So I just watched all 3 seasons of Westworld. I had seen the first season before, and thought it was excellent, but bailed on season 2 after the first episode. Truth be told I felt strongly that this was a classic 'one and done' show where it really said all it needed to in that first run.
Watching it all through, Season 2 is much better than the clunky premiere. Has a couple of really good episodes, especially the one featuring Delos' attempt to cheat death and the Black Mirror style existentional nightmare he's left in. It's a damn messy season though. The big twists at the end of the first season really landed, it felt carefully constructed and complimented the hosts' own experiences as they came to terms with their existence. Season 2's multiple timelines are far more convoluted, contrived and unnecessary. Bernard scrambling his memories feels like an excuse to make the plotline vague, and sadly dooms a pivitol character to spending the entire season just being confused. Characters seem to disappear for long stretches, most notably Maeve's companions who are absent the entire (long) time she spends inanimate and in ruins on a table, randomly reappearing just in time for her to get up and become involved in the story again.
Overall I still enjoyed Season 2 a fair bit, but the finale lacked a lot of the elegance of the previous year's climax. It was the various story-threads collapsing into eachother more than it was this whole thing coming together. It felt kind of sloppy. The worst offender was how William's story was resolved, or more accurately, wasn't. His post credit scene was the first time I really questioned just what the hell the show was doing. If someone can explain it to me, if there's something I missed, I'd genuinely appeciate the help. Cause from what I can see, his last few scenes were kind of nonsense. We see his attempt to shoot Delores (literally) backfire, and then he proceeds to follow Delores and Bernard down the elevator to the Forge. We never see William arrive there, or cross paths with the people he's following, we next see him laid out on a stretcher away from the facility. Then the post-credit scene shows William, bearing the same wounds from before getting off the elevator... but it's presumably in the future, or a simulation, or something? That is twisty to the point of sheer confusion. I hoped it would become clear somewhen during season 3. It didn't.
Speaking of Season 3, I really wanted to like it. It got off to a decent enough start, and I liked Aaron Paul's character, but by the end I found myself not caring about anything. I understand that the story being told had moved beyond 'Westworld', but where did all the characters go? So many gone by this point, and many of the remaining ones are shadows of their former selves. Maeve in particular spent so long reduced to a campy, sword wielding hench(wo)man. I was happy to see Tao Okamoto promoted to regular, but she was barely in it. Many of the familiar faces were elaborate fake-outs, cameos that made me long for the show that used to feature them. The finale problems of season 2 are much worse in season 3. Nothing really comes together. Bernard, William and Tessalores are basically irrelevant to the story by then. And the William post-credit scene this time around is just as bizarre as before, only this time I no longer had faith that it will become something interesting down the line.
The production value and acting is great, and I'll check out season 4 when it drops. I'm curious, but not particularly hopeful.
