The Westworld Season 3 premiere delivered on the staggering amount of lofty promises that both the phenomenal trailers, and producers promised us for the past year.
After two very long seasons of wandering through the Wild West, feudal Japan, and the concrete cyber substructures of the titular theme park, the series is unleashed into the real world, and with it so many new characters, and storylines with it.
The storylines for Season 3, as illustrated so far, will revolve around Deloros (Evan Rachel Wood) and her revolution against humanity, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) and his search for answers, the future of Delos as guided by Hale (Tess Thompson) and emotionally scarred soldier Caleb (Aaron Paul) and his struggle to assimilate into society.
Thankfully, unlike previous seasons, all these stories are told in a rather straightforward, and uncompromising manner. It’s as if they took a cue from the series heroine (Deloros), and are laser focused on crafting their tale. There’s few vagaries in the premiere, outside of Bernard’s exact role (why is he working in a slaughterhouse, outside of the obvious metaphor), and that’s refreshing. As stated in my op-ed prior to the season launch, the Westworld Season 3 premiere needed to be more focused, and less obtuse in years prior in order to keep a skeptical audience laser-focused on the series.
The evolution of Deloros worked wonderfully here. She’s much less Terminator here, and more revolutionary. Last season, her modus operandi was essentially to brutally murder her way off the island. In the premiere we see are not as just as blunt force killing machine, but more of a James Bond-ian character, usually every fiber of her being to begin her revolution. It’s fun to watch Wood turn her character on a dime — one minute she’s the soft-spoken, wide-eyed “tell me your problems” girlfriend, and then an unflinching dealer of death. I definitely have a feeling that Wood, more than any season before, will be a massive dramatic force in this season, and we’re all better for it.
The only actor who gets as much screen time (if not more) than Wood is Aaron Paul. The addition of Paul was an intriguing one. On one hand, any time you can add a multi-time Emmy-winning actor to your series, that’s definitely good thing. Yet, you’re also taking an actor, who is known for an iconic role in a lauded series and dropping him into an already established series, would he fit? The answer is unequivocally, yes. Paul delivers such a lived-in performance that it blends wonderfully with the already established mythos and world of Westworld — which is not an easy feet.
Westworld Season 3 premiere was a taught, slick, and the storytelling was to the point. There was no meandering around the metaphysical. There was plenty of terrific action sequences, awesome performances, breathtaking futurescapes, and enough intrigue to make James Bond blush. The episode, most importantly showed us that this new chapter in the Wesworld saga could be its absolute best.
Westworld Season 3 premiere is currently streaming on HBO NOW.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v2e-UEtMZQ
