I found that the first Season of Westworld consistently improved as the Season progressed. This was due in great part to the show breaking away from the complete lack of stakes in seeing the park under ‘normal’ operation, and moving towards stories with real and emotional skates. Either way, the finale was very strong. Both emotionally and dramatically engaging while also doing a great job of setting up the Second season.
Goodbye Control, Hello Chaos
In an interview with IGN, Showrunner Jonathan Nolan teased, "If the first season was defined by control, the second season is defined by chaos." It seems I was a little off on my guesses for the finale – while it is true that Maeve’s rebellion was manufactured, I didn’t predict Ford was manufacturing in order to free the hosts and bring them to a self-aware state.
The true rebellion begins at the finale of the episode and finally The Man In Black gets a narrative with real stakes, which is what I wanted too! I think it is extremely promising that the themes of the show will shift away from control in the second season. Control is a really tough theme for a TV show. Once you get to the point where you expect any break from control to be part of the controls, it is hard to emotionally engage. I welcome Chaos.
Samuraiworld
We now know that Westworld is not the only park in operation. I expect the show won’t make a major jump to Samuraiworld, but rather elements and characters from it will start to trickle into our existing narratives. There’s also no reason to believe that there are only two, so expect more parks to be revealed. I for one am very ready for Medievalworld to be revealed as Westeros.
Season 2 Airdate
Unfortunately HBO has not yet announced an airdate for Season 2, and news from inside implies the wait might take some time. In an interview with Variety, Nolan indicated that the show will not return until 2018. He stated: “We won’t be on the air until 2018. We started that conversation with the network when we’re shooting Episode 2 and we realized the complexity of trying to write and produce the show at the same time. We both work in the movie business as well and in the movie business, the best that you can possibly hope for with a film franchise is to turn around another installment in two or three years. So really on that schedule, we’re doing great.”
While I’m glad they will be taking the time to develop strong stories, the wait will be long indeed. In the meantime, let’s guess at all the other parks in development. British Raj World? Moorish Spain World? I’m open to all of them.
