Westworld is Great in Spite of Itself

The first season of Westworld is great television, even though it constantly gets in its own way.

TV isn’t quite what it used to be. Seasons tend to be shorter, even when not on premium networks, and production isn’t guaranteed to turn over a new season every year. Such is the fate of Westworld, a series that isn’t going to return until 2018. Taking a year off will, hopefully, hammer out some of the issues we had with the first season. While it all ended up coming together beautifully (and violently,) Westworld constantly stepped on its own toes with unconvincing characters and less than stellar writing.

The better aspects of Westworld ultimately outweigh the worse ones. Frustrating characters such as Sizemore and Charlotte Hale, Delos’ executive director of the board are ultimately wasted. Both characters are similar in their inflated egos and cartoonish, villainous dialogue. Season 2 could fix that problem, or maybe both of them will end up being killed. That would be another way to fix it.

Watch a clip of Jonathan Nolan talk about directing:

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Westworld is an exposition heavy show, much more so than it needs to be. The first half of the season is especially guilty of this by having characters such as Ford and the Man in Black go off on mysterious monologues obviously (and painfully) meant for the audience. The problem sort of works itself out though never fully goes away as the season goes on.

Poor writing, especially dialogue, is not a minor issue. It can very easily derail a series in ways that aren’t easy to come back from. Westworld, however, has the distinction of not being like other shows. It is so intricately constructed that it is able to overcome its faults. At least for now. A second season is going to have to make some improvement in these areas (writing and poorly drawn characters) or it’s going to be more of a slog to get through. And if that happens, viewership and accolades are going to drop off.

Next: HBO releases statement on the death of Carrie Fisher.

Still, Westworld is a great series that you should take to time to watch, perhaps even binge, if you haven’t already. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to improve.