HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

Westworld has been canceled.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hbo-cancels-westworld-1235255955/

 

Oh. That's a shame.

 

Pretty shocking for a show that was intended to be a flagship. At least last season's ending was moderately satisfying.

 

The first season was prestige TV. The second season tried to one-up itself and got messy. The third season was about as straightforward as you can get. The fourth season was a step up.

 

Well, that's disappointing. The last couple of seasons haven't been up to par with the first, but I still wanted to see what they had planned for Delores' final test of humanity in returning to the park, and getting to see all the old characters again.

 

I'm not surprised considering how the last season ended. Hell, I was a little taken aback when Jonah and Lisa said they had a plan for an additional season.

 

This is absolutely a BS decision as far as I'm concerned.

Contrary to, it seems, everyone else in the civilized world, I don't consider the conclusion of Season 4 to be even remotely close to a resolution to the story and very clearly and explicitly was never intended to serve that function, and so to not allow Jonah and Lisa Joy the opportunity to actually finish the story is, for me, an incredible slap in the face, particularly when you put the storytelling quality of Westworld up against anything else that the network has produced in the past several years and not prematurely cut short (* Game of Thrones *).

Okay, furious rant over.

 

And this is why I keep talking about ratings even though people keep yelling that they don't matter. When it comes to renewal ratings matter. Quality does not.

 

Seasons 3 and 4 felt like a different show from 1 and 2. I saw no buzz for them and very little discussion anywhere (beyond a lot of people saying they weren't watching anymore.)

I'm actually impressed they resisted the urge to end season 4 with Dolores in the simulation creating a simulation of Ford and giving him the idea for a cowboy amusement park, implying that everything we've seen in the show has been a simulation and the whole universe of the show is a recursive series of simulations.

 

I doubt they had any such urge to resist.

 

Westworld is a full on WB made show right? No way would they sell to Bezos?

 

The way WB is treating it's products fuck knows if they don't just Vault it permanently for the tax savings.

 

I hope somehow we learn the planned ending in another way. It’d be disappointing not to get a real resolution. But the show had a unique identity in the first season and then kept doubling down on the high conceptness without preserving the identity.

And I went with it but I never felt Charlores’ victory and the subsequent extinction were earned. They basically “Yadda yadda yadda”d the complete control of the human race, they just did it in a cool enough way to reduce the asking of questions.

 

It's being reported at the main cast is getting fully paid for season 5 because they had pay-or-play deals.

 

I haven't watched season 4 yet, but personally I felt the show peaked at the end of season 2. I found season 3 to be a chore to get through and so I was surprised when season 4 was announced. I'm not at all surprised it got cancelled at this point.

 

I'm happy with what we got. The final third of the most recent season was so poorly done, it is better to put the show down now.

 

I loved the first season but season two just didn't compare - I didn't go back for season three.

 

No.

 

Which makes this even more stupid.

If you have to pay the actors, just make the freaking season.