You’re Not Who I Thought You Were
When you change (West)worlds, should you change your the title of your show?
I just finished season three of Westworld and it was…interesting? It takes some big swings, and wether or not it connects on all of them, it has a message it clearly wants to hit on. But I’m not here to give a review or discuss the details of the season. I want to focus on something specific that I can’t remember encountering before with a TV show.
That is, the complete reimagining of the tone, style, and setting of the series midstream. So much so, that the general premise of the show has altered and is not what it was. Robots rising against humans in the Old West.
It’s a fascinating choice after only two seasons to shift genre, change worlds, and replace a significant amount of important characters with new ones. It is both seamless and startling at the same time.
It’s not that the bones of the show aren’t still there, with the foundation aspects still influencing the look and feel. But the setting change has altered the type of show that it is. It is no longer a genre blend of Western infused with Science Fiction. It is now a full on futuristic Sci-fi thriller.
From the calm control and slower pacing of the placid planes of the Old West, with the occasional disruption of an epic set piece, which even those feel quaint by this seasons standards. In this new world, the future world, it feels like Blade Runner on steroids. And it felt like a new show.
Westworld has always been a frustrating show in that it uses complexity to obfuscate key points until they are read to share them, but generally the payoff is worth it once all the pieces come together. It’s because of these payoffs, the thought-provoking theories the show is centered around, and a continuation of the long arc story with specific characters that I am able to stick with it through this drastic change.
But while the underpinnings of the show remains, I have trouble connecting with the characters as deeply as I should, and want to, because I need to reorient myself to the new world, re-educate on it’s new rules, reset my allegiances with existing and new characters. It can be exhausting for any show, let alone one that already has a high cognitive load.
Now this isn’t the first television show to have done a reset, but most typically relate to the story and character arcs. Others are totally reboot done years later be different teams, with different visions. The closest correlation to what Westworld has done is The Crown, when they replaced their entire principal cast with new actors portraying the same characters to closer resemble the aging of their real life counterparts as the series progresses through the decades.
It was and is a radical approach in the historical context of how shows are traditionally made. In this scenario, makeup, prosthetics, and/or CGI would typically been used to relay the effect of aging with the same actors, but they envisioned something different. While disorienting at first, the show pulled it off due to the masterful control of the established tone, style, and pacing, allowing the characters, and actors, to continue naturally in this established world.
Westworld’s changes, I think, are even more radical. They are up ending the established paradigms of the show. As the previously stated changes of genre, world, and protagonist, the tone of the show has evolved into something different from what I signed up for when I started the show.
But that’s okay. This is extremely hard to execute because of the nature of television, being that you have and take the time to establish a deep connection with your characters, creating a world and the rules of it, to build a relationship with the audience. They are basically throwing that all out and starting over. I’ve never experienced this before and I think it is a bold move.
Now while they have less to rebuild on then what The Crown was working with, the one aspect that hasn’t changed is their intention. It’s what is holding the show together, narratively speaking. The cinematic visual style is still there as well, holding one’s attention. And boy is it amazing.
But the intention of the producers and writers, tackling longterm moral issues regarding the dilemmas of future technology that is currently in its nascent stages in our present day life, is still the tie that binds the show together. They have established that they are passionate about exploring a complex and esoteric theory, that is messy and difficult to dramatize, but are willing to follow wherever the story takes them to do it. It may not be the show that I thought it was, but it who I want the shows creators to be.
