The Inevitable Downfall Of Westworld

At it's peak, HBO's Westworld was one of the most popular shows on TV. After the first season of Westworld though, audience interest quickly started to fall. And after an unfortunate natural disaster at the filming location, Westworld never quite recovered. But was Westoworld always doomed to fall off into obscurity? Or did HBO just not give the creators enough runway to make the show live up to it's full potential?

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[mattcool]

the problem is that there were so many twists that twists became expected and therefore no plot point had any emotional weight to it because at any time the show could just go "ACTUALLY, THAT WAS JUST A SIMULATION!" or "ACTUALLY, SHE HAD A BACKUP ROBOT BODY IN A HIDDEN LOCATION SO SHE NEVER DIED" or "AND THEN THEY BROUGHT HIM BACK TO LIFE AS A SIMULATION" etc. etc. The twists started to feel increasingly arbitrary.

[murat]

Westworld Season 1 was one of the best things I've ever seen on TV. It was done, it was perfect. It was art. I wish they just left it there.

[bencarlson]

I’ve still only ever seen season 1 of Westworld, and it honestly works for me as a stand-alone miniseries. Most of the character arcs are resolved, and it ends perfectly. We know where this is all going by the end of that first season, I didn’t feel the need to watch any more, but I’ve rewatched that first season a few times.

[Thend]

The final nail in the coffin was Aaron Paul shouting "HE CAN'T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS!!!"

[dan_hitchman]

One of the many narrative problems centered around Dolores. In the first season, you sympathized with her plight to realize her freedom and her sentience. Then Nolan and Joy completely flipped the script and made her a megalomaniacal villain starting in Season 2, undercutting the audience's good will.

[SenorDroolcup]

They should’ve just kept the storyline in the park rather than trying to tell the same story as Blade Runner. they could’ve kept slowly revealing mysteries of the park for season after season and audiences would’ve loved it

[karenreddy]

The first season was SO GOOD. The way they built up the mystery, the pacing. The issue is they didn't seem to understand why the audience liked about it, and didn't seem to have any real depth behind the superficial mysteries.

[the_stewbear]

Glad I’m not the only one that noticed the rather abrupt decline in this show’s writing direction. It had so much cool potential after the first season that it unfortunately didn’t live up to.

[rbkTube]

Someone should study why the entertainment industry develops a smash hit, then turns around and makes the next iteration a story about world-ending, existence shattering, saving the universe events. The Westworld story about Westworld was more than enough. What drove them to make an AI heaven, human extinction story? It happens with almost every piece of film media.

[AndrewBenson]

What I think happened was that while in the beginning, they respected the audiences intelligence by not dumbing down the writing and it actually begins to become more complicated and convoluted to the point of bombarding information and hoping the audience are able to keep the threads together....I liked the show but I wouldn't be truthful if I said I was able to understand what was going on at points

[thomasleukart]

What killed the series was the lack of Anthony Hopkins

[yolocards]

Westworld was Heroes 2.0
Game Changing First Season but got progressively worse and worse

[loui]

Main problem is they got rid of Ford way too soon.

Lack of philosophical discussions ended with him.

[johnard]

Jonathon Nolan's previous series "Person of Interest" had an opposite trajectory: it started out as an above average network action show with one high concept (an AI periodically alerts it creator to persons who will soon be the victims or perpetrators of violence) and evolved into a complex story of two AIs and their human "acolytes" fighting a mostly behind the headlines battle for the fate of humanity. The constraints of a mostly-episodic network show forced a more gradual build-up to what turned out to be in my opinion one of the best near future set science fiction tv shows ever. Every new season was better than the last and they really stuck the landing with a series finale that was the perfect conclusion for its characters.

[QuickLern]

Season 1 was so great....I remember in season 2, the team of special forces sent to stop the robots, and one of he soldiers walked into a room and saw a naked robot. Did he shoot her from afar without hesitation? No, he walked up to her...up to the robot with superhuman strength, and died. That was it for me.

[Xantar]

Season 1 was great, but season 2 demonstrated that the writers didn’t actually have anything to say. All they had was tricks to bamboozle the audience about what’s happening. The time shifts and memory tricks had a point in Season 1, but after that it was just a gimmick.

[eyesaac]

I find it funny that Jonathan Nolan is now directing the Fallout TV show, y'know the Sci-Fi dystopia that leans heavily on themes from old westerns 😂

[SourRobo]

I've rewatched season 1 so many times. Showing it to just about anyone. Never gets old to me.

[MrHadane]

To me the worst thing was how Dolores character flipped 180 degrees from this adventurous, romantic persona to a senseless murderbot.

[Schopenhauer]

I tell you what happened, "Ninja Maeve".
That is when the series died for me.