Seven days of a post a day, and it’s starting to feel like it’s okay to do stuff that isn’t super intense or deep, though I’ve discovered that instead of just posting whatever, I’m racking my brains for something heavy or at least in depth to write about. I guess I’m learning how to think with different parts of my creative self or whatever.
I got this thing called the triby from woot because it was on sale (I know, just because it’s on sale doesn’t mean you have to buy it) and though it has a terrible name (m’lady)*, it’s been a lot of fun to talk to Alexa on it throughout the day. It’s kind of cool that I can ask it to play me a news update, and it’ll cycle through about 10 minutes of news stuff from local to national to world news, then give me the weather. I keep wanting to thank it, the same way I want to thank my phone when Ok, Google, does something for me.
Hey speaking of self-aware robots: how about Westworld? I kept feeling like there was a good show inside whatever I’ve been watching for ten weeks, so I stuck with it, enduring awful exposition, two characters that are either badly written, badly performed, or both, and a criminal underuse of Anthony Hopkins … but after watching the season finale, I’m so glad I stuck it out. I’m looking forward to going back and watching it again, knowing what I know now. I still think the entire Mayve storyline is crap and stresses my suspension of disbelief more than the existence of Westworld, itself, but the other primary storyline was wonderful, and really paid off. Memo to LOST: this is how you do it without an audience-insulting shit ending.
Have you seen Ex-Machina? If you haven’t, and you liked Westworld, I highly recommend it. There’s also a fantastic episode of Black Mirror from series two called Be Right Back that provokes a lot of the same questions. Anne and I have been wanting to start series three of Black Mirror, but we’ve been investing our limited television time watching Channel Zero and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
You know, there’s so much good television right now, I feel like I could do nothing but watch incredible shows everywhere from broadcast networks to cable to online-only, and there wouldn’t be enough time in the day to see it all.
*I know, it isn’t Trilby, but it’s close enough.
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I don’t think you owe anyone “deep” commentary all the time. Whatever you post is automatically going to be articulate and insightful, after all. 🙂
GAAAAH! Too much good TV and not enough time. I’m still not caught up on the CW comic book shows.
I need to remember that “on sale” does not mean BUY Nao! Audible is having a sale. That’s my downfall right now because I can listen to Audio books and play WoW. But seriously…. Honor Harrington Series, the whole thing, for $26? Who could resist that.
Sometimes I wish I’d gone into voice acting. I loved reading to my Mom (it was a thing, she read to me and when I could read we reversed). We made a huge deal about different voices for different characters and accents and all that.
I keep thinking I could take an attic room, make it into a space that worked for reading and do the Reading for the Blind thing. I don’t think I’d ever be as good as you are but I do think that doing a book for fun, to see if it’s STILL fun like it was when I was a kid, might be an interesting thing to do.
Interesting – I felt just the opposite. I was pretty invested in WW all season and was totally let down by the finale. It felt stale and half-hearted (and predictable – I expected most of it from Ep1). It should have at least ended 20 minutes sooner than it did. It left me unsatisfied and uncaring about a second season…
Thank goodness, someone has decided to invest in television with real writers and scripts and actors, etc., instead of pretending some poor PA isn’t plotying out for improvised “reality” tv.
So, yes, lots of good tv…
I lack 2 episodes to the end of Westworld, and I too have liked best the main storyline, and found the Maeve storyline pushing the envelope quite a bit. Your comments encourage me to catch up. I too LOVED both Ex Machina and the Dark Mirror episode Be Right Back – but then again, I really really liked AI (the idea of a machine’s enduring connection to humanity – even when that humanity is gone) and The Machine in the TV show Person of Interest as well.
Heck, we can start with the Asimov I-Robot book series and just move on from there 😉
There was a Yul Brynner / Gunslinger looking host in the background of the episode ‘The Adversary’. (maybe this is what you’re referencing?)
Too much TV? Never… You wont be disappointing Whil, the 3rd season Black Mirror is intense. Loved WESTWORLD, There’s a second season in the works, just don’t know where they can take it. the finale was a OK, not great.
Ex Machina is outstanding ! The conclusion (a shocker) leaves the door open for expansion.
There actually is a nod to the original in episode 6 or 7 (maybe I forget) when Bernard goes down into the basement and standing off to the back is this : https://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7421651/westworld_brenner.jpg
AHHHHHH I missed that when it was on air, and I’m so happy to know that it was there all along.
There was indeed a reference to the original. It was quick and I totally missed it at the time, but this seems pretty legit:
http://www.polygon.com/tv/2016/11/7/13549212/westworld-easter-egg
Easter eggs? You want easter eggs? There are plenty of original movie easter eggs. Final episode Ed Harris in a tux echos Yul Brenner down to the bottle. The constant reference to the hands being a give away. The tech looks at his hands when he wonders if he is a host. Anthony Hopkins saying that a handshake could give them away.
The Maeve story line value, I think, hinges on the question of whether what she’s doing is her exercising free will, or just executing an escape narrative, but if the latter is the case, then wouldn’t her decision at the end be her actually exercising free will?
Ex-Machina was incredible, and most disturbing for me was the complete empathy and attraction I felt towards a character that was clearly a machine, which made the ending do double damage.
My biggest problem with the Maeve story is just how useless the two guys who help her are. The primary guy is so underdeveloped, I wanted him to be a host, planted by Ford, setting her on this path to freedom for some reason that has yet to be revealed. But it seems like he was just some guy who had zero strength, never stopped to ask why he was doing what he was doing, and just went along with doing everything he was not supposed to do because the story needed him to.
That’s true, and given the position Bernard holds, it almost doesn’t make any sense for the repair techs not to be hosts, even though (or especially because) Maeve states explicitly that her helper tech isn’t one of them. There’s the question of his tinkering with the bird early on, and what the meaning of that is too. I agree though, he seems to be there solely to forward her part of the story, but given the depth of everything else, I wonder if he’s not part of a longer plot line.
There was a HUGE Easter Egg… The original Man in Black was against the back wall in the bowels of the old lab
BAH, Stompy you beat me to it. Yes indeedy he was there in that scene. Easy to miss with all the naked bots. I think that was one genius affect of the show. Sooooo much nudity and all it did was desensitize us to the nakedness. It dehumanized the hosts, and after a while you barely notice it.
As for the title Man in Black, that will always be Randall Flagg to me.
I watched the last three episodes of Westworld in one night and my brain felt full. Mostly I was disappointed (SPOILER!) that the man in black was William all along. I was kind of digging the love story, but oh well. I love the intro to that show though. I have never seen the original so even if I saw an Easter Egg I wouldn’t know… . And Ex-Machina. Wow, that movie. WOW. There is a lot of great stuff out there. If you haven’t seen Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, that should be on your list. I’ve made it through a lot, but still have Black Mirror, Orphan Black, season 1 of True Detective, and who knows what else to watch. Oy.
I was rather stunned by the ending, but I am not one to really disect a show; mostly I just like things or I don’t. If I think about it I do see what you are saying though…I am curious to see where next season will go..
I haven’t ot round to Westworld yet but might have to now as I loved Ex-Machina and Be Right Back, and you really have something to look forward too with Black Mirror Season 3, also on the Robot theme if you can get Humans in your part of the world that’s worth a watch
Speaking of “Black Mirror” (and you did), I still have TV-PTSD from “15 Million Merits” and “White Bear.” Unbelievably good show, but I know now I shouldn’t binge watch it.