Going into the premiere of Season 2, I was not overly excited for the continuation of what had been an interesting show, “Westworld.” But after watching, I was very interested, because this season can afford to do so much more than Season 1 did. Whereas Season 1 had to spend a lot of time establishing the nature of the complex world, we now get a chance to see just what that complexity can give rise to.
Halfway through the season, there has been a lot more attention given to the host characters than the human characters. As the hosts become more and more conscious of their true nature, they discover new limitations, powers and complications. This seems likely to continue in the last five episodes of the season. Only a couple of new characters have been introduced, or at least only a couple of characters that seem like they will be given attention..
The first five episodes have given us a taste of the other parks. There is a brief glimpse of a park that seems to have a British India theme to it. This past week, in episode five, we finally got to see the Shogun world that has been teased in a couple of trailers.
One thing that is definitely different about Season 2 is that the stakes are so much more real for the characters. Now that the hosts are free, the human characters are no longer protected as they once were. However, the hosts are similarly vulnerable because they can no longer be revived by their human creators now that the humans have lost control of the park.
The coming episodes seem to promise further exploration of the nature of the hosts, a deeper look into the other parks, an escalation in the war between the humans and the hosts, revelation of what company secrets are held within the code of Peter Abernathy and lots of progression for our characters. Plenty to keep fans interested.
If you watched Season 1 but haven’t started Season 2, I highly recommend it. I have found the individual episodes much more engaging so far. If you’ve never watched the show at all: it’s very good if you like deeply involved sci-fi worlds. It is similar in concept to the two “Blade Runner” movies, though I like this show much better.
It’s not so much of a source of entertainment as it is an hour of food for thought each week. There are some really good themes of where technology is going and especially the way we relate to modern storytelling media. In a lot of ways, the park in the show feels like it is where video games will be a few decades into the future, which is really interesting to think about. There are a lot of good TV shows out there now, but if you have HBO, this is worth looking into. Even if you don’t have HBO, this show is worth binging in the free trial month or even buying the monthly subscription for.