While we all anxiously await the Season 1 Finale of Westworld, which looks like it will be very intense, I thought I’d give you something to tide you over in the meantime. I won’t be diving too deep, as I’m saving some things for later, but here are some quick thoughts.
Before we get to that, be sure to use this nifty playlist of all of Dreamless Slumber so far to help pass the time till the finale:
**Potential Spoilers for Westworld Season 1 ahead**
The finale
We are going to be treated to a special 90 minute long episode, and I fully expect it to keep all of us on the edge of our seats. So much could/couldn’t happen. Will we final get confirmation that William is The Man In Black or not? Is Maeve’s uprising going to kick off? What is Dr. Ford going to do? Is “Bernardold” really dead or could he come back? I’m not sure what is going to happen, but I have been mentally preparing for this all week. I have a gut feeling that this episode is going to answer a few questions and ask many more. I doubt we will have any lack of things to mull over while we wait 12-18 months for Season 2.
The journey so far
Something that is criminally underappreciated about Westworld’s first season has been just how good it is. I expected it to be good, as I mentioned in Dreamless Slumber Ep 0, but not this good. To me, this season is right up there with Seasons 4 & 5 of Breaking Bad and Season 6 of Game of Thrones, which I regard as the best seasons of TV in recent memory. It’s incredible that Westworld was able to be as good as it is in its first season with only a 1.5-hour long movie as it’s only source material. Game of Thrones took 5 seasons (albeit very good ones) to get to that point, and they also had the benefit of thousands of pages of source material and the creator still living. Breaking Bad similarly took 3 years of building to get to this point.
Then comes Westworld, which got off to a running start and has never looked back. This season has been a rollercoaster of twists and turns and mind-bending happenings. The finale looks to put the cherry on top of that, if the preview is any guide it’s going to be one crazy ride. For season 1 to be as good as it has is remarkable. Yes they have a big budget, yes they have a stellar cast of actors/actresses, but all of that means nothing if the story and the directing falls flat. Every episode this season has hit on every mark. There have been slower episodes than others but the show is still so engaging that I never dared to take my eyes off of the screen for fear that I would miss something. We are in a golden age of Adult TV shows and we all need to appreciate that.
Fan engagement/theories
One of my favorite things about the show has been the level of engagement it’s created. I cannot browse Reddit, social media, or most other webpages for more than 5 minutes without coming across something related to the show. It speaks volumes to how good a show is based on the level of discussion and engagement it’s created. By that barometer, Westworld has done pretty ok to say the least.
Then you have the fact that so much of these fan theories ended up being true. All the way from the timeline theories from Episode 2, to the “Bernardold” theory and everything in between. To be fair; I’m not sure If this speaks to how engaged people are or if it is perhaps being somewhat predictable or something in between. It’s definitely something that Max and I are going to have to hash out on an upcoming show.
One last musing to leave you with. What if some of these twists are intended to be somewhat predictable? Are the twists there to distract us from a deeper message about questioning what is real and what isn’t? Let me know what you think! It’s something Max and I will definitely have to dive deeper into in an upcoming show, tune in for our thoughts. Don’t forget to catch up on all of our episodes in the meantime!
Subscribe
Share this: