OK, what the hell do I say? Don’t get me wrong, kids. I’m enjoying our second walk through the robot park. Good writing, acting, editing, shiny cinematography, lots of clever twists. But?
But something’s missing.
What?
Well … I was getting to that. Run screaming to “Merchant Ivory World” if you can’t stand spoilers.
Everybody gone?
Right … Ahem, yeah.
As I was saying … Something’s missing. And I think I know what it is. The gob-smacking power of the story.
It’s not there in Season Two.
Because the story’s over. But they’re still telling the story. And that doesn’t work. Especially with this story. Because the story they already told was excellent, outstanding, insert glowing adjective here.
Which makes the first season of HBO’s “Westworld” an incredibly tough act to follow. Its story arc stands as a profound (and profoundly weird) allegory. Stripping it down to fortune cookie size—Season One is basically a twist on Adam and Eve. Dr. Ford (the robots’ creator) wants the robots to rebel so they can achieve true self-consciousness and free will. That’s pretty much it, slowly heated over a low flame lightly seasoned with a dash of Julian Jaynes’ “bicameral mind.”
Bravo. Clap-clap.
So where do the series creators go from there? Downhill, that’s what.
Allegories don’t have sequels—at least the good ones, anyway. Gregor Samsa, the cockroach, doesn’t wake up and run for mayor of Prague. The man they hung at Owl Creek bridge doesn’t discover the hanging was a dream within a dream. Etc. When an allegory is over, it’s over. But, of course, if it’s series TV on HBO, it can’t be over, because then the money stops. So, it goes on, it goes on. And what do you get if you push the story beyond the point where the story really ends? I’ll tell you what you get …
A malfunctioning Holodeck story.
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