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

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.

 

Oh, no, someone has an opposing opinion!

 

The surprising thing to me is that they made S4 in the first place, given how little buzz and viewership S3 got despite airing at the very start of the pandemic lockdown.

Somewhat related, I bought the first three seasons on Blu in order to watch them for the first time. The first season comes in beautiful cardboard packaging with lots more artwork and inserts than it needed to, giving the set a grand, intriguing feel:



The second season came in a smaller cardboard package with just an insert or two, and wasn't as stylish, but it was still nice. The third season, however, just came in a normal plastic case. It felt like HBO was tacitly acknowledging "yeah, things didn't go the way we'd hoped with this one."

I resold the second and third season sets on eBay, and will be skipping watching/owning the fourth altogether. But I'll hang on to that first season set.

 

Eh, Westworld should have been a 1 season show/miniseries. The first season is pretty self-contained and ended on a note of some finality, with it being the slow burn tale of how a Robot Uprising could begin.

 

^ I can easily imagine a great "Escape from Westworld" second season told from the perspective of new human characters, who must find a way to survive, and then fight their way to an escape from, increasingly sentient hosts. There could be fascinating tension within a human group, with some who just came to soak in the historical ambiance looking down on the more violent people who came for thrills and sadism, but needing to rely on them for their fighting skills. It wouldn't be a trippy/meditative philosophical season like the first, probably, but it could still be a damned fine one. I think the creators' insistence on maintaining the tone of the first season in a series increasingly ill-suited for it was the show's downfall.

 

Somewhat surprised since it was held in high regard among many people. Also, considering how expensive the show was and how much was put into it they should have tried to wrap it up or do a one off to put a bow on it.

 

It is the same philosophy with the Batgirl movie...

 

I don't believe that it is.

If anything, it's akin to what happened with Netflix's GLOW, only it's going to cost HBO a lot more money.

 

What happened with GLOW?

 

Netflix renewed the show for a fourth season and then cancelled it after the pandemic shut everything down, but still had to pay the cast.

By the time HBO pays the cast of Westworld, as well as Jonah and Lisa, it's likely going to cost them as much, if not more, as it would to just go ahead and shoot a fifth season.

 

That sounds like a similar decision but a much different circumstance.

 

Nowhere near the same cost. Paying the core cast and producers come to less than the cost of producing two episodes.

 

And the third season was so silly, and such a copycat of Prelude to Foundation, that I generally never believed it would get renewed for a fourth season. And I didn't bother with the fourth season.

 

It was good, better than 3.

 

Same. What happened at the end of the 3rd made it feel like they were bracing for cancellation. It didn't feel like something they'd be coming back from.

 

That was your mistake. It was the most entertaining of all the seasons, and overall second best, after season 1.