• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Westworld - Live in Your World, Play in Ours - Sundays on HBO

Things I enjoyed tonight:

Sexy blonde outlaw shooting the sheriff in the back with a shrug.

Teddy and William in Black fighting a boss. It's a shame they didn't get to loot him. I hate when I accidentally trigger a cutscene and don't get to loot.

Other thoughts:
I can't wait for someone to recut this total fucking mess into something in chronological order.

Also Maeve is great and perfect and I hope she doesn't murder us all when she leads the robot revolution.
Co-sign
 

Seesaw15

Member
This would be better...with Damon Lindelof writing it. :/
kid-crying-interview.gif


This show just feels like empty calories but I'm still diggin it for the most part

This show doesn't even feel like empty calories anymore it's like the television equivalent of drinking salt water.
 
Butchers are hosts and Asian butcher is helping Maeve because he kinda-maybe-sorta wants to be free too. I dunno. When Maeve mentioned two minds arguing with each other, I thought it was the two butchers. But I guess it's just her past role and current role.

But let me ask you this...have we seen anyone other than Maeve talk to the two Butchers? Exactly!

I think the William/Dolores storyline is suffering from them playing the reveal so close to their chest. I always feel like there's not enough there to be satisfied with. I don't feel like their scenes are boring or overlong, I actually feel like they're too short and William's character is interupted so Dolores can have another flashback of her dying again. So we never really get to know William. We only get to know him through MiB scenes.
 
Butchers are hosts and Asian butcher is helping Maeve because he kinda-maybe-sorta wants to be free too. I dunno. When Maeve mentioned two minds arguing with each other, I thought it was the two butchers. But I guess it's just her past role and current role.

But let me ask you this...have we seen anyone other than Maeve talk to the two Butchers? Exactly!
Theresa was with the one butcher last week, when he was decommissioning her.
 

carlsojo

Member
Butchers are hosts and Asian butcher is helping Maeve because he kinda-maybe-sorta wants to be free too. I dunno. When Maeve mentioned two minds arguing with each other, I thought it was the two butchers. But I guess it's just her past role and current role.

But let me ask you this...have we seen anyone other than Maeve talk to the two Butchers? Exactly!

The two minds arguing with each other I thought was a reference to the bicameral mind thing.
 

Brakke

Banned
The Ringer knows wassup:

Westworld, a bonkers Reddit thread about a TV show reverse-engineered to be an actual TV show​

Kinda.

This is all, on the one hand, wildly entertaining​

Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer. 🤔

But let me ask you this...have we seen anyone other than Maeve talk to the two Butchers? Exactly!

Lol yes we have seen people interact with the butchers.
 
Theresa was with the one butcher last week, when he was decommissioning her.

The Ringer knows wassup:

Westworld, a bonkers Reddit thread about a TV show reverse-engineered to be an actual TV show​

Kinda.

This is all, on the one hand, wildly entertaining​

Disclosure: HBO is an initial investor in The Ringer. 🤔



Lol yes we have seen people interact with the butchers.

Have we ever seen the butchers and William and Teddy in the same room at the same time? Exactly!
 

FStop7

Banned
So the host under construction in Ford's secret lab wasn't a Theresa replacement. I wonder if it will become a notable character or if it's just for the atmosphere.
 

duckroll

Member
I don't know what has worse writing - the new "story" Maeve is writing, the hilarious "story" Ford has built, or the ridiculous shit the professional writer character is writing.

The opening of the episode was some serious CSI bullshit. Seeing Bernard "cover up" all the stuff alone using elite hax is roflmao worthy. Watching how everyone reacts to what happened last week is also laughable. Are they all robots? Or just really bad at being human?

Ford's pseudo-intellectual dialogue is the only thing that gave this episode any entertainment value.

So I'm trying to figure something out here. They said in episode 1 that the park hasn't had a critical failure in 30 years. But erm. If MiB got slashed on the neck last year, how did no one know about it? Even if he didn't report it, hosts should be monitored by QA. If they did know about it and just implemented better measures, why would they not consider that a critical failure for a host? Seems pretty critical to me...

Anyway they mentioned that Ford already dug up the entire buried town in the present time, so given that the church is still buried when she got there with William, yeah, he's in the past for sure.
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
To me the William / Dolores storyline seems like it's being played this way not just to draw out the confirmation, but to play with the way the hosts experience reality. That seems to be a big deal with where the story is going.

The hosts may seem like they have potentially superhuman mental capabilities, but the design of their minds is nearly flawed in how they can be confused by memories. It almost makes sense since they were not originally designed to function for long periods of time without having their loop reset. The human mind has evolved to cope with distinguishing the present from the past.
 

Ivory Samoan

Gold Member
This show just went from 0-100, blown my mind and made me breakfast all at the same time.

I'm so glad I never looked at any fan theories until today, it enhanced the mind blowingness of everything...I'm freaking out in a great way.

Can't wait to watch this next episode now, this is my new #1 show.
 

Kyou

Member
When Maeve mentioned two minds arguing with each other, I thought it was the two butchers. But I guess it's just her past role and current role.

She was talking about how her core code felt like it was written by two different people with different ideas of what she should be.

I.E. Arnold and Ford
 

duckroll

Member
To me the William / Dolores storyline seems like it's being played this way not just to draw out the confirmation, but to play with the way the hosts experience reality. That seems to be a big deal with where the story is going.

Sure but it's bad storytelling when you show something over and over in many different ways to a point where it gets redundant after the purpose is already served. We have already seen Dolores experience reality lapses multiple times. We have seen it with Maeve. With Maeve we even see how these lapses in reality where she confuses past and present causes her to do things in front of other hosts and guests which have consequences for her.

So the William/Dolores narrative being dragged out like this serves only one useful purpose - to pace the big reveal for the point they want it to be. It's all artificial. The viewer doesn't gain any additional introspection at this point because we already get that the hosts experience time and reality differently and if they could remember everything suddenly, they start to go insane.
 
So I'm trying to figure something out here. They said in episode 1 that the park hasn't had a critical failure in 30 years. But erm. If MiB got slashed on the neck last year, how did no one know about it? Even if he didn't report it, hosts should be monitored by QA. If they did know about it and just implemented better measures, why would they not consider that a critical failure for a host? Seems pretty critical to me...

He wasn't. That flashback was in Maeve's imagination.
 
Maybe it's Thandie Newton's acting selling the shit out of it, but I'm not actually bothered with Maeve's storyline. Maeve's drama and unraveling of the mystery of the park itself are a lot more interesting than Dolores and William's 'Generic Romance B + Maze' bullshit.

The Asian Guy's motivations make sense to me, as idiotic as they are. He's naïve and (secretly) believes in the humanity of their creations. His fascination with the bird established that.

It's his douchey partner that ruins that plot for me.

I'm with this. It's logically kind of ridiculous in this series but Thandie Newton is killing it, makes it very fun to watch the Maeve scenes. the white butcher guy really stretched your limits but i found maeve to be the most engrossing non-Ford/Bernard/MIB character in here easily.

Would take more of that over the William/Dolores crap at the moment.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
I don't mind this show so far, but for me it's like a C+ show. It's very plodding, and full of tv/movie cliches. Also whenever they start talking about 'the board' I get bored. It reminds me of the senate in the star wars prequels.
 

Grizzlyjin

Supersonic, idiotic, disconnecting, not respecting, who would really ever wanna go and top that
This show is weird. The train has been going off the track narratively for the last 3 episodes, and yet I do find it interesting to watch. I think if you scrubbed the production values away, a lot of my interest in the show would go along with it though.

It's starting to feel like one of those sidewalk hustles. Where they're yelling "Watch the ball, watch the ball, keep your eye on the ball" but it's still going to end in a hustle.

The complexity of the different timelines really isn't the issue for me, it's what it adds to the story. I get the point. I've gotten the point for the last couple hours. I could have been spared a couple flashbacks with that tiny bit of exposition that their brains are different.
 

FStop7

Banned
I'm reading about bicameralism and it helps clarify a few things. When Dolores hears the voice telling her to do something that is bicameral thought. It's called a command hallucination.
 
The opening of the episode was some serious CSI bullshit. Seeing Bernard "cover up" all the stuff alone using elite hax is roflmao worthy.

Actually, ironically, that seemed to be the most "realistic" thing done in the episode. Removing yourself from camera footage is actually possible right now. It probably doesn't work as perfectly, but it works pretty damn well. It's based on an algorithm that's years old called seam carving. Then the rest like deleting GPS data? Not crazy. Incinerating docs? Also not crazy
 
The town being buried seemed present day. Also the MiB speech didn't sound like William at all, especially how he never saw anything like the hosts being truly alive until Maeve. William seems pretty convinced about Dolores.

And jeez for multi-timelines to be true we'd be getting flashbacks within flashbacks...
New to TV???


This show is losing steam with the quickness.

The Maeve business is absolutely stupid and makes no sense on any level whatsover.
William/Dolores shit has gotten boring as fuck.
What the fuck is the MIB even talking about. Who talks like this. That was some D-tier Lost exposition.

What I think in a nutshell.

Also, new to TV???

Lol at Lost reference.
 
Actually, ironically, that seemed to be the most "realistic" thing done in the episode. Removing yourself from camera footage is actually possible right now. It probably doesn't work as perfectly, but it works pretty damn well. It's based on an algorithm that's years old called seam carving. Then the rest like deleting GPS data? Not crazy. Incinerating docs? Also not crazy

forreal. a world with such advanced tech I think something as simple as what Bernard was doing is not a stretch, especially considering his intelligence.
 
uweehhhh

this episode is kinda messy? and... forceful in its plot furtheringness....

im still in the middle of it though

hopkins is great as always. love him.
 

duckroll

Member
Actually, ironically, that seemed to be the most "realistic" thing done in the episode. Removing yourself from camera footage is actually possible right now. It probably doesn't work as perfectly, but it works pretty damn well. It's based on an algorithm that's years old called seam carving. Then the rest like deleting GPS data? Not crazy. Incinerating docs? Also not crazy

It's not the technology that makes it laughable. It's that a guy who was just fired yesterday is able to walk around everywhere and do all this shit without even bothering about anyone noticing.

If there's one thing Westworld is consistent on, it's that the place has crap security and the work environment is unprofessional as fuck. Lol.
 
It's not the technology that makes it laughable. It's that a guy who was just fired yesterday is able to walk around everywhere and do all this shit without even bothering about anyone noticing.

If there's one thing Westworld is consistent on, it's that the place has crap security and the work environment is unprofessional as fuck. Lol.

yeah you'd think the place would have maximum oversight but Maeve and Bernard can do whatever the hell they want.

this would all be fine if they didn't go out of their way in showing us that that they do keep a close watch on the goings on of the park. can't have it both ways.
 

Avinexus

Member
It's not the technology that makes it laughable. It's that a guy who was just fired yesterday is able to walk around everywhere and do all this shit without even bothering about anyone noticing.

If there's one thing Westworld is consistent on, it's that the place has crap security and the work environment is unprofessional as fuck. Lol.

To be fair, as far as we know the only people that knew he was fired was the handful of people in the room at the time.
 
yeah you'd think the place would have maximum oversight but Maeve and Bernard can do whatever the hell they want.

this would all be fine if they didn't go out of their way in showing us that that they do keep a close watch on the goings on of the park. can't have it both ways.

yes, i've been thinking bolded part for a while now. agree, agree.

at the sizemore part now. he's still a tad bit too overacted for me.
 
Thandie is absolutely killing her role. Like she carries the Maeve subplot like crazy. If they used any other actress (ex, Delore) for Thandie's role this subplot would be so crap. That isn't saying the actress playing Delores is bad; but rather Thandie is that fucking good.
 

duckroll

Member
To be fair, as far as we know the only people that knew he was fired was the handful of people in the room at the time.

To be fair, when a major corporation fires a senior employee in any real world scenario, security will escort said employee to gather their things and gtfo. In the case where they cannot immediately leave the facility for practical reasons, they will be placed under observation until they can leave.
 

John_B

Member
That brief flashback that Bernard had was him choking Ellie, right?

This episode was weak. It felt like it was simply doing the work of nudging all the characters into their final acts.
 
To be fair, when a major corporation fires a senior employee in any real world scenario, security will escort said employee to gather their things and gtfo. In the case where they cannot immediately leave the facility for practical reasons, they will be placed under observation until they can leave.

this is pretty accurate.

also, how did maeve rewrite hector's raid into town and no overseeing agent of the company intervene? no one is watching? is the writing becoming too convenient for the sake of delivering its high points or is it just me?
 
To be fair, when a major corporation fires a senior employee in any real world scenario, security will escort said employee to gather their things and gtfo. In the case where they cannot immediately leave the facility for practical reasons, they will be placed under observation until they can leave.

Well there's also the fact that the Westworld facility seems like it's in a remote location, with most of the staff actually living on the premises. It's possible even though he was kicked out transportation out of the facility back to "the real world" wouldn't arrive until later. Not to mention it didn't strike me as a "Pack your things and leave" sort of firing that requires them be escorted out, but a more quiet "We've let you go. We'll allow you to collect your affects and call it a resignation" type of thing
 

Biske

Member
What? No. When MiB flashbacks to him seeing her carry her daughter to form the maze, you can clearly see blood on his neck. It wasn't a fatal injury but it definitely looks like it happened.

Hosts can hurt guests, they just can't kill him. Could argue she hurt him in a risky way... but he was fine, and I doubt he complained, he is a rich guy, already everybody in the park knows he can do whatever he wants, he gets the clearance multiple times.

So that event was likely not a big deal, or even a deal at all.
 
this is pretty accurate.

also, how did maeve rewrite hector's raid into town and no overseeing agent of the company intervene? no one is watching? is the writing becoming too convenient for the sake of delivering its high points or is it just me?

NO ONE has even bat an eye at Maeve's behaviour, while a team of behaviour experts are supposedly monitoring everything.

Or the fact that two bin men have been accessing modules in her system that they should have no access to

Or the fact that anyone with that tablet can give people admin credentials.

Ford must have a hand in this, it's the only way to save some credibility.
 

Chumley

Banned
All the different memory timelines and confusion on what the fuck is happening in Dolores plot, what is happening in MiB's plot, etc. is just getting to be way too much. They need to deliver next episode, if they get bogged down on this manipulative shit any more the entire show could collapse.
 

duckroll

Member
Well there's also the fact that the Westworld facility seems like it's in a remote location, with most of the staff actually living on the premises. It's possible even though he was kicked out transportation out of the facility back to "the real world" wouldn't arrive until later. Not to mention it didn't strike me as a "Pack your things and leave" sort of firing that requires them be escorted out, but a more quiet "We've let you go. We'll allow you to collect your affects and call it a resignation" type of thing

Hosts can hurt guests, they just can't kill him. Could argue she hurt him in a risky way... but he was fine, and I doubt he complained, he is a rich guy, already everybody in the park knows he can do whatever he wants, he gets the clearance multiple times.

So that event was likely not a big deal, or even a deal at all.

Are we watching the same show?

The show which reinforced the point scene after scene that hosts "won't hurt a fly" and that "weapon" privileges have to be controlled very carefully, and that their core code controls a Samaritan protocol where they will intervene if any guest is about to get harmed?

The show which reinforced the point that Delos is trying to drive Ford out, and that getting rid of Bernard was part of a political play to contain Ford's power?

C'mon, why even defend sloppy stuff like this. The show obviously wants to pretend it is smart and has a layered narrative where lots of things are going on, but it doesn't put in the effort to really make these layers believable and consistent. Westworld is a terribly run place with no real semblance of corporate structure or management control. The programming rules they have laid out for the hosts are inconsistent and change to serve the narrative intent or dramatic purpose of a scene. These are facts. The writers are clearly more interested in the big ideas and the puzzle construction of how the narrative flows, than the quality of the details in the narratives themselves.
 
NO ONE has even bat an eye at Maeve's behaviour, while a team of behaviour experts are supposedly monitoring everything.

Or the fact that two bin men have been accessing modules in her system that they should have no access to

Or the fact that anyone with that tablet can give people admin credentials.

Ford must have a hand in this, it's the only way to save some credibility.

even if ford was in it, it means all the overseeing agents that may have come across ANY of maeve footage had to be in it, too?

how the heck she can slice sylvester's throat at BEHAVIOUR level (not at the Butchers' level) and no footage? this is shown after bernard was altering footage of him in the company's security cameras' history?

how come there is footage sometimes and there is no footage at other times?

is delos staffed by mainly ford and the rest are convenient hosts? zuh? ; __ ;

.... i just find the writing to be plunging rapidly into sloppy territories >___<
 
Hosts can hurt guests, they just can't kill him. Could argue she hurt him in a risky way... but he was fine, and I doubt he complained, he is a rich guy, already everybody in the park knows he can do whatever he wants, he gets the clearance multiple times.

So that event was likely not a big deal, or even a deal at all.

Well it was a big enough deal to have Ford and Bernard reassign her. She wasn't even responding to their commands initially. Even if MiB didn't give a shit and wanted her to act out, it wouldn't make sense for them to keep her as she could still be a threat to other guests.

The level of acceptable harm against guests is getting weird though. Teddy just pistol whipped MiB right in the temple and started punching him in the face and gut repeatedly after that.
 
even if ford was in it, it means all the overseeing agents that may have come across ANY of maeve footage had to be in it, too?

how the heck she can slice sylvester's throat at BEHAVIOUR level (not at the Butchers' level) and no footage? this is shown after bernard was altering footage of him in the company's security cameras' history?

how come there is footage sometimes and there is no footage at other times?

is delos staffed by mainly ford and the rest are convenient hosts? zuh? ; __ ;

.... i just find the writing to be plunging rapidly into sloppy territories >___<

It is very sloppy and has annoyed me from the start and I wish they'd throw her in the incinerator already. I said this last week as well, whenever Maeve is with those butchers, every sense of logic flies through the window.

Hallways are empty, everyone is out to lunch. Security not watching cameras, IT not watching the network. Behaviour not giving a shit, Butchers just playing brain dead, how the hell would they remove the explosives from her cortex. Even if they would deactivate it, would it ring major alarm bells?

Also, watch Maeve get out of this one next week as well.
 
Top Bottom