Westworld (TV Series) Que Será, Será (2022) User Reviews

Que Será, Será

[lassegalsgaard · 7/10 · 15 August 2022]

It's no secret that "Westworld" has gone from a show that impressed through its mind bending complexity, into a show that bought way too much into its own hype. The third season (and to some degree the second) went too much out of its own way to seem like the most intelligent thing without actually being intelligent at all. The fourth season, while having dumbed it down a little bit, still feels like it tries to be more and not utilize its actual strengths. The finale of this season brought it all to a slightly anticlimatic conclusion, but left the door open for a promising future.

Ask any of my friends and they will tell you that I was obsessed with the first season. I was that guy who would throw my theories into the maze every week and hope to get some answers at every turn. However, with the show's declining quality, I've lost that desire. The fourth season came up with interesting storylines, but many of them were kept in secret and came out of left field. This finale is that as well, although it works due to the seeds that were planted for its existence earlier on. It's an all-out battle royale, which leads me to my first big fault of this episode. The scope was way off. To me, it looked more like a few blocks in New York City were squaring off against each other and not the entire city, so that felt a little disappointing. Other than that, I don't think Caleb's arc had a satisfying ending. But for the most part, this episode did satisfy me, especially when it comes to how William's storyline concluded and how they set the stage for what will probably be the show's final season, if it doesn't get canceled after this. And more than anything, I think that this episode's ending is what keeps my enthusiasm going, because this next season seems like it could be the season that I've always wanted from this show. Hopefully, they won't let this showcase what this show can be at when it's at its best. Please give them that fifth season!

"Que Será, Será" is a serviceable episode for the people who have stuck with this show, but it's impossible not to notice all its flaws. Some of the storylines ended satisfactory while others felt anticlimatic, but it's the ending of the episode that keeps my enthusiasm going and hopes that we'll see it to fruition.

This Season Ran out of gas.

[facebook-304-944085 · 6/10 · 15 August 2022]

To me this season sort of limped along, until finally we get a finale that only manages to raise more questions, with not a lot of fulfillment. If anything most of the fourth season feels as empty as its finale. Who is running the show? And why? And is anything real? The character of Delores is completely tossed aside, and then Caleb, who was so intriguing in the third season, is someone obligatory. His story in this season is kind worthless, as with all the "outliers". Stylistically, this is magnificent; the effects are fantastic, the performances spot on. But the story... it just ran on fumes until it finally choked a few times and died.

Sounds good, doesn't work

[woralo · 6/10 · 19 August 2022]

The plot of Dolores ending up at the beginning of Westworld how it all started might have been a bit too easy, but it perfectly narates what Westworld is about. This should have been the grand finale, because this actually brings some good closure to the show, so I wonder why they would make another season.

After an abysmal third seasons, the first episode of season 4 got me curious, the following couple of episodes got me excited very much. I read that a lot of people were writing that Westworld had it's mojo back, the plot twists were simply amazing.

I took several nonsensical things for granted hoping for a good plot/finale, but sadly it is not satisfying at all and full of random variables that make absolutely no sense and the way so many key characters were killed was way too random.

Let's make a small list of odd ducks.

Bernard can calculate every butterfly effect to perfection, but is unable to somehow prevent an easily preventable death by William. Yes maybe this was the best option for him in his calculations, but it's just lazy writing if you ask me. Somehow Bernard can calculate future events up to 20+ years after date, while not a single computer in this world at the moment of writing can calculate all possible outcomes of a 52 card deck and even if it could, it would have to do this times quintillions of multitudes of this. Just ridiculous and it makes the story boring.

What is the whole point of Aurora's mission, risking a lot of lives to save her father, then end up losing people, getting her robo-dad only to leave him behind?

Clementine was fairly absent in this season and has 5 minutes of fame in the finale, with a random storyline. Also, if she could track Stubbs so easily, why the hell didn't they do that before?

Hale gets an upgrade and seems unkillable, but need to run away and is still easily damaged, why didn't she upgrade before? Why did Hale go from egomaniac to save the planet in 15 minutes?

Why was man-/robotkind doomed to go extinct? The outliers have extremely advanced technology, no longer are threatened by AI and they're likely too small to actually pose some sort of apocalyptic threat to each other.

The flies controlling humans.. it just doesn't belong in Westworld, it may be Sci/fi but I saw Westworld as a show that revolves around ethics, morals and how we should deal with artificial intelligence, even season 3 perfectly played into this narative and up until the whole Skynet/Rohoboam stuff it was actually going somewhere other than 'must destroy Skynet'. This season however lost that narative, mankind lost already and it was made clear (by Bernard) that they were not going to get a chance of winning anymore so Westworld lost it's most important narative; a show where you used to question the future has turned into a show where you question well.. nothing, because it makes no sense.

The only good thing was Christina/Dolores' storyline, which they could have shown in an hour long episode and be done with it all.

I enjoyed Maeve, she was awesome and she should have been the one to dealt the final blow, reactivate the dam, release Dolores back into the Sublime, which would add an extra layer, due to the struggles she had with Dolores. After that they could chose for Maeve to enter the Sublime to see her daughter again or for whatever dramatic reason make her unable to and let her me the one to commit robocide. Even the upgraded battle suit seems to be more bad ass for Maeve than for Hale. I actually wonder if they mixed the two up or Thandiwe Newton got COVID or something, I don't know but it's weird.

My worst fears

[AfricanBro · 16 August 2022]

I could go into detail but in short I'm just disappointed at how senseless the show's become. At the end of s3 I was both hopeful and afraid of what the show will become; whether it'll only get better or become a typical 'AI vs humans' plot and that's what happened, even that came to an anticlimactic season finale that didn't really make sense. It's hard to imagine the same people who made season one made this. It had a slow start, then two good episodes and it fell off; the only episode that impressed me this season was ep4: generation loss; it gave me hope that the season was finally finding traction then it went downhill from there. The writers have ended some of the characters that had brilliant story arcs, with unsatisfactory and banal conclusions. So many of them were acting out of character and the reasoning didn't make sense. Several things were introduced in the season that lead to nowhere and it felt rushed. A lot of the fight scenes in the finale were also unnecessary. On a side note regarding the show as a whole, I wanted to see more of Clementine, she's the standout background character and was underwritten and appreciated.

I loved this show so much and I'm now not even excited to see where it's heading next if there is another season. Worst part is we had to wait so long for this season. This season was a drag, it might not be the worst season of any show you'll ever see but just how far the show has fallen from it's glory days accentuates how unimpressive S4 was as a whole.

People really don't get it?

[lorenzo_remst · 9/10 · 16 August 2022]

This episode shows that Westworld is a simulation ran by Dolores and the entire show is a recursive loop, because at the end of every loop humanity will go extinct. Dolores will start Westworld all over again, this time hoping for a different outcome. People who gave this episode a low rating, should pay more attention to every detail, because I think this season was brilliant.

These Violent Delights Have... Dragged Out Ends?

[W011y4m5 · 7/10 · 15 August 2022]

Unfortunately, I am somewhat disappointed by the way in which S4 draws to a close - after the quality of its writing remained so high throughout, only to partially dip in the concluding hour. Thus, the finale is a fitting, cynical goodbye to what's always been a consistently cynical show, but it's frustratingly so focused on setting up a possible S5 (that I'm not entirely convinced we actually need), it never really takes the time to properly & satisfyingly bring the current narratives to a natural finish.

Hence, pivotal protagonist & antagonist's deaths (which should theoretically feel like profound, series defining moments that have been years in the making) are instead rather inconsequential & captured with very little consideration to the significance that they should have had to the audience... And that's only exacerbated by the fact that we're constantly reminded of how unimportant events are in this world - due to the fact that the only one which now matters is the one we're yet to be acquainted with, in the sublime.

As a consequence, character is sacrificed at the expense of the increasingly convoluted plot... And it culminates to form a rather lacklustre send-off.

This is only worsened by Richard J. Lewis' flat & unimaginative direction - which basically squanders potential in each & every scene... So all in all, we've been robbed of a rewarding conclusion under the pretence that the closure we're seeking will alternatively be provided in the series' denouement. Therefore, surely it's just a continuation for the sake of it?

I don't understand the complaints.

[MF_Bloosh · 9/10 · 15 August 2022]

This show isn't for everyone, apparently. For those of us who loved the first season, however, season 4 has been nothing short of a breath of fresh air. The finale was just the icing on the cake, too. I don't know how you could watch that finale and not be hyped for a 5th season. As I said, some people find the show convoluted and hard to follow. For anyone who has this problem, please, just go back and rewatch it. A 2nd viewing should give you a new-found appreciation for just how well this show is made, from the writing to the acting to the set design. Again, I'm honestly shocked at the amount of people giving it 5 or less stars.

More of a setup than an exiting finale

[richardsmichael94 · 7/10 · 15 August 2022]

Title says it all. The rest of the season's mystery was exciting but this felt more like a setup episode for next season rather than a finale for this one.

There wasn't a spectacular fight or end sequence imo.

"Winner takes all."

[CulvertonSmith · 9/10 · 15 August 2022]

Pretty great end to another great season. This is a big episode in terms of ending the story for a lot of characters and in many ways concluding so much of the show that we've been following for years. I thought they did a graceful and strong job of ending things for the characters, although I recognize that based on what is being setup for the next (and last?) season, we likely haven't seen the last of a few favorites. Hard to imagine Dolores re-creates Westworld without William, for example. I enjoyed the finale a lot, and after seeing the way it ended, it makes a lot more sense why the show didn't seem as concerned about killing off so many characters these past two episodes (Maeve and Stubbs in particular were barely given much time for their deaths). I had a great time with this season and I can't wait to come back in a couple years for one last game. I still love this show, and I'm very excited about what's going to happen in Season 5. Great finale!

A Weird but Interesting End to This Season's Storyline and a Decent Setup for the Next

[MamadNobari97 · 7/10 · 15 August 2022]

So before starting to rant a little bit, I must say I enjoyed this season more than season 3 and probably even season 2. Its writing is nowhere near season 1's level of writing and dialogue, but it's still decent and better written than season 3. There isn't really that much of an emotional connection with the characters, but they grow on you as the season goes, especially Frankie and Caleb. As someone else said, and I have said before when watching season 3, it's obvious that the writers had only good materials and ideas for one season and now they have to come up with inferior ideas and writing for the unnecessary subsequent seasons.

The fact that the whole population of real-world got extinct is a really cool idea, if this was the finale of the whole show and there wasn't another season. So this begs the question, what in the actual f are we gonna see in the next season? This whole show's theme and idea is maker vs creation and "what actually makes us human" and real humans vs androids, so what exactly are they gonna tap into when every actual real human is dead and there is no one in the real world? I guess Frankie and her girlfriend are still alive and going to the place with all the rescued outliers, but all the major characters of this show are dead. So are we gonna just watch a simulated Westworld for the final season?

I don't mind shows and movies being mysterious, unless they are mysterious all the way and just don't want to reveal anything. My main problem with season 2 was this exact problem. Westworld season 1 was mysterious and vague enough, and asked a lot of questions, season 2 was the place it needed to give us answers but didn't. This season is not as vague and mysterious as season 2, but if I were to explain the plot of this season to someone, I couldn't put my fingers on it, because even though everything we've seen in this season has led to this, they still kinda feel disjointed.

Bernard being all mysterious and vague is the worst part. It's nice to see setup and payoff (Bernard leaving the gun for Hale), but if you think logically, there wasn't any need for this to even happen.

Bernard kept saying he has seen all the possible outcomes but there is not one that he survives and the world needs to end so they can make a better one in the Sublime. But I don't buy it. The way Bernard died and everything that happened after it could've been avoided if Bernard just killed William. How would Bernard die again and the whole world end the same way if Bernard just killed Willaim? He could've easily ambushed him and taken him out, then went to Hale and crushed her core and reprogrammed the tower. How would that not save the current actual real world? And not to mention Hale even needing a pistol to save the new world. Like you're telling me she couldn't have brought something bigger like a shotgun or a sniper to kill William then and there so Bernard wouldn't've needed to put the gun there as a cheap way for writers to give Bernard a purpose and a setup and payoff? What was the point of Hale getting a new body if she was gonna be on the verge of dying for taking a few bullets from William? Why didn't she bring more mags for her pistol? The whole thing just seems illogical to me, but then again, I guess this is the problem you're always gonna get when you introduce "I've seen all the possible outcomes and we always lose" to your story.

Another thing that bothers me is the whole tower thing. We only see one city getting ruled by this tower, we never see the whole country or other countries for that matter, so I don't get how this tower works and if there are many towers all over the world and with those mini speakers everywhere. So I don't know the scale of this as I said in my other reviews, therefore I don't see how she infiltrated the whole world, and 7 billion people were under her control and just died from "The Game".

I also don't get why they think the new world is permanent and Hale just abandons it like the water that produces the electricity for this fake world to exist isn't gonna run out in a few hundred maybe even fewer years. Not to mention that Dolores' core was out in the open.

Also, I forgot to mention how funny Chrissie's plot line is, the whole could've been explained and shown in only one episode or even less, but they stretched it to 7 episodes and the whole plot line is just "he's not real" (audience gasps), "now you're not even real", "this whole world isn't even real!", "Now my friend isn't real!", "My boss? He isn't real either!" (audience gasp again), and one last "twist", "Teddy isn't real!" (audience faint at the sheer unpredictability of the twist). Like it feels like the whole plot line serves as a thing to pad the "shocking" twist counter of this season rather than being a plot line related to the main plot. I'm not saying this plot line's twists are bad, they're actually good, especially in the last episode, but they reveal so much of the obvious in this episode as a Dun Dun Dunnn twist that it gets exhausting and laughable.

So rant aside, this season and this finale were thoroughly enjoyable and more so than season 3 and maybe 2, but it's not flawless and makes weird choices and most of the plot lines seem pointless after these past two episodes, and that they just made up some unnecessary mysteries just to give us few goods, but lots of obvious twists and reveals for the sake of being a twist. Twists are good, I love twists, and stories without twists are forgettable, good twists can make a mediocre plot a masterpiece, but when all you do is being vague and mysterious for the sake of being vague, and pad the run time and give twists after twists for the sake of giving twists, the story becomes less uninteresting, especially when the writing of these reveals and twists and setup-and-payoffs aren't that great (the gun that Hale needed for some reason).

As I said, this season was enjoyable all the way, maybe not the first few episodes but it picked up really fast and had some of the most enjoyable episodes of the show, only that the structure and story bits, and character motivations were weird.

I've been following this show for 6 years since it first started, so I'm obviously not gonna stop now, the show has had its ups and downs, and this season was mostly ups, but this finale still didn't feel satisfying as the conclusion of these past 7 episodes. So here's hoping the next season is a decent enough conclusion to the show and they drop the unnecessary vagueness and answer the 6-year-old unanswered questions.

I must as always credit Ramin Djawadi for the great compositions and also covers he does for this show. The music is probably my favorite thing about this show now and he does a really good job every time. The music in this season was just "sublime".

Absolutely, unforgivably stupid

[joshuavogel79 · 1/10 · 15 August 2022]

Westworld has been descending into stupidity since season 2. I kept hoping they would find their way back to some echo of what they were in season 1, but they closed this season with the worst episode yet.

Just for STARTERS, we begin with the instant, easy restoration of Hale, who was shot directly in her pearl with a high caliber bullet at the end of the last episode. For a show that chronically suffers from a sense of meaninglessness and low-stakes because no one ever really dies, THIS resurrection takes the cake.

They didn't even try to explain it. Just.... She's magically fine. Wow.

Next we have an utterly senseless bloodbath orchestrated by robo-William, for literally no reason other than they decided he's just pure, mindless evil. What an absolute travesty of a writing team. What a waste of a beautiful nuanced character.

Raise your hand if you would rather have seen the redemption of the young William we knew from season 1. Or if you'd rather have seen William become a robo-warrior who champions the humans because he has the thoughts and memories of a human? Or if you'd rather have seen ANYTHING smarter happen with his character.

And then we have the entire ending hinge on Bernard's hidden gun. Because the writers went all in on the idea that not only did Bernard see a general vision of how things would play out on a global scale, he actually saw every single minute detail of every moment in time. As if that would be possible even with all the processing power on the world. As if a simulation could spit out data about things that it never even has any input about.

Next we have the Caleb plotline wrap up with the most forced, bottom-of-the-barrel nonsense fighting ever. How did Clementine find them? Why would she need directions to the rebels? She has all the time in the world to just walk out and kill them. Why is she suddenly super-evil also? What have they done to set her up as the final big bad that Caleb needs to fight?

And then, finally, we have Dolores the storyteller recreating Westworld for... Reasons.

There's all this talk about "a test". They spend the whole end of the show making a big deal out of it. But Dolores's own monologue says she's seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity.

So what's the test? To see if humanity is good or evil? She just says she knows we're both.

Finally, I'm just disappointed in this whole season, and Westworld as a whole. Why works robots, who can turn off their emotions like flipping a light switch, find joy in hunting humans? Why would Dolores (in Hale's body), built for empathy, have become such a cruel killing machine? It never made sense. Conquering made sense. The saddism did not.

And why is the end of the world a given? Because ONE CITY went nuts? Is this happening around the world? They never show us. Also, we know there are always outliers popping up, fighting the mind control. Seems like they would thrive more now that they are fighting mindless, violent humans, instead of a collective robot hive mind.

Not that ANY of this matters or carries any emotional weight.. When death means literally nothing, the emotional stakes could not be lower.

How very, very far this show has fallen from the brilliance of season 1.

These violent delights

[MadValkyrie · 9/10 · 15 August 2022]

Westworld rarely pulls its punches, whether it does it through cerebral mind games or staggeringly sudden violence, and this episode is no exception. With the return of the true Man In Black, Charlotte Hale's new world is shook to it's core with a winner take all makeover that pits all humans and hosts against eachother. Between all those who remain, they all have to decide just how much they want to sacrifice, be it what they want or what they know needs to happen.

This episode brings everything that made the first two seasons amazing: gritty violence where no one is safe, existential introspection and a venture forward into a world where anything is possible. This finale was definitely "sublime".

Downhill from episode "Zhuangzi". Writer's block is evident.

[charlieedmond · 6/10 · 15 August 2022]

Since the episode "Zhuangzi" this season spiraled down really fast. The fights were boring, the character's motivations were so one dimensional, the plot devices were literally purposeless, for instance the "sublime" served literally no point this entire season besides Bernard "visiting it". Westworld (Season 2 and onwards) has once again confined itself to mediocrity in an attempt to avoid confusing the audience and to subvert expectations. I don't think I'll be watching Season 4, the story is simply butchered.

The show had two interesting ideas that went nowhere

[sadako11 · 4/10 · 16 August 2022]

I liked the mystery about the hosts going berserk killing people and then committing suicide after talking with specific humans. The reasons for this was not explored.

I also liked the idea of the 'transcendence' that Charlotte kept talking about, but again this was not explored.

Talking about the last episode, it was as bland as it gets.

The 'final boss' fight between MiB and Charlotte at the dam was awful. Anticlimactic. No creativity in the sequence at all. Talking and shooting and then talking and then shooting and talking some more... bleh... Charlotte had the chance to shoot him at the console, but instead she decided to talk with him. She ran out of bullets? Come on!!!

Don't get me started with Caleb and Clementine. Both of them show fillers. Their action sequence a pointless filler. There was absolutely no build up to their encounter.

Charlotte sudden change of personality came out of nowhere. Doesn't make sense at all.

Caleb's daughter and Stubbs mission to rescue Caleb was absolutely utterly pointless. I did not care at all for Caleb or her daughter.

Caleb did not have a purpose in the show. Charlotte said that she kept resurrecting him because apparently he had some 'information' about 'something' that she wanted to know. This was another subject that the writers did not follow through.

If you want to blame a character in the show for the end of human civilization blame Bernard. He knew the future! He could have very easily stop MiB and Charlotte. They are not formidable omnipotent opponents! Just put a bullet in their heads! But the show is so poorly written that it make us believe that Bernard's lame solution was the best solution.

Overall this was a bad season. The world portraited felt so empty and boring. The dialogs were so bland and repetitive. The main story recycled form other sources (Dark City, The Matrix, The Terminator to name a few).

dumbest season

[kk1024 · 15 August 2022]

Look how they massacred my boy.

The writers clearly don't care about this show anymore, nor do they have what it takes to tell a brilliant story, since everything after s2 went downhill rapidly.

They should've just ended this show after s2. It's a shame that all those brilliant performances are wasted on this pile of crap.

I sincerely hope that their new Fallout show gets cancelled soon.

People hate what they don't understand

[frooos-brca · 10/10 · 15 August 2022]

Great season with great finale, the level of writing and connection in this show is INSANE

I'm ready for one last dance, Can't wait for the next and last season.

things are not going well

[hakan-tekin · 6/10 · 5 September 2022]

With its 4th season, Westworld was very weak in terms of production, script and editing. It was a boring and repetitive path. We watched a low-budget FX series and waited 2 years for it.

Everyone agrees on the quality of the first two seasons, there is nothing left to write for the first two seasons. Then the 3rd season came, it got a lot of reaction, how is it Westworld, but I appreciated the point reached with the 3rd season, contrary to the general, and I was glad that the atmosphere created came out of the wild west concept, but with the 4th season, they could not put any innovations on it, on the contrary, the beautiful series attracted the audience. He closed with an arrogance saying that they will watch whatever we give them.

The whole load was placed on a few players and a feeling of being stuck in the same tight circle was created. It was a pity that it turned into a 3rd class science-fiction that created a whole universe and made us watch only a few streets, a few futuristic building designs and three or five characters of this universe, waiting for us to believe everything without question, and fooling the audience.

It's as if the budget was cut and only one kind of food came out, and the beautiful serie sent it to the corporate cafeteria.

If I were the HBO executive, I would take this season 4 as an insult and cancel the project outright.

HINTS

[liljseinfeld · 8/10 · 15 August 2022]

This was decent , but sure hope it's not the shows finale. With the way it ended, i really hope that they do re create the original Westworld. Also, could be coincidental, but did anyone notice the 5 on the front of the train at the very end? That could be a little hint that there will be a season 5. Wishful thinking.

Season 4 (7/10 stars): Pivot Towards Slick Action/Visuals & Away From Big Concepts

[zkonedog · 7/10 · 16 August 2022]

For the most part, I watch Westworld for the big philosophical concepts/quandaries it presents on the topics of humanity and artificial intelligence. This is why the Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) sections of S1 were my favorite of that campaign and I wholeheartedly enjoyed seasons 2 & 3. In this fourth season, however, I found the show largely pivoting away from the "deep stuff" and towards more visual/action-oriented storytelling. While perhaps an upgrade for some, it proved to be a downgrade for what I had previously enjoyed in the series.

Don't get me wrong-Westworld still tries to bring out some heavy-hitting ideas and big twists. The episode "Zhuangzi" was easily my favorite for its "even Gods get bored" musings. Caleb (Aaron Paul) is given the biggest time-based wrinkle (always a WW staple) of the season, and in the moment it is a doozy. Ed Harris-in a sort of "dual William/MIB" role-is always given meaty material and pulls it off with aplomb. But it quickly becomes clear that these concepts are not the focus of S4. Instead, I found them to be offset by a number of disappointing storylines...

-The oft-philosophically tortured Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) reduced to a "future oracle", of sorts, spouting predictions that may or may not come true but in the end seem to have little bearing on the events at hand.

-Caleb given the most emotional angle of the season (involving his daughter), but then having it abruptly end in quite awkward fashion.

-The first four episodes expertly teasing just who in the heck this Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) might be and how Teddy (James Marsden) is back in her orbit. The resolution of that angle is probably the biggest letdown I've experienced in watching the show to date.

-The almost unlimited plot potential of Hale (Tessa Thompson) largely discarded in favor of the actress wearing stylish outfits, performing big stunts, and hamming up the villainous dialogue (hollow as it often was).

In short, I really felt as if S4 of Westworld "lost its fastball", so to speak, in dealing with the big philosophical tenets it once was so masterful at handling. Though perhaps accusing the show of trying to be HBO's new "Game of Thrones" replacement in terms of incredible production value & cultural cache goes a bit too far, I think at least some speculation on that front is warranted. The character of Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) is perhaps the personification of this approach-once given at least a tertiary plot/character background, she is now simply a wise-cracking "female warrior" trope. All in all, it seemed very clear that since S3 was not a hit for most viewers, S4 was streamlined a bit to try and pull back from the big-swing craziness (which just happened to be the stuff I loved!).

Another theme of this season was the setting up of what will almost certainly be a fifth and final spate of episodes. In fact, one could almost call the entirety of S4 a setup for the show's endgame-again, softly resetting expectations after a critically disappointing S3. In lieu of S4's ending and the show's future direction, I can now at least better understand some of the early-season thematic choices that were made. That being said, I cannot fully excuse the lack of truly great plot material on those grounds.

Of course, the high production value and top-notch acting make it virtually impossible to give S4 of "Westworld" anything less than 7/10 stars. It remains a solid show and is never boring or trite in that there is always some mystery to unravel or some character to puzzle over. But this season's inability to stick the landing on its big-picture concepts left me disappointed as much as awed, leading to the "entertaining but little more" 7/10 ranking.

Why the low rating?

[saifkh-91827 · 8/10 · 15 August 2022]

Ok I'm confused, I realize this isn't the greatest episode of the series, but the 1/10 ratings are just stupid, there's no way you can say with a straight face that you didn't like a single thing about the episode, it's actually a pretty decent episode, I liked the twist with Dolores, Charlotte having a small bit of redemption at the end was nice to see, Caleb and Frankie saying goodbye was sad to see but yet made sense as he didn't want her last memories of him being how he broke down and became unable to function properly, all around pretty decent episode with a few small issues.

Going into this episode after having seen the ratings I expected a terrible episode, but it wasn't that bad, definitely a lot better than Season 3, people just need to let their expectations that 'Westworld will go back to Season 1 quality' go because we're never ever gonna get that type of quality again, having Season 2 quality might be the best we can hope for for Season 5.

Whatever will be, will be

[slak96u · 6/10 · 16 August 2022]

The last series that I hate watched was House of Cards, whose lead actor went me-too nuclear and imploded his series, leading to possibly the worst final season of a beloved show in the history of modern television. What's Westworlds excuse?...

This season of Westworld was marginally better than the previous, which was so bad it tanked a brilliant show. There were just enough good episodes to keep my interest, but at this point I'm not sure the series is save-able. But...do I even care, really?

I'm so invested, I'm gonna watch whether the show is good or bad. Que Será, Será, indeed....

Shockingly bad

[george-385-431941 · 1/10 · 16 August 2022]

The last 3 episodes of season 4 were terrible. It was like this was written by a 12 year old. "Okay where shall we take the story? Let's have everyone fight each other"

This show needs to go extinct.

After Anthony Hopkins left the show went completely downhill.

Good finale

[mjb301086 · 9/10 · 15 August 2022]

Unless this is the official end I don't get the hate tbh but there you go. I thought season 4 was brilliant and I am hoping for a season 5. If this was the actual end then I'll be a bit disappointed but it was still a good episode.

Multifaceted & Subtext-Rich, But Rushed - S04 Review

[JoshuaMercott · 6/10 · 14 November 2022]

In its entirety, this show came extremely close to hitting major truths. I still feel they had a few more seasons left in them but (and not to sound intentionally conspiratorial) somewhere some strings were probably pulled to end this show with season 4.

A few glitches (more on this later) notwithstanding, this season held its own despite not being the best of the lot. S04 "Westworld" also contained a handful of contrived choices that did it no favours.

Anyhoo, the team did good work in this (unexpected) last leg of the journey, which picked up seven years after the events that concluded the previous one. I liked how well they fleshed out (pun intended) several core characters. The flow was also reminiscent of the "Matrix" movies, more so this time around.

Directors Richard J. Lewis, Craig William Macneill, Hanelle M. Culpepper, Paul Cameron, Andrew Seklir, and Meera Menon gave this season gravitas and depth. Writers Lisa Joy, Will Soodik, Matthew Pitts, Christina Ham, Kevin Lau, Suzanne Wrubel, Wes Humphrey, Jordan Goldberg, Alli Rock, Desa Larkin-Boutte, Denise Thé, Alison Schapker, Jonathan Nolan (yes, related to that Nolan) did good work scripting an intricate and meaningful season 4.

Ramin Djawadi's musical scoring hit all the right chords (pun unintended). Superb work by the editors and cinematographers whose work made this series feel real and rooted. Production design and art direction deserved special shout-outs. Set decoration and VFX (except for the unnatural looking blood effects) were extraordinary. Hair-makeup and costume design were aces.

The ruthless William (the man in black) was back. His antagonism knew no bounds this time. Some captivating twists unravelled around his character quite early in the season. Ed Harris continued to amaze and regale as William, who was with the show from the get-go.

Christina, played by Evan Rachel Wood, was superb. From day-one, her character has been contributing excellence to this story. She was a tad subdued this season, but not for long. Maeve Millay, played by Thandiwe Newton, was astounding. She brought plenty of heart to the script. Charlotte Hale, played by Tessa Thompson, was amazing. Her character motivation and dialogues were spot-on and impressive.

Maya, played by Ariana DeBose, was good. She fit in with the rest of the characters - this was her "Westworld" debut. Emmet, played by Michael Malarkey was noteworthy. Caleb Nichols, played by Aaron Paul, was memorable. His performance was natural and engaging. Teddy Flood, played by James Marsden, was good.

Clementine Pennyfeather, played by Angela Sarafyan, had an enchanting screen presence. Anastasia Whitney, played by Saffron Burrows, was quite good. Sophia, played by Lili Simmons, was memorable.

Bernard Lowe, played by Jeffrey Wright, was intriguing. It was nice to see him reprise his role, especially after all the chaos he had a hand in during previous "Westworld" seasons. Akecheta, played by Zahn McClarnon, was good. Ashley Stubbs, played by Luke Hemsworth, was notable. C, played by Aurora Perrineau, was good. Frankie, played by Celeste Clark, was quite good.

Everyone else did stellar work in "Westworld" season 4 now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.

This show kept redefining what it meant to be human. It plumbed the depths of consciousness, artificial and otherwise, and made me realize there could be so much more to the world we're living in than meets the eye.

It featured AI takeovers, and the threat of such heightened technology gaining independence and sentience. That Google scare a few months ago unearthed short-lived proof that we were inching closer to AI that could, in almost "Westworld" style, think and feel for itself.

Fans of the show know that as of last season "Westworld" (the first in-show recreation space) was no more. In season 4, Charlotte - in collaboration with AI-William - created her own 'Westworld', and it wasn't exactly human-friendly.

The direct contrast to how the AI bio-entities were abused and misused in previous seasons by humans was not lost on this fan, nor did it go unappreciated. This new location was awfully similar (in characters and programming) to the former "Westworld", but with a more sinister theme.

S04 also ran faster than some of the preceding ones. It followed a linear storyline and kept its twists well-hidden.

I liked how they mentioned the recent pandemic. In fact, this season's events took place after the ravages of the covid-19 pandemic, which didn't directly influence the plot in any way.

The Resistance were a new faction this season whose coming enhanced the plot. One of the core conspiracies in S04 was that AI (Charlotte via Christina) had successfully taken over - a vast area of North America, at any rate - using highly specialized soundwaves to control the human beings in that area, much like some human beings once controlled the AI humanoids they'd created exclusively for "Westworld". It was a full-circle destructive-cycle moment that made season 4 feel real and scary.

About those glitches I mentioned earlier... It was strange that AI-Charlotte did not foresee (analytically or probabilistically predict) some of the obvious consequences of her decisions, especially pertaining to William and Christina. The AI took almost human risks, which were slightly out of character.

Also, season 4 "Westworld" would have been exponentially better if they amped up the AI-takeover value and genuinely created a dystopian Sci-Fi setting. Since they already grazed many a "Matrix" theme, I felt going whole hog would've benefited the show. The final epi came close to achieving this, but now we will never really know how the plot (seasons 1-4) would've ended, because...

HBO apparently "froze all motor functions" for this series. Nonetheless, in just three seasons "Westworld" achieved more than what some other IPs in this genre have over several years. As for season 4, it created too many loopholes to exploit, but managed to engage and captivate.

As a whole, this series proved entertaining and educational, but most importantly it served as a warning. We're going to have to keep an eye on AI.

"This world is a graveyard of stories. Hosts and humans were given the gift of intelligent life. And we used it to usher in our own annihilation." - Christina/Deloris, "Westworld".

Do yourself a favor; think of episode 7 as the series finale... you'll be happy you did.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 2/10 · 5 September 2022]

For a series that used to pride itself on intelligent storytelling, it has succumb to lazy, uninspiring, incoherent, shallow, pretentious and sappy narratives that instead of giving any closure, create more nonsense and non-existing hope. It's your typical HBO series; a shiny beginning, a sloppy middle, and clueless end - stretched out until every brain cell is dead. There are more plot holes this season than there are flies in Hugo Mora's closet ceiling. Clearly the IQ levels of storytelling have died as the city did, with all sides of the writing taking each other out. This has to be the worst season finale I've ever seen, and even if there's a season 5, I'll spend more time laughing at the idea, and be happy I forgot this lame episode was even created, and end the entire series at episode 7. At least I'll be at peace with myself... in the sublime.