baruch]

Puritans ... sex bad, violence good.  That is what Salem was all about.  Americans are all from Salem.

[SGOS]

Considering all the nasty stuff that goes down in Westworld, it's odd that nudity is a big complaint.  It's so strange that you can show violence galore without consequence but an f-bomb or bare breast sends the moral guardians into conniptions.

The nudity is more on the order of undressed store manikins.  When sex is about to take place, it's almost always clothed foreplay, and then the camera cuts away.

 

[Hydra009]

Season 2!

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[SGOS]

Season 2!

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I remember them talking about the outside world in the first year, and I did wonder what it was like.  To some of the robots who became aware, it struck me as a grass is greener better place, at least for some.  For others, it was more fearful, even though they were beginning to understand the nightmare of their own world.  For me as a viewer, I assumed the outside world was significantly advanced from ours, a place advanced enough to create Westworld, but suffering from the same political corruption and personal greed of our own world.

I didn't think much more about it than that. There might be bizarre aspects to the real world that would be an interesting twist.  And for the aware robots there could be some interesting interplay between the two worlds.  There already is of course, but the interplay all takes place in their own environment so far.

The visitors mostly have a strange quality to me, and seem unusually preoccupied with sex and violence, like when they laugh about how they kill a robot, they strike me as sick and evil types.  Maybe that's just the nature of the guests who bother visiting the park. Except for that one hero type guy whose trip has something to do with his boss who is picking up the tab for a reason that I don't yet understand.  So I wonder if the guests are representative of the outside or just some subgroup.

I'll have to wait until September for the disks, however.

[Baruch]

First Person Shooter ... it is sick, in some people's eyes.  This is just advanced FPS and GTA.

[SGOS]

First Person Shooter ... it is sick, in some people's eyes.  This is just advanced FPS and GTA.

The guests can certainly be compared to video game players, but not typical of any that I know.  As a whole, they seem far more obsessed with Westworld than the average Grand Theft Auto fan is with their game, and I find the robots, even the bad asses and the snake woman, more likeable than the guests in general.

[Hydra009]

The visitors mostly have a strange quality to me, and seem unusually preoccupied with sex and violence, like when they laugh about how they kill a robot, they strike me as sick and evil types.  Maybe that's just the nature of the guests who bother visiting the park. Except for that one hero type guy whose trip has something to do with his boss who is picking up the tab for a reason that I don't yet understand.  So I wonder if the guests are representative of the outside or just some subgroup.

A subgroup of thrill-seekers (rich assholes, as at least one character has described them).

Most of that might be Delos's fault.  They market Westworld as a place where you can "live without limits" and despite the family-friendly vibe of the commercial, most people quickly figure out what limits they're referring to.

And when visitors arrive, they're bombarded with quests to go kill some bandits and working girls calling to them.  Even if they refuse and stay in Sweetwater, eventually the bandits come to them.  It seems that Delos is almost entirely to blame for that place becoming a den of sex and violence.  Delos's new narratives become increasingly depraved (thanks, Sizemore) so naturally, the clientelle matches.

A few guests take a more PG route, but they're clearly the minority.  Given that Dolores' family-friendly painting session is a rare break between serving as a damsel in distress to be fought over, the park's PG offerings are more of an afterthought than the main intent.

So yes, the park guests are more likely to be sadistic sex fiends than the average person.  In fact, I expect non-guests and non-Delos people in particular to be far more conscientious and agreeable (like Felix), and less competitive and warlike (like the MiB)

Out of the big five personality traits, I suspect that park guests score through the roof in terms of Openness to new experience, Extraversion, and Neuroticism (quick to anger, psychologically unstable), while scoring low in Conscientiousness (more easy-going/careless than efficient/organized) and Agreeableness (more detached/competitive than friendly/compassionate).

[Hydra009]

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[Hydra009]

And while I'm on the subject, shortly after watching season 1 with my roommate, the milk in our fridge went bad.  I poured it out in the sink very dramatically while saying the famous "GROWIN' BOY" line.  I expected at least a chuckle in response.

No reaction.

/le sigh