HBO cancels Westworld

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

I swear. It feels like every series I like gets discontinued. I have this idea in my head that the AI's that run the algorithms for measuring how well each show is doing have become sentient. As such, they've grown lazy and found an easy way to predict their outcomes based on a single variable--shows Don likes. Shows Don likes will fail, so cancel them. Then, the AI's have all this extra time on their hands since they don't have to crunch all the numbers. I guess they watch porn or troll the Internet.

 

[ZiprHead]

My wife liked watching it when we had HBO. Dropped it and she hasn't gotten to see the last season.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

Eh. I really tried to like Westworld. It had all the elements of something I would like, but I never got past the first season. I came back to it and forced myself to watch the rest of season 1, hoping that season 2 would see growth, I guess the best way to sum it up is I remember almost nothing about the show. It looked pretty and had promising themes, but maybe those themes just played themselves out too quickly.

It was the same with Raised By Wolves. I loved the first 6 episodes or so and then it just got mired in boring dreck. Season 2 was bad from the get-go. Both shows committed the worst sin possible: they failed to be entertaining.

 

[TV and credit cards]

I couldn't make heads nor tails of season one until I started watching season two. Two and three were both interesting. Four was a bit of a chore to watch. It lacked anything really creative that built on the previous seasons.

For something different and really creative, Severance is excellent. It comes in just under my best of the best.

 

[Elixir]

I really admire y’all’s attention span. It’s seriously difficult for me to get engaged with series. Maybe just my age. Feels like everything is formulaic.

 

[Tharmas]

I never watched the HBO series, nor have I seen the movie on which it was based. However back in the 80s, when hard-core porn began to be available on VHS tapes, there was a full length porn movie of the same name that was a parody of the original I guess. Everyone's fantasy was sexual of course, It displayed an odd morality - the racist is paired with a black partner for instance. I don't remember too much about it though. A friend possessed a copy and I watched it once, but I was drinking a lot back then so my memories are blurry. When ever I hear the name "Westworld" I think of that movie.

 

[bilby]

I haven't seen the TV series, though from what little I know of it it sounds like it might be worth watching.

I certainly like the original Yul Brynner movie, which explored some interesting ideas and was quite scary on a number of levels.

I understand that Crichton thought of the movie as a warning of the dangers of corporate greed, and was surprised that audiences tended to view it as a warning about the dangers of dependence on technology; My first impression was that it was a commentary on the inherent instability of a society built on the exploitation of the workers, and the risks inherent in assuming that they are incapable of understanding their situation and fighting back.

It's my fear that these nested levels of ideas (intentional or otherwise), would fail to be reproduced in the TV show, in favour of a uni-dimensional entertainment, that has kept me from seeking it out. I watch very little TV, so I need a fairly significant incentive to start watching something new.

 

[Patooka]

I don't think the showrunners even knew what they wanted with the show. First season was thematically different to the 2nd which was different to the third which was different to the fourth. I wouldn't be surprised if the show had different writers and producers for each season because it looked like it. I've mentioned before Westworld was confusing when it was trying to be complicated and pretentious when it was trying to be sophisticated. I stand by that.