In 2018 many questions remained unanswered, but not the one that was of exceptional importance to the American cable TV network HBO. If its executives had hoped that Westworld, the exceptionally expensive and lavish series, would succeed the globally popular and ratings-wise unassailable Game of Thrones, the second season of this extravagantly costly show has given an unequivocally negative answer to that question. Although critics, out of habit, continued to sing praises to everything bearing the HBO initials and feigned as though there are no other “players” in the Golden Age of Television, audiences have expressed far less enthusiasm. Based on the last its episodes, it seems improbable that anyone will quote Westworld dialogues in internet memes or that any of Westworld’s characters will achieve the global popularity of Daenerys, Tyrion, or Jon Snow.
The first season enjoyed significantly higher viewership because it drew far more heavily on the original 1973 film, specifically its initial segment, which depicted an unusual futuristic world where the Delos Corporation, thanks to appearance-perfect humanoid robots and other details, provided wealthy guests with all manner of pleasures, including the darkest ones. Similar to the film, things go awry when the robots, or “hosts,” develop consciousness and, tormented by decades of abuse, begin a rebellion, massacring guests and park staff. The narrative begins at this very moment and follows several groups of characters who, during these apocalyptic events, attempt to find answers to existential questions or at least save their own lives. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), who prior to the uprising embodied goodness and benevolence as a “host,” transformed into a fervent revolutionary convinced she must eradicate humanity not only within the park’s boundaries but across the rest of the world. Maeve (Thandie Newton), who served as a brothel madam as a “host,” seeks to find her daughter, undeterred by the possibility that this daughter might be a product of implanted memories. During her dangerous and bloody quest, she discovers abilities she never knew she possessed. William (Ed Harris), a long-time guest who developed sadistic tendencies during his stays at the park, survives the uprising but treats the new perilous situation as a fresh game or challenge—one orchestrated by the park’s creator, Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), who was killed during the uprising. Meanwhile, Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson), Delos’s unscrupulous director, despite arduous, bloody, and largely unsuccessful attempts to seize control of the park, strives to access the host concealing a secret far more valuable to her corporation than the lives of guests and staff. Assisting her is Bernard (Jeremy Wright), a “host” who served as part of the park’s staff, believing himself to be human, and who harbours a deep secret whose revelation could have apocalyptic consequences.
A substantial budget was allocated to the second season, yet after ten episodes, it still gives the impression of being cheaper than the first. Nearly all locations—from the Wild West reconstruction to the futuristic offices and facilities maintaining the park—are the same ones we saw in 2016. The sole exception is the so-called Shogun World, where viewers get a glimpse of a reconstructed ancient Japan, though it is only utilised in a single episode. The same applies to the cast, which has also been recycled and lacks more prominent new names. Nevertheless, the ensemble delivers an exceptionally strong performance. This is true of Evan Rachel Wood, who transformed from the embodiment of all that is good and innocent in the world into a homicidal maniac attempting to inflict upon all human beings what Amon Göth did to Jews in Schindler’s List. Thandie Newton also excels, as does Ed Harris, whose character, initially portrayed as a monstrous villain, gains a more human dimension. Anthony Hopkins makes a significant contribution to the series, although his character, for understandable reasons, primarily appears in flashbacks and visions. A pleasant surprise is British actor Simon Quatermain in the role of a “Delos” screenwriter forced to live out his own bloody and melodramatic stories in reality amidst murderous robots. Jeremy Wright continues to impress as the perpetually confused and traumatised “host,” constantly torn between loyalty to other “hosts” and the humans whose image and likeness he was created to emulate.
Good acting, however, all too often serves in Westworld as a veil—and mostly an unsuccessful one—for script flimsiness. Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the producing, writing, and married duo behind the series, had in the first season—and largely made use of the opportunity—to craft a fascinating world and characters based on a rather slender and four-decades-old premise. However, like many other modern television creators, their ambitions in the second season collided with a lack of talent or inspiration. The core plot was thus “spiced up” in the first season with a mystery to be resolved in the second. However, this resolution, which also serves as a “plot twist”—one that will come as no surprise to those who watched Futureworld, the 1976 sequel to the original film—arrives only after hours of tedious viewing during which most viewers will simply be unable to ignore the script and logical gaps wide enough to drive an aircraft carrier through. Another point supporting the thesis that Nolan and Joy lack the talent of Michael Crichton, creator of the original film, is their loss of sense of pacing. The plot unfolds excruciatingly slowly and far too often serves as an excuse for action sequences that boil down to explicit yet repetitive and tedious violence that many would be inclined to label as pornographic. The sole breath of originality comes in the eighth episode, where Zach McClarnon brilliantly portrays the chief of the Native American “hosts,” delivering a rather intriguing subplot describing how his tribe attempts to confront a world they have realised is no longer theirs. Joy and Nolan also ultimately display an irritating tendency towards nonlinear storytelling, namely the use of flashbacks that will confuse viewers. This occurs right from the start, when the confused and amnesia-stricken Bernard attempts to help his human “saviours” uncover what happened. The final episode, stretched to an hour and a half in HBO’s increasingly irritating habit, also showcases the series creators’ penchant for multiple endings whose length evokes The Return of the King, followed by an equally irritating “Marvel-style” teaser after which many will lose the last vestige of enthusiasm for the third season.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
(Note: The text in the original Croatian version was posted here.)
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