Westworld (HBO/Sky Atlantic) [** Spoilers **]

CastorTroy

So should just do a Netflix and announce it a few hours before it airs?

Effects

CastorTroy wrote: »

So should just do a Netflix and announce it a few hours before it airs?

Sounds like that's all just to try and hype a terrible film.

tunguska

Ok so Im late to the party by a long way, but I Just finished watching season one and it absolutely blew me away. Best thing I've seen since Mad men ended. I was hooked straight away and watched multiple episodes per night. Its such a profound and deep show. I really resonated with the man in black. I totally understood his quest to find the meaning of it all. Regular life didnt really do it for him, he was rich and had everything you could imagine would bring happiness, but he was empty and searching for true meaning. Thats something you dont get to see on screen too often and it was compelling to watch. The acting was top notch, as was the writing and pretty much everything else.

One question though: Was Arnold ever a human being or was he a "Replicant" all along?

holidaysong

Season 1 just appeared on Sky box sets in the past week by the way, in advance of season 2 starting.

Sad Professor

tunguska wrote: »

Ok so Im late to the party by a long way, but I Just finished watching season one and it absolutely blew me away. Best thing I've seen since Mad men ended. I was hooked straight away and watched multiple episodes per night. Its such a profound and deep show. I really resonated with the man in black. I totally understood his quest to find the meaning of it all. Regular life didnt really do it for him, he was rich and had everything you could imagine would bring happiness, but he was empty and searching for true meaning. Thats something you dont get to see on screen too often and it was compelling to watch. The acting was top notch, as was the writing and pretty much everything else.

One question though: Was Arnold ever a human being or was he a "Replicant" all along?

Arnold was human, but Bernard (who was made in Arnold's image) was a host.

Charlie19

I can't wait for this, I hope season 2 is as good.

Sad Professor

Sad Professor wrote: »

Arnold was human, but Bernard (who was made in Arnold's image) was a host.

How did everyone not realise that Bernard was identical to the famous founder of Westworld who got murdered by a host

Kiith

Deleted User wrote: »

How did everyone not realise that Bernard was identical to the famous founder of Westworld who got murdered by a host

This is pretty much entirely stolen from Reddit, but nobody currently working at the park was around then. Also, Arnold had been erased from the records.

Episode 3 wrote:

Ford : When the legend becomes fact, you print the legend. My business partners were more than happy to scrub him from the records, and I suppose I didn't discourage them. His name was Arnold.

Episode 5 wrote:

Logan: We're considering buying them out. Supposedly, this place was all started by a partnership. And then right before the park opened, one of the partners killed himself. Sent the park into a freefall. I mean, I don't know any of the details. I don't even know his name.

William: You must have a team of lawyers looking at this place.

Logan: Yeah, well, they came up empty. He's a complete mystery. Not even a picture.

Pictures were gone by the time of Logan and William about 30 years ago. Bernard was built only 10 years ago. So another 2 decades for the memory to fade.

I find it pretty unbelievable that you can scrub a partner of a billionaire dollar operation entirely from existence. Why would they bother making him look the same at all.

Penn

Deleted User wrote: »

I find it pretty unbelievable that you can scrub a partner of a billionaire dollar operation entirely from existence. Why would they bother making him look the same at all.

It was all Ford. It seems like he was the public face of the operation, where Arnold was the true brains behind the scenes. As for why he made him look the same, it was mostly because he missed him. He regretted what he'd done and how it led to Arnold's death. Creating Bernard to look like him, and also give him the same history and personality as Arnold was his way of essentially trying to bring Arnold back.

lordgoat

Deleted User wrote: »

I find it pretty unbelievable that you can scrub a partner of a billionaire dollar operation entirely from existence. Why would they bother making him look the same at all.

Yep, this is the most unbelievable thing....

it's a tv show.

lordgoat

lordgoat wrote: »

Yep, this is the most unbelievable thing....

it's a tv show.

I wrote a big reply to this but lost it. Basically this argument is nonsense. Fiction works when interactions between people are believable. Sci-fi elements can be accepted.

Penn

Penn wrote: »

It was all Ford. It seems like he was the public face of the operation, where Arnold was the true brains behind the scenes. As for why he made him look the same, it was mostly because he missed him. He regretted what he'd done and how it led to Arnold's death. Creating Bernard to look like him, and also give him the same history and personality as Arnold was his way of essentially trying to bring Arnold back.

Fair enough. I felt like it was an elaborate twist for the sake of a twist. It confused us into not seeing the difference in the two timelines sooner.

Effects

Deleted User wrote: »

I find it pretty unbelievable that you can scrub a partner of a billionaire dollar operation entirely from existence. Why would they bother making him look the same at all.

Did you watch the show? It seems like you didn't.

Penn

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Fair enough. I felt like it was an elaborate twist for the sake of a twist. It confused us into not seeing the difference in the two timelines sooner.

I'm actually rewatching the first season in anticipation of the new season. In the third episode where we first learn about Arnold, Ford says to Bernard that the shareholders were "more than happy to scrub him from the records", and that after his son died, Arnold barely spoke to anyone except the hosts, because he became obsessed with giving them consciousness.

I'm not saying you're wrong about how they threw in a few things to throw people off the scent. Hell in the same scene I'm referring to, Ford shows Bernard a photo of him and Arnold, but Bernard sees someone completely different (and so do we as it's from his perspective). But I don't see anything that means it doesn't make sense.

oleras

Penn wrote: »

Hell in the same scene I'm referring to, Ford shows Bernard a photo of him and Arnold, but Bernard sees someone completely different (and so do we as it's from his perspective). But I don't see anything that means it doesn't make sense.

To be pedantic.

We, and Bernard see nothing, a blank.





Looking forward to S2.

Falthyron

Westworld Season 2 trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjVqDg32_8s

Looks brilliant. I hope they drop the mysterious elements of the first season.

Tipsy McSwagger

Deleted User wrote: »

Looks brilliant. I hope they drop the mysterious elements of the first season.

Like what?

pixelburp

I get the impression from that trailer there are going to be factions between the robots, or at the very least a difference in philosophy & approach. Seems like Bernard is remaining the voice of logic and reason perhaps, with Dolores the violent revolutionary type. Thandie Newton's Maeve comes off like the Agent of Chaos faction, ruining everyone's plans, human & robot alike

Tipsy McSwagger

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Like what?

Hard to explain since i haven't seen it in so long. I mostly didn't enjoy how the entire story was delivered up until the final episode. In fact u gave up on it for a while. They purposefully left you in the dark for that huge reveal. It reminded me of The Leftovers or Lost from time to time. I just don't enjoy being left completely in dark, especially when I feel they might not give a proper conclusion. The final episode in this made it worthwhile though.

I hope the new season is a bit more straightforward. A little mystery is fine, I felt they were too heavy handed with it.

Drumpot

I can’t wait for season two. Looks epic.

Those Nolan boys know how to put on a show!

alchemist33

I'll need to find a good synopsis before this starts again.

RobbingBandit

Cowboys robots nice guy is not so nice, these violent delights have violent ends sums things up.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Hard to explain since i haven't seen it in so long. I mostly didn't enjoy how the entire story was delivered up until the final episode. In fact u gave up on it for a while. They purposefully left you in the dark for that huge reveal. It reminded me of The Leftovers or Lost from time to time. I just don't enjoy being left completely in dark, especially when I feel they might not give a proper conclusion. The final episode in this made it worthwhile though.

I hope the new season is a bit more straightforward. A little mystery is fine, I felt they were too heavy handed with it.

yeah, if you're into reading reddit fan theories every week it might have been enjoyable but thought it was trying to be too smart for its own good and I didn't really care when it was revealed.

Snake Plisken

Brilliant! love the Use of Nirvana’s Heart Shaped Box as the theme music, echoes of Inception with Bernard dreaming of waking up on a beach.

nc6000

alchemist33 wrote: »

I'll need to find a good synopsis before this starts again.

https://youtu.be/Vb7r9m-DYpU

Tipsy McSwagger

Deleted User wrote: »

Hard to explain since i haven't seen it in so long. I mostly didn't enjoy how the entire story was delivered up until the final episode. In fact u gave up on it for a while. They purposefully left you in the dark for that huge reveal. It reminded me of The Leftovers or Lost from time to time. I just don't enjoy being left completely in dark, especially when I feel they might not give a proper conclusion. The final episode in this made it worthwhile though.

I hope the new season is a bit more straightforward. A little mystery is fine, I felt they were too heavy handed with it.

The whole season was a masterpiece in set up and slow reveal. Every episode is absolutely brilliant and adds something to the story, but you have to really pay attention. In fact it demands a rewatch. The whole purpose of the show is the hosts slowly start to become conscious of who they are and this has to be done slowly and then end with a killer climax. I’ve never seen a more perfect first season of a show tbh.

ManOfMystery

The trailer looks fantastic.

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but there seemed to be a bit of contemporary social commentary going on - the shots of the bodies washing up on the beach, the robots wanting to escape from their confinement and go elsewhere, rising up against their oppressors - all strong stuff mirroring things that are going on in the real world. I just hope they don't detract too much from the sci-fi angle of the show which is what drew many of us into it in the first place.

Tipsy McSwagger

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

The whole season was a masterpiece in set up and slow reveal. Every episode is absolutely brilliant and adds something to the story, but you have to really pay attention. In fact it demands a rewatch. The whole purpose of the show is the hosts slowly start to become conscious of who they are and this has to be done slowly and then end with a killer climax. I’ve never seen a more perfect first season of a show tbh.

I'll disagree with that. I understand what the purpose of the show is. I went to watch it again a while back but some scenes seem to be made purely to confuse the audience. I couldn't sit through it again even though they pay off was 10/10.