Lucas1138 Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 Anybody? I don't have any familiarity with the source material so I went in completely clean and watched it on a whim. I dug it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Krawlie Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I'm planning on waiting for the season to go full before watching. Looks fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted October 4, 2016 Share Posted October 4, 2016 I thought it was pretty amazing. Some of the best writing I've seen on TV in awhile. existential robot angst?theme park disasters?cowboys?top notch writing and acting? This is totally my thing. I thought it was great. I thought it was a great quick twist at the top that the gunslinger was human instead of a robot like in the original. My only complaint is that they sold his bad-guyness via a rape, which is so easy and tired at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest El Chalupacabra Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 Anybody? I don't have any familiarity with the source material so I went in completely clean and watched it on a whim. I dug it. The original movie is pretty awesome, for a 70s sci fi movie. It was written by Michael Crichton, the same guy who wrote Jurassic Park. The robot gunslinger is played by Yul Brynner, who looks exactly like he did as the Chris Adams character in Magnificent 7. I always thought the original Westworld, along with the original BSG had to have been major influences on the original Terminator. I only heard about the HBO Westworld revamp 2 days ago and haven't seen it, but from what I read, it sounds pretty interesting. Seems to have a good cast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted October 6, 2016 Share Posted October 6, 2016 The first episode was really good. Unfortunately, I had read some promotional material that spoiled certain twists, but it was still great to see them happen. I am definitely interested in seeing where it goes for the rest of the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas1138 Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 This show is (going to be) awesome. I need Choc and Jacob to watch this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Might be my new favorite show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas1138 Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 So let's pick a topic and go down the rabbit hole. [Jerry Seinfeld voice] What is the deal with..... [/JSV] the Man in Black? So he's a human - right? He wasn't phased by the bullets. When they saw him on the security footage they were just told to let him do whatever he wants. He's been coming to the park for 30 years (perhaps not-coincidentally the "critical failure" in the park was referenced as 30 years ago). He's searching for the Maze, which is, I guess, "the deepest level of the game." Potential Identities: - Survivor from Westworld movie- Someone involved in "critical failure" somehow- William (white hat), introduced in episode 2 (other rabbit hole alert: theory that black hat's timeline is "present day" while white hat's is in the past. This was more or less debunked in episode 3 but not quite 100% definitively)- TBD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted October 18, 2016 Share Posted October 18, 2016 Worth noting that when he was shot it was different than when William was. William got hit, and they said that when a guest is shot it's a bullet with reduced power. When the Man in Black got shot, it was a full on shield/glitch/short-out effect. So he's in God mode. I liked the two time period theory-- but when the Man in Black was spotted and we heard he had carte blanche, it was by the same game tenders as the rest of the story. In fact-- that they know he exists and has carte blanche kills a lot of theories. I think he's the "partner" Anthony Hopkins said he developed the park with. As for what he's after-- no idea. Though I do like the idea that the Westworld movie could be the show's past. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANA-kin Skywalker Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Just caught up on this show, first four episodes. Pretty damn good so far. For every question it answers, it begs three others in terms of people's motivations. I wouldn't be surprised if one or more of the employees are actually robots. Maybe bernard. And as far as who the man in black is, right now my guess is he is a board member that was alluded to at that fantastically threatening lunch scene. It certainly feels like there's some secret underground railroad for escaped robots who become self-aware of their matrix-like existence. I bet Anthony Hopkins's partner isn't actually dead and he's running the thing. The man in black is trying to route them out. Bernard could be working with them somehow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Yeah this week killed the man in black as the partner theory... as well as multiple eras in time... though the opening scene seemed odd. I don't think Delores passed out, was brought downstairs, then placed back with William-- which means she's dreaming... One thing that confuses me is how often certain events repeat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Those are the same things that I don't get either. The show seems inconsistent with how frequently everything repeats. Some of it is likely due to the fact that the first episode focused entirely on the employees and the hosts, so we didn't have story lines with any guests keeping things in check. But it has seemed like certain events have repeated since William and the Dick have shown up and been in the park. If the show wasn't so thought provoking, I would leave that to lazy writing, but it doesn't seem like that would be the case (but who knows?). I'm interested in seeing what the new narrative is that Hopkins's character has in the works. At first, I was thinking that it could revolve around industrialization of some sort, but I started thinking at the end that, given the comments about the narrative not being retrospective, maybe the writers are going back to the movie to pull out another "world" with a different theme to it and that that will be the new narrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 To be fair, most sandbox games that thrive on open encounters often repeat them. But yeAh- it seems like the things repeat every day-- and yet some stories, like the bounty hunt, last longer. I want rules! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted October 27, 2016 Share Posted October 27, 2016 Thinking about it again this morning, I think they have already given themselves an out for this to some extent since the park staff have mentioned many times that a number of characters have been thrown off of their usual patterns due to the impending narrative changes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANA-kin Skywalker Posted October 28, 2016 Share Posted October 28, 2016 The passage of time confuses me a bit. I mean, IIRC you spend $40k per day. You go in the park, kill some robots, and then the park employees clean up the carnage when it's all over, repairs the robots, wipes it's memory, psychoanalyzes it, and sends it back out there. It just FEELS like those two guys who are buddies have been out there for more than just a few days. Speaking of those two buddies, I just thought of something: maybe THEY are board members. Remember that one line one of them said: "who said this ISN'T work" or "it's ALWAYS work in our family". He said something along those lines. That would make sense if he was actually a board member checking up on his investment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas1138 Posted October 28, 2016 Author Share Posted October 28, 2016 EDIT: never mind me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted November 3, 2016 Share Posted November 3, 2016 So based on the last episode, here's what I am thinking... The Man in Black is the owner/CEO of the company that owns Westworld. Despite being in charge, and being privy to all the secrets, there's still some proprietary, deep-rooted level of understanding of the hosts that only Ford really understands. He's had people loyal to him sneaking in the satellite link ups in some of the hosts to off-load data without Ford or the shareholders knowing because... why...? I've been thinking about the bigger world that the park must exist in, and how else the host technology could be employed. My first thought was as soldiers. In the last episode, all the talk about the Revolutionary War in Mexico made me think I may be on to something. And speaking of that war, given that its patriots seem to be related to the maze, I think that there is a movement within the hosts to escape from the park, and it relates back to Ford's partner. He discovered the hosts were becoming sentient and encouraged them to break out. I know the dominate theory is still two time lines-- but while there is still confusion as to how often certain loops play out-- there's been more evidence everything is close in time to itself. That said-- now that we've seen Lawrence and Maeve bounce around, something is going on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Wader Posted November 4, 2016 Share Posted November 4, 2016 I haven't read too much into the two time lines but your theory makes me wonder if Hector is the younger man in black, with the references to his family buying part of the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 I was starting to get feelings of LOST in the last episode, in a bad way... but the ending was awesome. Next week looks like it may confirm the two timelines... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Odine Posted November 15, 2016 Share Posted November 15, 2016 Haven't read any of your posts cause Ive only done episode 1 but I'm liking this show so far! They've successfully made human looking AI super creepy. Nice one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas1138 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 I was starting to get feelings of LOST in the last episode, in a bad way... but the ending was awesome. Next week looks like it may confirm the two timelines...So it looks like the maintenance killed our posts. Anyway - I knew what you were meaning, I was wondering why you were feeling that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 I'm still curious what he means by that, though. Not as a criticism, I'm just not sure what was meant. Partly, I ended up watching it while somewhat tired the other night, so I could have easily missed something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driver Posted November 17, 2016 Share Posted November 17, 2016 Narratively, a mystery needs to work in the long form, but you need to keep people hooked in the short term as well. That's why all classic mysteries follow a trail of clues. Even if the story isn't a mystery, but it has some sort of deeper mythology-- Like LOST with the island, X-Files with the conspiracy-- you want to use the same methodology for teasing it out.The most successful way is to use a stair step model: hook, discovery, hook, discovery, hook, almost solve, but everything reverses into a new hook, next clue, etc.LOST failed for me because it was simply hook, hook, hook, hook, hook, maybe reveal, hook, hook for six more years. You need to reward people for staying with you with an occasional reveal.Obviously Lost did this SOMETIMES, but the ratio was off. Also, it was a hit show so either I'm smarter than everyone ever, or I'm just speaking for myself.Like I said, I was starting to feel like WW was more concerned with building a mystery than actually advancing it. Like LOST, it seemed to just be more hooks and questions.But, we learned a lot in the last 10 minutes of the last episode so I am still in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas1138 Posted November 17, 2016 Author Share Posted November 17, 2016 Yeah that's all I was asking for. I don't disagree that there are maybe reasons for concern - but I'm not personally concerned yet. We've still only seen 7 hours. I'm pretty okay with the first season being predominantly set-up. If S2 starts and it's more of the same, I'll be with you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jacen123 Posted November 18, 2016 Share Posted November 18, 2016 Fair enough, but I'm shocked to hear that you didn't go for all of those hookers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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