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Post by Weasel Pie on Oct 4, 2016 0:03:02 GMT
Westworld is HBO's newest Sunday night offering!
This thread is for discussion of Episodes 1, 2 and 3 of Season One.
CONTAINS SPOILERS
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Post by jnr on Oct 4, 2016 0:35:58 GMT
That names rings a bell, but I can't place what else he might've produced. Fringe (X-Files redux), the new Star Trek movies (which make no sense), and the Star Wars reboot (which is just the original Star Wars all over again, but with a younger Darth, a bigger Death Star, and a female Luke). Mr. Abrams puts a nice gloss on everything he makes, but it can't hide the basic shortcomings of the narrative. Which is very rarely anything close to original.
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Post by Weasel Pie on Oct 4, 2016 1:22:45 GMT
Hrm. Could get interesting. The old-timey saloon player piano version of Black Hole Sun was clever, need to play closer attention to the soundtrack next time. Initial reaction was that Headmistress (?) Cullen is one of the most boring characters ever (and all the rest are a close second - burn!). Last 20 minutes were redeeming. A little. Me: Thandie, what the hell were you thinking? Oh wait, she's getting interesting now... AW CRAP really? This Escaton outlaw guy, finally a cool character. AW Fuu... really? What is this, Game of Thrones? Sadly it isn't, but there is hope if Thandie steps up. I couldn't understand a word Anthony Hopkins says, as usual, and Ed Harris is about as subtle as leprosy.
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Post by min on Oct 4, 2016 2:46:49 GMT
The soundtrack is interesting. Second viewing was a little better. Dolores' boyfriend, Danny shows up as a newcomer and Thandie et al didn't know he was a host. Dolores' father's 'breakdown' was fascinating. He and Dolores are original models going back 30 years where a catastrophic breakdown was hinted at in the story. The reason why head of security is so vigilant and paranoid. We don't know what happened except that Daddy was the head of a cult that turned to cannibalism. Shades of Hannibal Lecter. LOL. I get the impression that the Anthony Hopkins character is deliberately adding code that will cause the hosts to adapt and evolve. Dolores' Dad accuses him of sin. There is a lot of very subtle play I didn't notice the first time I watched. What exactly is Ed Harris' character, the Gunslinger? He seems to be flying under the radar. I think in the original version of Westworld, that character was also an android. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WestworldThe other ominous development was the second host that was mothballed with Daddy. He was shot, but didn't die like he's programmed to do. The milkdrinker had milk coming out of his bullet hole. And now Dolores appears to be lying about not hurting a living thing.
Here's your soundtrack: www.lyricsoundtrack.com/tv-shows/westworld-soundtrack-music-songs
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Post by Ser Duncan on Oct 4, 2016 3:37:10 GMT
Can we please spoiler plot for those of us that have not yet seen the episode.
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Post by Weasel Pie on Oct 4, 2016 17:01:19 GMT
I went ahead and added some spoiler tags on my post and on min's, it should all be safe now
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Post by Ser Duncan on Oct 4, 2016 18:22:47 GMT
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Post by min on Oct 5, 2016 15:24:00 GMT
Boy, I really think there is more going on here than meets the eye. For example, Dr. Ford (Anthony Hopkins) says that medicine is so advanced that mankind has cured all diseases and can prolong life. We get the Virtuvian Man image of creating androids in a kind of futuristic version of a 3D copier; but I wonder if they are making real body tissues and organs. The Gunslinger empties his victim of 3 pails of blood and says that if he takes any more; the android will die. Then he takes his skull cap off; but we don't see what's inside. I think it's a replica of a brain. But the viewer is not supposed to see that yet. The androids appear to have real emotions and feel physical pain. Or is this just a question of passing the Turing test? The whole business of naked adnroids is a dehumanizing factor. Their progamming is verbal almost like hypnotic suggestion. Then there is the whole business of the sub-levels and the catastrophe that occured 3 decades earlier. Delores is the oldest host; the Corporation is called Delos an actual place in Greece with some interesting associations. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delos The photo that Teddy finds; seems to be a relic of a past version of the place rather than an artifact left by a guest. I suspect that the guests (newcomers) can't come into Westworld with anything from the outside world. There is also an odd contradiction with the Gunslinger, the Man in Black who is supposed to be human. However, Dolores' boyfriend fires on him anyway; programming that the androids can't bypass (yet). He's surprised that his bullets have no effect; which tells me that he thinks the Gunslinger is an android. A product of an original version of the android who can pass for human under whatever technology that controls the firearms so that guests are not hurt. We see that development also in Dolores' boyfriend when the prostitutes don't recognize him as an android after he gets off the train. What is with the red striped walls circling the viewing theatre? I'm reminded of Battlestar Galactica.
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Post by min on Oct 5, 2016 19:01:54 GMT
Episode 2 promo - spoilers! I'm going to say that in this future; medical advances have created synthetic body parts and organs that can be used for human transplants. The androids are made of synthetic body parts in total including the brain. This is why blood is required for the body to 'live'. Otherwise, the difference between humans and androids isn't detectable.
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Post by min on Oct 6, 2016 0:01:29 GMT
Obscure interview with Jimmi Simpson... concerning clientelle with 'black hearts' @10:43. Q - Would you say that a certain presidential candidate be a frequent visitor to the park? A - He would just tear it up in the most grotesque way. www.youtube.com/watch?v=T48dYWEbdOY
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Post by min on Oct 6, 2016 0:09:55 GMT
If this is Dr. Ford's world and he controls everything; where is Westworld located? Everything is fabricated including the flies? The location seems to be somewhere in Butte, Montana. How does Delos Corporation take control of that actual territory and make it a closed environment. They can't. The environment itself must be a simulation where the world appears endless. I'm guessing it's underground.
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Post by min on Oct 9, 2016 17:39:13 GMT
Apparently you can watch Episode 2 now on HBO Go. They have released it early due to the debate tonight. One of the most enigmatic scenes from last week quoting King Lear: www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfkqGyx-rEwnfs.sparknotes.com/lear/page_138.htmlThe language is interesting. "What is your itinerary." In other words, what is your journey or path. "My mechanical dirty hand..." The androids and Dr. Ford speak of everything as a dream state. Dirty hands in dreams represents a mess that needs to be cleaned up. I can't get the skullcap scene out of my mind with Ed Harris revealing a kind of maze diagram and his intention of getting 'deeper' into the game. I wonder if there are more than 83 basement levels and if they each have their own control room and corresponding android maze. Again, I find it odd that the MiB isn't under surveillance. I suspect that all visitors are monitored for their safety while hosts are not. Taking the skullcap with it's hidden information seems to be a theft of technology. A breach of security like this should ring some alarm bells. Security in general is mysterious. Given that the technology must be priceless and unique; how do the programmers keep the androids in and everyone else from wandering into Westworld? The control room that we see also looks like it might have a maze-like component if the viewing area was seen from above. The red walls must represent the boundary or security perimeter. ETA - found some more: www.inverse.com/article/21709-hbo-westworld-literary-references-peter-abernathy-shakespeare-john-donne"A prison of your own sins." Abernathy to Dr. Ford -- This is also a biblical reference to Romans: the war within. bible.org/seriespage/14-war-within-romans-714-25
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Post by Melifeather on Oct 10, 2016 0:55:33 GMT
Well, in the original movie Westworld the cowboy gunslinger played by Yul Brenner was an android [\spoiler]
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Post by min on Oct 10, 2016 15:51:51 GMT
What a great episode last night! It's very dense and mysterious. I'll have to watch it again to catch stuff that I missed.
The Gunslinger made another appearance and yes, he is looked for an entrance to a maze. He is known and observed but 'that gentleman gets whatever he wants'. He's been around for 30 years since the inception of previouos versions Westworld. How is it that he can get whatever he wants unless he's the CEO of the corporation... the money, if you will.
In one strange scene an android girl tells him that the maze is not for him and then tells him that he must "follow the blood orroyo to place where they lay their eggs".
This implies that someone is playing the game with him and this was a programmed response by someone. One has to suspect Dr. Ford who says that the devil has to be released.
There are several engineers who are programming androids in secret including Bernard Lowe who meets in secret with Dolores; now passing along the key code phrase to unlock memories of previous builds.
Also Bernard Lowe's assistant who reprograms Thandie's character and puts her back into action when she is supposed to be decommissioned.
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Post by Weasel Pie on Oct 10, 2016 22:05:14 GMT
On record? Episode 2 made me love this show. I thought the Wild West theme was tired but... no. It's not about that. Ed Harris is killing it. Is he a 1st gen host, allowed to survive and to believe he's really a guest? So that he can evolve? Or is he really a billionaire guest? I'm not sure if the boy was a clue - a host programmed to believe they're a guest. And I can't help but think there is a connection between the maze and the introduction to religion that Anthony Hopkins seems to excited about. Anthony Hopkins and creepy child, who I think is a host pretending to be a human? Anyway, it looks like Hannibal wants to introduce religion to the hosts. and Thandie full nudity aside (ahem) what a performance. She single-handedly explained how intensely the hosts were memory-programmed, and what could be at stake if they become aware The conversations between Thandie and the other saloon girl (yeah I don't know anyone's show name yet) are fascinating because they seem to go beyond programming. And the convo between Thandie and Scott Summers seemed so natural and organic - crazy. But the best part of the show was the contrast between the visitors William hyper-aware that the hosts were not actual humans, yet strangely treating them the most humanely and his pal who was as delighted to love the hosts as he was to make them suffer and bleed . Wow. Show has huge potential. My biggest issue is that the overseers bore the hell out of me but Thandie waking up during repairs was the bomb . Hopefully that aspect of the show continues to build up.
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