That said, all the usual caveats apply. The return of Logan and Young William and the debut of James Delos add even more assholes to a cast of characters full to bursting with them. Despite the stamp of co-creator Jonathan Nolan and Mad Men vet Carly Wray, the script still tends toward the obvious (the predictable twist at the party, a too-cute bit that introduces the “doesn’t look like anything to me” catchphrase) and the clichéd (someone actually says “You have no idea what you’re up against”). The plotting is plodding, with one thing happening after another and no clear climax or standout sequence to point to.
And with the exception of a sprinkling of jokes, the tone is so unsmilingly serious that it feels like its parodying a Weekend Update Stefon bit: “This park has everything: unhappy robots, unhappy people, unhappy robots who think they’re unhappy people …” Like the characters, we’ve got a long road ahead of us before we reach our destination. If the show stays in this grim mode, it may not kill us to take that ride. But it won’t exactly thrill us, either.
I reviewed last night’s episode of Westworld for Rolling Stone. It’s not a good show, but the way in which it’s not good is mesmerizing. With both this review and the one I wrote for the premiere, I found myself doing a ton of beat-by-beat plot recapping, which I usually avoid, and wondered why. I came to the conclusion that it’s because the show is nothing but plot. The puzzlebox mysteries can’t be commented on without indulging in baseless speculation, the themes can all be encapsulated in a sentence or less, and there’s no poetry or rhytm; the show just morosely moseys along until it ends, week after week. Yet it’s never actively off-putting to watch, somehow. On twitter someone described it to me as watching a ballgame with no commentary and no real rooting interest in either team, which is as good a read on it as I’ve ever heard.
Tags: horror, reviews, Rolling Stone, TV, TV reviews, westworld