Westworld discussion original movie and HBO series

[Gingerbread Demon]

I recently watched this again after watching the HBO series and a couple of things I was wondering.

First off 8n the original movie it is said on screen that they can repair the hosts and keep them running. But then in the same scene they say they have no idea how the hosts actually work.

So who actually built them if nobody working with them knows how they work?

Also not sure if I had missed it but did the new series ever mention or note the original movie at all?

The other HBO thread is a couple of years old so that's why I did this one

 

[Guy Gardener]

No love for Future World or Beyond West World?

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[Gingerbread Demon]

No love for Future World or Beyond West World?

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I've never seen either of those only small snippets of each. Futureworld is on Tubi so I will go look there

 

[Rowdy Roddy McDowall]

WESTWORLD was the first HBO series I simply could not follow. It kept giving me a feeling I was watching a John Le Carre marathon and I became permanently lost.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

WESTWORLD was the first HBO series I simply could not follow. It kept giving me a feeling I was watching a John Le Carre marathon and I became permanently lost.

You wouldn't be the only one to say that. Many people, me included got lost during the second half of season 2 and most of season 3.

After ending season 3 last night I can see why ratings took a nosedive and why the fourth season was the last one

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, it got overly confusing as it went along. Way more confusing than it should have been, almost as if the writers and producers thought that they were being clever by making it so complex.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yeah, it got overly confusing as it went along. Way more confusing than it should have been, almost as if the writers and producers thought that they were being clever by making it so complex.

People blame JJ Abrams for that as he was involved but in this case I don't think he had that much input in the stories or the way the show was made.

 

[Owain Taggart]

No, Abrams wasn't involved with that. It was Johnathan Nolan. Maybe that's who you were thinking about.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

No, Abrams wasn't involved with that. It was Johnathan Nolan. Maybe that's who you were thinking about.

But Abrams has a producer credit for Westworld

 

[Tuskin38]

But Abrams has a producer credit for Westworld

Probably because Bad Robot was one of the production companies.

 

[Owain Taggart]

But Abrams has a producer credit for Westworld

When I browse the list of the crew on IMDB, he's not listed at all. Therefore, I think it's as @Tuskin38 points out, in that it's simply his production company. I don't think he was actually involved in the actual production, as that's the first I've heard of it. I do see his name further down into the 'Series Produced by' credits, but I don't see much material involvement.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Probably because Bad Robot was one of the production companies.

When I browse the list of the crew on IMDB, he's not listed at all. Therefore, I think it's as @Tuskin38 points out, in that it's simply his production company. I don't think he was actually involved in the actual production, as that's the first I've heard of it. I do see his name further down into the 'Series Produced by' credits, but I don't see much material involvement.

OK my mistake just in season 3 I thought during the end credits of the episodes his name was listed as an executive producer... my bad

 

[Owain Taggart]

I think production credits can be incredibly confusing, so no worries. And even if it were listed as an executive producer, that title in itself can be so broad. All it can take is either being produced by a production company owned by said person, funded by said person, or even an advisory role or simple idea, but the end result is that they're almost always never directly involved, unless said otherwise. It's a quirk of the system. You can kind of test this by checking something out that's based on a novel. The novel's author will most likely be listed as an executive producer.

Or here's another example. Take something produced by Amblin, which is Spielberg's studio. Most likely, anything produced under that studio has Spielberg listed as Executive Producer. But the reality is that it doesn't always mean he's directly involved unless he's listed as director.

Now back to Westworld, it's always clearly been a Johnathan Nolan and Lisa Joy project and they are listed right at the start.

 

[Aragorn]

I thought season 1 was great, but then in season 2 they tried to outdo themselves with the surprise factor and dragged things out until everything was ho hum. Season 2 of Mr. Robot did the same thing. Believed their own hype and tried to double down on it. Then Westworld became a different show afterward.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I thought season 1 was great, but then in season 2 they tried to outdo themselves with the surprise factor and dragged things out until everything was ho hum. Season 2 of Mr. Robot did the same thing. Believed their own hype and tried to double down on it. Then Westworld became a different show afterward.

I mean if it was just season 1 it would have been perfection

 

[theenglish]

I enjoyed Season 2, although I did have to go back and watch the first half again after I figured out they were using "time jumps" again. I did the same thing for Season 1 once it became clear who the Man in Black was. I don't get why people didn't mind it in Season 1, but hated it be redone in Season 2. That said, Season 2 was a bit of a let down after the initial season.

Season 3 was a big disappointment though. It was as if the writers couldn't figure out what to do with the characters. Season 4 felt like it was building to something really interesting for the first few episodes and then spectacularly blew the second half of the season with a mustache twirling villain plan.

That's all my personal feelings about the series though. In summary -- It would have been better to have the show last a single nearly-perfect season rather than the increasingly messy four seasons we got.

Also, I love the soundtrack to this series. The instrumental of Paint it Black is amazing.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Yes! I absolutely love that instrumental

 

[Starkers]

I really enjoyed the first season, the second season was ok but by the third it was clear they'd become embroiled in their own mythology and frankly it became just a generic future show. I still haven't got around to watching the fourth season.

Obviously robot cowboys rebel has a limited shelf life so I can see why they broadened it out, but also robot cowboys rebel was the USP. One of those shows that should have been a single season.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

No love for Future World or Beyond West World?

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None. Westworld, with its bleak, matter-of-fact ending did not need sequels or spin-offs. The message of the film was quite the effective final statement about all that was a problem with the park.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I thought season 1 was great, but then in season 2 they tried to outdo themselves with the surprise factor and dragged things out until everything was ho hum.

Yeah, exactly. The other thing is that I think the producers took into account the wrong reasons the show was popular for, ie the show's complexity, and ramped that up. There was one episode in the second season, the one where Akecheta was telling his story, which a was more straightforward and linear form of storytelling, which to me was way more powerful for it, and I'd wished we had gotten more of that.

The other thing is that I felt they overused the host reset. It was interesting and novel the first few times they did it, but eventually they started to rely on it too much, instead of letting a host become inoperable and retire it. That meant that the stakes were lessened, if you knew a host could easily come back! And that's when the story started to suffer for it. That's my issue with the entire premise.