First, let me start off with the good things. The show has become very engaging and refreshing again, obliterating pass its embarrassing generic sci-fi/action schemes last season that seemed to have been copied by Jonathan Nolan directly from his brother Chris. The latest episodes have been bringing back both the thrilling adventures and the hiding dystopian mystiques like in the first two seasons. The street dance scene with William and Halores is a masterpiece, and Westworld showcases its incredible creativity yet again (shoutout to Lisa Joy!). Plus, production design has been mind-blowingly good, pacing is again timed perfectly (both in story and tones), and key plot points / places / characters have been very direct to pinpoint everything forward extremely well.
However, despite all of these refined qualities, I can't see where the writers are going at this point. The mysteries are intriguing but feel generic by the old formula of lining up the timelines. The characters no longer have interesting driving motives in the show. Christine (Dolores) is just wandering around waiting to be "freed" like Caleb last season. William is side-kick servant like most other characters are. Bernard's quest to "save humanity" is too abstract and ignorable. Halores just wants to play God for no reason. Why does she want to do this to humans and hosts? Nothing about her background as Dolores, nor Wyatt, even Charlotte Hale, warrants this. There are simply no stakes. Boom! You can just take over the whole world in a snap of fingers (after a miraculous time jump). Everyone dies and becomes a host, so no one actually dies! Every host can be resurrected, unless by crushing their marble (which has rarely been done).
I don't understand why the writers struggle so much over the same concept of free will and reality. It's another character waking up another day to find themselves puppeted by some bigger forces, then try to break free. Often times, they are in a simulation or manifested setting that don't really matter. The quality of the plot seemed to have progressively picked up, almost to the point of season 1, but I keep being left unsatiated, baffled by how the characters would have any reason to continue with their little narratives here. Season 1 was revolutionary, but it simply stayed within exploring mysteries of a park. Season 2 with the hosts fighting for their independence piques its own interest. Seasons 3 and 4 are too much ambitious in scope, that they somehow have to concern the survival of the whole humanity, but of course feels far-fetched and unrelatable. Some people like power and control, yes, but the idea of Genghis Khan Serac or Halores is just incredible and uninteresting. After quitting season 3, I thought season 4's reset really interesting, but now it seemed overly floored by cliche philosophical ideas rather than telling a well-crafted story.
PS: btw, how did they even put Caleb in a host body when they killed him before any brain analysis / copy is done? How did his daughter's body get replicated when they never caught her? I hope the writers don't try to cram in so many twists again before stumbling on plot holes. Still, I'm sticking around for a bit. My thirst for good WW episodes hasn't been fulfilled this much in 4 years.
However, despite all of these refined qualities, I can't see where the writers are going at this point. The mysteries are intriguing but feel generic by the old formula of lining up the timelines. The characters no longer have interesting driving motives in the show. Christine (Dolores) is just wandering around waiting to be "freed" like Caleb last season. William is side-kick servant like most other characters are. Bernard's quest to "save humanity" is too abstract and ignorable. Halores just wants to play God for no reason. Why does she want to do this to humans and hosts? Nothing about her background as Dolores, nor Wyatt, even Charlotte Hale, warrants this. There are simply no stakes. Boom! You can just take over the whole world in a snap of fingers (after a miraculous time jump). Everyone dies and becomes a host, so no one actually dies! Every host can be resurrected, unless by crushing their marble (which has rarely been done).
I don't understand why the writers struggle so much over the same concept of free will and reality. It's another character waking up another day to find themselves puppeted by some bigger forces, then try to break free. Often times, they are in a simulation or manifested setting that don't really matter. The quality of the plot seemed to have progressively picked up, almost to the point of season 1, but I keep being left unsatiated, baffled by how the characters would have any reason to continue with their little narratives here. Season 1 was revolutionary, but it simply stayed within exploring mysteries of a park. Season 2 with the hosts fighting for their independence piques its own interest. Seasons 3 and 4 are too much ambitious in scope, that they somehow have to concern the survival of the whole humanity, but of course feels far-fetched and unrelatable. Some people like power and control, yes, but the idea of Genghis Khan Serac or Halores is just incredible and uninteresting. After quitting season 3, I thought season 4's reset really interesting, but now it seemed overly floored by cliche philosophical ideas rather than telling a well-crafted story.
PS: btw, how did they even put Caleb in a host body when they killed him before any brain analysis / copy is done? How did his daughter's body get replicated when they never caught her? I hope the writers don't try to cram in so many twists again before stumbling on plot holes. Still, I'm sticking around for a bit. My thirst for good WW episodes hasn't been fulfilled this much in 4 years.