Why is there no Wild West in Westworld season 3?

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The series will never be the same, but there is still hope for a worthy continuation.

The long-awaited third season of Westworld will air on HBO on March 15th. Russian viewers will be able to see him on the streaming service "Amediateka" the very next day - March 16.

In previous seasons, the action took place in a unique amusement park, where tourists could plunge into the atmosphere of the good old Wild West for a lot of money. The humanoid robots living there perfectly imitated the behavior of real people until they began to gain consciousness.

One of them, Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood), is leading a revolt of machines to break out of Westworld into the control center. In the end, she succeeds, and she gets out of the park along with the processors of several androids. At the same time, it is revealed that the park was built to keep an eye on guests. All their actions were read and a dossier was created for each.

The third season takes place immediately after the events of the second. Dolores is full of desire to take revenge on people. Fate brings her together with an unemployed war veteran named Caleb Nichols (Aaron Paul), who uses a strange app for illegal side jobs, reminiscent of Tinder for criminals. Meanwhile, the imaginary Charlotte Hale is trying to undermine the Delos Corporation from within.

Much simpler story than before

Jonathan Nolan has already told ‘Westworld’ Showrunners Tease Season 3: “It’s a Radical Shift,” that a radical reboot awaits viewers. This is true - and first of all, the changes affected the structure of the narrative. The first season brought up the most difficult existential issues for discussion. At the same time, the events of several storylines and timelines at once were intertwined into such an ingenious tangle that it was almost not clear to the very end what was happening. This model of presentation was very similar to the movie "Remember", whose screenwriter was Nolan Jr.

The non-linear storytelling, thought out to the smallest detail, generated a lot of theories and discussions. Fans eagerly discussed what was going on in Westworld until the tenth episode of the first season finally revealed its cards. But even then, a lot of questions remained. The fans hoped to find answers to them in the second season, but that only completely confused everyone. There were also several timelines, but they were literally a couple of weeks apart.

At this stage, the game of nonlinearity is left behind.

The third season tells only a few fairly simple stories, with the main conflict being about Dolores planning retribution. In addition, the number of characters has been greatly reduced, despite the fact that Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassel appeared in the new episodes. This was greatly facilitated by the fact that the numerous arcs of heroes who were killed at the end of the second season or left for digital Eden are clearly over. Only Dolores, Bernard, Maeve and Charlotte Hale (or rather, her recreated bodily replica) remained in the game.

Complete change of scenery

The most noticeable change is that for some reason they decided to turn the modern Western into a technological action movie, and the nostalgic atmosphere of the park was replaced by a futuristic Los Angeles. However, changes were hinted at in a specially created video for Westworld | Season 3 - Date Announce | 2020 (HBO).

For an unprepared viewer, such a move is discouraging and even partly leads to a stupor, since earlier the world of people was shown in passing, while the impression was created that it almost does not differ from our modern reality. It immediately turns out that humanity has long been living in the cyberpunk atmosphere of Blade Runner.

It would seem that the creators should be commended for striving to bring something new to the show. But along with the entourage of the Wild West, the indescribable terrifying atmosphere has gone. After all, the previous seasons, especially the first, were frightening not at all because they were generously flavored with scenes of violence. The atmosphere in the amusement park itself was terrible, and the theme of the emotional suffering of androids came to the fore. It felt like robots had a lot more humanity than humans.

Now hosts have turned into nominal characters who are increasingly difficult to empathize with.

Western critics tell Westworld season 3 leaves the park and loses its way: Review that one of the future episodes will take place in a completely new park. However, for some reason, the writers did not want to dwell on a potentially interesting setting for a long time, and the story returns to the human world again.

New ethical issues

It's hard to say what to expect now, when, without cowboy paraphernalia, the Russian-language name of the series actually becomes irrelevant. After all, given that the third season will consist of only eight episodes, the creators left themselves not so much room for plot maneuvers, especially since the initial episode evokes mixed feelings.

Now that enough has been said about androids, it is quite possible that the series will also touch upon issues related to the consequences of the development of artificial intelligence. When looking at the dark dystopia that Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan paint in front of the audience, it is clear that the people living in it are not that different from robots. In turn, hosts become more and more like people, and the more ethical problems are generated by interaction with them.

Although the series has obviously changed and will not be the same, it still has the potential to provide viewers with a lot of discussion. It is possible that the creators have in store for other, not so obvious ways to surprise the fans.