Up next in 10
At it's peak, HBO's Westworld was one of the most popular shows on TV. After the first season of Westworld though, audience interest quickly started to fall. And after an unfortunate natural disaster at the filming location, Westworld never quite recovered. But was Westoworld always doomed to fall off into obscurity? Or did HBO just not give the creators enough runway to make the show live up to it's full potential?
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Goddamn, feels good to be back
0:08
Let's celebrate. How did Westworld go from this absolutely brilliant scene to a complete mess in just a few short seasons
0:16
Well, despite being one of the most impressive and critically acclaimed television series of the 2010s
0:21
a cacophony of poor narrative decisions, shifting corporate interests, and a few freak accidents
0:26
caused it all to come crashing down. The passage from one world to the next requires bold steps, Bernard
0:34
Today, the original Westworld, its sequel Future World, or the long-forgotten TV series Beyond Westworld
0:40
are not remembered as the high-water mark of 70s cinematic achievement. Oh, God
0:46
However, it has a stalwart fanbase of loyalists who loved the franchise's dystopian edge
0:51
proto-cyberpunk aesthetics, and Ewell Brenner's stoic Terminator-esque performance. Yet after the franchise ran aground in 1980, after only three episodes of Beyond Westworld hit the airwaves
1:02
it proved rather difficult to get anyone at Warner Brothers to give the property any real attention
1:07
Then, in 2011, after a turnover of the studio's executives, the studio's interest in seriously pursuing the project began to manifest in earnest
1:15
Producer Jerry Weintraub, mostly known for the Ocean's Eleven films, took on the project to two people
1:20
the husband and wife writing team Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who would breathe fresh life into creator Michael Crichton's idea of an Old West-themed
1:27
pleasure park populated by robots. Nolan and Joy concocted a take on the material that was simultaneously attempting to be high
1:34
art and commercial. The first season of the show would have a driving mystery about the iconic Man in Black
1:40
now played by Ed Harris, stalking through the Westworld park attempting to solve the
1:44
riddle of the maze. Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores, Jeffrey Wright's Bernard, and Thandie Newton's Maeve are all
1:50
trapped in various kinds of mazes, many of which relate to the nature of consciousness
1:54
and the inherent right that all sentient beings have of self and free will We can define consciousness because consciousness does not exist Crichton original idea of a theme park where the mega go to spend time
2:05
reveling in the pleasures of the past, had been taken and evolved to another level
2:10
The true genius of the first season of Westworld is that it's a self-contained story
2:14
with a beginning, middle, and an end. The central mystery of the maze is tied into multiple characters' arcs and the ultimate twist
2:21
Spoilers if you haven't seen Westworld, but at the conclusion of the story, William and the Man in Black, are revealed to be the same character, and that half of the show
2:29
we've been watching has been secretly told in flashbacks to a timeline transpiring 30 years
2:33
prior. The show was a smash hit. It was ranked on every critic's best-of year-end lists, and it
2:38
proved to be an exceedingly valuable asset for HBO, being nominated for multiple awards. In fact
2:44
some commentators speculated that when Game of Thrones inevitably concluded, perhaps Westworld
2:48
would take over as HBO's number one show. Tragically, that was not to be. Season two of
2:53
the series was not as well received. The show was in something of a hard spot, narratively speaking
2:58
Everyone loved the twist of multiple timelines and expected some sort of formalist element to
3:02
be incorporated into the new season, but Nolan and Joy obviously couldn't pull off a big reveal
3:07
in the same way. So they opted to have two parallel timelines starring Bernard play out
3:11
simultaneously, not attempting to hide this structural gimmick, but instead lean into it
3:16
The only problem being that it's just plain confusing. In season one, when the narrative
3:20
of jumps back and forth between the two timelines, there are no location or time graphics displayed on screen
3:26
to make sure the audience is following along appropriately because on first viewing, you're literally not
3:30
supposed to know there are two timelines. Ah, yes, your mysterious back story
3:35
To complicate things even further, while season one had the mystery of the maze
3:39
season two had multiple quests and mysteries. The Forge, The Door, and The Valley Beyond
3:45
That's just too many narrative devices to have our characters attempting to understand or reckon
3:49
As the series rolled out, many critics and viewers felt that the show had lost its way
3:54
It just failed to exceed the massive promise of the initial season After the conclusion of the second season the show undergoes a soft reboot The scale completely shifts and the show becomes ostensibly a fully future cyberpunk dystopia
4:07
The third season follows Dolores on her mission outside of Westworld as she attempts to stop an evil corporation who
4:13
is using a hyper-intelligent algorithm, codename Rehoboam, which had perfected a mathematical equation that could accurately predict
4:20
the trajectory of humans' lives. This has effectively restructured society, creating massive wealth and education inequality
4:26
The head of this company, played by Vincent Cassel, is a man named Serac, who has effectively
4:31
used Rehoboam to become the most powerful and influential figure in human history
4:35
The season sees the addition of many new characters, most notably Caleb Nichols, played by Aaron Paul
4:41
as well as resurrecting many previously killed off characters as host clones under the control of Dolores
4:46
Some fans felt this course correction from a genre and stylistic perspective was too jarring
4:51
Why is the show called Westworld if we're just fully in the future battling essentially Skynet
4:56
Sure, the show has inverted the themes of free will and sentience. You still don't even understand who you are
5:07
If any of this was your choice. But many viewers felt that the shift was too drastic
5:12
You've got to give it up for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, though. They fully went for it
5:17
They took HBO's money and all the audience goodwill they gained from season one of the show
5:21
and tried to make something wholly unique. But here's the question. Was this massive shift because in November of 2018
5:27
many of the sets located on Paramount Ranch were destroyed by the Woolsey Fire
5:31
That's not exactly clear, but it does seem likely. So, season four is around the corner
5:36
Nolan and Joy probably got their act together and pivoted back to the Western thing
5:40
in order to try and reclaim the highs of season one, right? Wrong
5:43
They doubled down on the future science fiction setting. Season four of the show is a complex web of narratives
5:49
that center around the host, Charlotte. who is now using bioengineered flies to mind control humanity
5:54
and forcing them to live on predetermined loops of behavior We follow Caleb Bernard and Maeve as they attempt to undo this newly distinctly bleak status quo struggling for both their own free will but also the free will of humanity itself
6:08
This season crescendos into Dolores, who's been living without her memories for most of the season, being given back her identity
6:14
and setting up a new fresh start for everyone in newly restarted versions of Westworld
6:19
inside the sublime. Hale didn't design Maya and Peter and all the others
6:23
that kept me company in my world. I did it. Does that sound hard to follow
6:29
Well, that's what a lot of viewers felt as well. Or rather, the viewers that actually showed up
6:33
When season four of Westworld debuted, it did not launch with favorable ratings
6:37
Season one's premiere nabbed the very impressive 12 million viewers. The season four premiere
6:42
Only approximately 4 million people tuned in. Westworld's convoluted narrative finally proved too much to sustain
6:49
That's how you get HBO cancelling one of their flagship titles after only a few years
6:53
It's rumored that the first season cost roughly $100 million to produce
6:57
With production budgets in that ballpark, viewership in the four millions just isn't
7:01
going to cut it for the mega-prestige play that HBO was looking for. Nolan and Joy are quoted in a Hollywood Reporter piece about the cancellation, saying
7:09
We've been privileged to tell these stories about the future of consciousness, both human
7:13
and beyond, in the brief window of a time before our AI overlords forbids us from doing so
7:18
Part of that sentiment rings true, and part of it seems deeply unappreciative of the fact
7:22
they were allowed to paint on the largest canvas in the history of mankind with relatively few
7:26
restrictions. Westworld's rapid decline away from cultural centrality is just one more bellwether
7:31
of the rapid approaching heat death of monoculture. HBO was founded on these types of big brassy ideas
7:38
shows that have a point of view and a perspective, and could pull people in thanks to their memorable
7:42
characters. But you can't fight the coming of the dawn. There's more content being produced now more
7:46
than ever. Culture is fractured and people are seeking out ever increasingly smaller niches to
7:51
delve into. Westworld failing is equal parts Nolan enjoy not being able to avoid a sophomore slump
7:57
changing cultural tastes, and also the simple fact that in the streaming wars, we all lose
#Film & TV Industry
#Movies
#TV & Video