Westworld Season 3 returns to HBO Sunday at 9 p.m. The return could not come at a better time. The Lisa Joy/Jonathan Nolan produced series has always been, for better or worse, a completely engrossing series that consumes its audience with equal parts mythos and mayhem. During this (to put it in the mildest way possible) worrisome time, it’s not a bad thing to have something that can take our minds off the crushing realities of our time (not to mention keeping us in doors, glued to our television sets).
Westworld Season 3 does come in with a lot of promise. That amazing, head fake of a trailer that debuted last year may have been one of HBO’s finest promotional works to date. That trailer revealed the addition of multi-time Emmy winner Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad), a move that bolstered an already staggeringly talented cast.
Looking beyond the trailer this will see the addition of wild array of talent — former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch, Emmy-winning writer Lena Waithe (Master of None), musician Kid Cudi (Jexi ), and Tony winners Jefferson Mays (The Ballad of a Buster Scruggs) and John Gallagher Jr. (The Newsroom), as well as Vincent Cassel (Ocean’s 12), Michael Ealy (Almost Human), Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy).
The creators have promised the series will feel more like the film Heat but the tension will be between hosts and creators, not DeNiro and Pacino. We’re also seeing the series taken from the sprawling vistas of the Westworld theme park, and into a Los Angeles futurescape.
This is all awesome. Truly. Can’t wait for the premiere. Yet, all this promise can’t erase the inherent issues that have been consistently present since this series premiered. Talk to fans of the series and you’ll find that mixed in with praise for the series is a not so subtle disgust with the show’s missteps. Overcomplicated storylines, dead ends, season-long vagaries, mysteries for the sake of mysteries, and that Season 2 finale was just utterly maddening with so many “don’t you get it?” moments.
There are three principles that Westworld needs to adhere to this season that I believe will not only wash away the sins of the past, but propel this series to new, legendary heights for HBO:
Brevity: This can be taken two ways. First, brevity definitely applies to the storytelling of the series, as arcs and characters are often ruminate for far too long. Remember the endless, and confusing odyssey of The Forge in Season 2? How about all those side characters that were focused on so heavily, only to be tossed out in an explosion of violence — like anyone from the feudal Japan episodes? How many instances of Deloros wanting revenge or The Man in Black being a bastard did we need to see?
This brevity problem is likely fueled by the fact the series always feels two episodes too long. The 10 episodes in Season 1 and Season 2 at times felt endless, sputtering out by mid-season as the aforementioned story and character slogs dragged out. With a reduced order of 8 episodes in 2020, there’s at least some reason to be hopeful for something better. Let’s cut to the chase, and more importantly the heart of the season, and not be mired down in everything that doesn’t matter in the end anyway.
Clarity: Remember in Season 2 when Bernard was constantly saying “I don’t know.” Yes, we were all Bernard’s state of confusion in that season. Character motivations were often unclear to the point of absolute frustration. The mystery box storytelling was really infuriating especially when the glacial pace of key reveals were done in a rushed, unfulfilling manner. And did we not forget the whole “Is the Man in the Black actually a host?” cliffhanger from last season? Being mysterious and complex is all well and good, but when your pays-off are a bunch of “Don’t you get it!” eureka moments that leave your audience either let down or confused — sometimes less is definitely more.
Simplicity: There’s a big difference between dumbing down a series, and just telling a straightforward story. If this series is really about a cat and mouse game between the hosts and humans, battling for control of the world — perfect. But, with hints of Maeve being in a World War II era setting, one has to wonder if we’re still going to be dipping into mind-bending multi-timelined interludes that have proven to muddle the works in the past. Westworld needs to focus on the main story of the series and use the mindbender, mystery box, and mythos elements of the series as embellishments, and not the focus.
If Westworld’s third season can find a way to incorporate a few of these notes, it could have the makings of an all time great series of television. Then again, if it gave us everything we wanted without any obfuscations or misdirections, it wouldn’t really be Westworld.
Westworld Season 3 premieres tonight on HBO at 9 p.m. — stream previous seasons on HBO NOW and Hulu.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJbFA32_QY&t=9s
