Westworld was supposed to be new Game of Thrones for HBO. I haven't seen any other reviews. So I don't know what others thought about this season after season finale. I wouldn't be too surprised if this was it. I won't be waiting for third season. Series seem to be trying to do same as X-Files spin-off Millennium by reinventing the series for each season. For Millennium it worked for two seasons. Third season was only average without almost anything which made first two seasons good first place. Spoilers from this point onward.
I wrote two posts about first eight episodes. You can find them here and here. I didn't have high hopes for last two episodes. Ninth episode had moments but over all it didn't have impact it should have had based on all things happened. This was problem of jumping from one time to another. Teddy's death would have had some effect if it wasn't given few episodes before. We just didn't know how it happened. Scene would have been one of the best scenes of the series if we didn't know the outcome going in.
William shooting human guards and her daughter would have had more impact if episode had given us time to react to it. Impact was also lessened by end credit scene which told it wasn't real William and real daughter. The end credit scene missed completely what made James Delos episode so good. It used same dialog without understanding why same dialog worked first time. It made no sense for daughter to say it has taken so much time when she looked same as earlier. In James Delos episode William had aged during episode. It made sense when aged William said that.
Maeve was ruined in season finale. She had lost her powers except when she needed to save her daughter. It made no sense why she couldn't control hosts. She didn't even try until her daughter was in trouble. Maeve will probably come back to next season. At least it was teased. So much for any stakes at all.
Dolores' and Bernard's story arcs had so many twists and time jumping I didn't care at all in the end. Both died and came back. It didn't help conclusion was bigger disappointment and more stupid I could have ever expected. Those dead hosts in the water walked to rift only they could see and they consciousness was saved online which save their soul or something.
Host's death didn't mean anything in first season. It made sense from story's point of view. It was changed when hosts started to kill humans during first season's finale. There weren't humans repairing them. Whole season tried to make us care hosts' deaths and then told we shouldn't have cared when story required it.
Third season could be interesting now when few hosts are among humans and they can make more. Everyone dying ending ruined Millennium. Westworld didn't have two good seasons before everyone dying ending. There will be third season but after this mess I wouldn't expect too much from it. They took their time making this season but I feel if I watch the season again now when I know what happened the time line wouldn't make any sense. They concentrated too much on building mysteries and jumping in time. There were couple times where jumping in time made sense but most of the time it ruined big twists ahead of time. It is shame this season was such a mess because there were good ideas when they didn't try to be too clever.
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