Is Westworld season 4 worth watching? Depends on why you came to Westworld

We’re more than halfway through the new season of Westworld, the dystopian sci-fi drama from writer-producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy based on Michael Crichton’s 1973 film of the same name. The show is not perfect. halcyon days of its initial popularity.

Three seasons later, WestworldIt has become a jumble of contradictory timelines, revelations, and puzzle boxes that are unable to be solved by the complexity and redundancy in their execution. While it used to be a meditation on game design, the mythologizing of the American frontier, and the nature of humanity and free will, now it’s just… a lot. But now people are talking about it again — is it finally time to revisit Westworld? Truth be told, that depends on the reason you were drawn to the series. This season streamlines the plot and indulges once more in its convoluted chronology mystery box reveals.

To put it frankly: I’m of two minds when it comes to WestworldSo, season 4 is over. I thought the best way for me to sum it all was to put my two thoughts (i.e. My consciousness and the robot host of my consciousness in a single room to battle it out.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Westworld season 4.]

Photo: John Johnson/HBO

Toussaint:Reconnect with the Internet.

Toussaint is the host:This reference is already included in the subhed to your WestworldRecap of season 3. It wasn’t clever then and it isn’t clever now.

Toussaint: Says you, asshole. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. We’re not here to be our own worst critic, we’re here to talk about Westworld. So let’s get down to it: What do you think of season 4 so far?

Toussaint is the host: WestworldSo far, season 4 has been good. The show’s writers have put enough space and time between the last season and this one to allow the consequences of Rehoboam’s destruction to settle and better establish the new status quo for the show going forward.

It is more fluid and faster-paced. The story begins with two stories from two different perspectives, Caleb and Maeve (Aaron Paul), with an antagonist William (Ed Harris), and a host version (Ed Harris). Episode three then briefly turns into three when Bernard and Stubbs return (Luke Hemsworth), before settling back down to roughly two storylines by episode four.

We see the return of the parks in the form of a new Delos destination that resumes the show’s deconstruction of game design that we saw back in season 1 with a clever nod to the practice of asset flipping situated alongside a funny, albeit brief, exploration of how resistance to exploitative systems can be defused, assimilated, and subsequently transformed into entertainment.

Toussaint:That was pretty cool. I got my own thoughts on the new Delos park, but I’ll save that till it’s my turn. Continue reading.

Toussaint is the host: For sure. Where was I… Oh yeah, and then we get to the mid-season twist, which is the most exciting twist the series has done since the first season of Westworld and blows up everything we thought we knew and understood about one of this season’s characters in a way that centralizes a major concept that was first introduced all the way back in season 2.

Toussaint: You didn’t think that twist was too busy?

Toussaint is the host:I guess so. I’ll admit, it didn’t quite land with the emotional force of its intent, but I enjoyed it for how it upended the status quo of our initial impressions of this season and opened the door to this whole new world of post-human possibilities. The fifth episode, “Zhuangzi,” kind of reminded me of that one episode from the fourth season of Fringe, “Letters of Transit,” the one where they show the future where the Observers have taken over and Peter’s stuck in amber?

Toussaint: Dude, I was just thinking about you ExactThe same! It’s a love! Fringe!

Toussaint is the host: Yeah, it’s a fun show. It finally feels like after three seasons. Westworldhas taken a step forward to correct itself, and is now tying all of these different threads together in a fascinating new direction. I’m pretty solidly pro-WestworldSeason 4. Season 4.

Toussaint: So, Westworld season 4 is… fine. I would not go so far as to describe it as “good.” My reservations lie squarely in the fact that, for a show that attempts to probe at the question of how its characters, both human and host, are ensnared in cycles of repetition and failure born out of their own nature and design, the show itself follows in the very patterns it ostensibly is critiquing.

Photo by John Johnson/HBO

You can only have so many variations of the same scene with different characters asking one another, “Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?” before it loses all novelty and instead curdles into redundancy for the sake of arbitrary rug pulls. Dr. Robert Ford literally summed up the entire thesis of seasons 2 and 3 all the way back in episode 8 of season 1, “Trace Decay,” when he said, “We live in loops as tight and as closed as the hosts do, seldom questioning our choices, content, for the most part, to be told what to do next.” So… what exactly are we doing here that complicates or advances that idea?

Toussaint is the host:However, the twist at episode 4 is what I like about this season. DoesThis idea can be complicated and brought full circle. It’s natural and thrilling. Ford was correct. Humans rarely question their choices. This is just as Ford said. We, the viewers, never doubted or mistrust the stability and nature this future that we witnessed at season 4, despite all the drama.

The shocking revelation that Caleb is no longer with us in season three, and Caleb is now a host in season four, perfectly ties into the discussion of the meaningful distinction between hosts and humans. Taken into account with host William’s identity crisis with regard to his human predecessor and his host master Dolores-Hale, and Bernard’s continuing arc of self-actualization, and I think you’ve got a solid trifecta of stories centered on the hosts asking the question of who TheyThey are distinct from their human forebears.

Toussaint: I agree that the twist in episode 4 of season 4 is interesting, though it didn’t entirely land for me until after I mulled it over for a few minutes while the credits rolled. But even then, the twist that the Caleb we’ve seen for the entirety of this season has been a host just feels like a variation on the big twist back in season 1, that the Man in Black was an older version of William all along and that the timeline where we see a young William meet Dolores for the first time in fact takes place in the past. The same can be said of the subsequent reveal at the end of episode 4 that the setting that audiences had been led to believe was the “present day” is actually the past, and that the season’s actual present-day storyline takes place in 2083, over two decades after the death of the original human Caleb and Dolores-Hale’s subsequent subjugation of the human denizens of New York City and, presumably, the entire world. The writing for this season is running in circles, at once becoming a cleaner, leaner version of the show than any we’ve seen in the past couple seasons while at the same time relying on the same ol’ bag of tricks, just with different characters.

Image by:

I also agree that the new Delos park based on the Roaring ’20s introduced at the end of episode 2 is a welcome return to the show’s roots in season 1. It even lampshades the series’ tendency to recycle plot points through Maeve’s commentary on this new park’s similarities to the original Westworld. The only problem I have with this setting is the fact that it is dropped in the first episode. This is more due to narrative priorities and how the series is structured. Although it may seem funny, I found the series to be quite entertaining. WestworldYou can touch upon the practice of asset flipping. This was something the series had already done. Exact joke before in the fifth episode of the second season, “Akane no Mai.” Again, another case of a good idea drawn out way past its expiration date.

Toussaint is the host: Oh wow, you’re right! I forgot all about that “Akane no Mai” episode but yeah, they did pretty much do that exact same gag way back in season 2 — albeit in an Edo-period simulacrum.

Toussaint:To be honest, it is. LotMany things happened during that second season. And another thing — I’ve seen defenders of WestworldSome people think that the detractors want an action series with cowboy robots and no deep philosophical sci-fi. But I don’t think that people who’ve grown tired of Westworld I have uncultured taste and don’t believe the show to be as rich or as complex as it claims. Frankly, Westworld is a classic example of science fiction that thinks it’s smarter than it actually is, and it shows through the tired, trite, Abrams-esque “mystery box” style of writing that insists on repeatedly circling around the same questions, oftentimes verbatim, for the sake of eleventh-hour twists instead of evincing any new insights into the mind or perspective of the characters to whom those questions have been asked.

Also — and admittedly this criticism is minor and kinda petty — the show in its latter seasons just feels like it was written by a stereotypical, hoverboard-riding, West Coast tech yuppie who just heard about this cool new band called Death Grips and truly believes with the whole of his heart, mind, and soul that the “blockchain” is the future of everything. If that’s not cringe, I don’t know what is.

Image by:

Photo by John Johnson/HBO

Toussaint is the host: Ouch. But, you can’t just stop watching. Westworld then? Is there something that keeps you returning to this show every Sunday?

Toussaint: A sunk cost fallacy? [Both Toussaints laugh] Nah, but seriously, what’s actually keeping me coming back to Westworld every season is the show’s production design. The creepiness of drone hosts that look like Putty Patrollers is what I enjoy. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers but imagined with the sinuous musculature of a Body Worlds exhibit And the milk-blood androids of Ridley Scott’s Alien and Wolves raised them. Delos eVTOL planes have a fantastic design. The bulky robots used to riot in season 3 remind me of Boxguard security robotics. Deus Ex: Human Revolution. I just wish they inhabited a more interesting world, y’know? HBO needs to release an artwork book.

All that aside, I love the acting of the cast. Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, and Tessa Thompson are wonderful, and Jeffrey Wright continues to be the driving heart and soul of the series, with Bernard’s arc arguably being the most compelling of all the principal characters to date.

This series scores continue to be an outstanding one. Westworld’s strong points, with composer Ramin Djawadi continuing to find new and inventive ways of iterating on contemporary pop and art-rock tracks beyond the anachronistic phonograph and player piano covers of the first season. However, these covers are not enough to convey the story’s emotional depth. Westworld’s noted overreliance on Radiohead and the plaintive string cover of Lana Del Rey’s 2011 single “Video Games” at the end of the season 4 premiere.

Image by:

Toussaint is the host: Hmmm. So what’s your verdict so far? There’s no need to split hairs. Would you recommend the new season? Even with all that’s been said, I still feel pretty positive about Westworldseason 4, and we recommend anyone who has fallen off the wagon in season 3, to at least view the first two episodes this season. Then, see what you think.

Toussaint: See, for me, it depends on who’s asking the question. WestworldSeason 4 of the series is, without a doubt, the best since season 1. Unfortunately, WestworldIt is…well, still WestworldWith all its good and evil sides. To understand what’s going on in this season demands an understanding of several key events from season 2 and season 3, which, as someone who has watched those seasons, I cannot recommend in good conscience. It’s just a total slog to rewatch them. If you’ve already knuckled your way through season 2 and gritted your teeth through season 3, or at the very least are willing to brush up with explainers of season 2 and season 3, then I guess my answer would be yes, you should give this season a shot.

But if you’re looking for the show to finally start moving into a more thorough exploration of why its human and host characters continue to be trapped in systems and behaviors that contribute to their own degradation beyond sophomoric “we live in a society” philosophizing, well… it’s pretty late in the game and I just don’t think that’s going to happen, no matter how much I want to believe that Westworld’s characters, and the show itself, can break out of the cycle of their own bad habits.

Did you have any other thoughts? WestworldSeason 4

Toussaint is the host:No, we didn’t cover everything. You good?

Toussaint: Yeah, I’m good. You may rest peacefully until next time.

Host Toussaint also reports.

Watch new episodes WestworldThese videos are available on HBO Max and HBO Max Sundays.