Westworld: The Auguries (4x01)

Man, I don't remember season three of this show at all. I just remember being kind of confused by it and not caring enough to figure out what was happening. In other words, a great place to be as we're starting off a new season! Ha.

Cons:

I mean, there's just so much dramatic framing, so much artistry put into the construction of the plot, but things are so convoluted that the impact is often lost. So like, for example, the whole opening scene with William. Is William dead? Is this a copy? I think so, but I literally have lost track. Also Christina - is she Dolores, in any way? Or is this an entirely different consciousness? We have so many people walking around with the same faces that I literally get confused about who knows what, who's human, who's a construct, and what the lines between those things actually are. I know this is my own fault, I know I could pay closer attention, but I don't care very much, and therein lies my problem.

We've got Christina who is working as a writer for NPCs in video games, and finds out that the people she's writing for might somehow really exist. Cool premise. I didn't appreciate the super cheesy "gosh, I'm just writing about simple things like love, and girls who want to break free and go on adventures" vibe, though. It was a little too trite for my taste, and the time we spent with this character was a lot of repetition in what I felt could have been addressed more quickly.

Some exposition issues in this first episode as well, people spending a tad too much time saying "it's been this long since the war" and explaining the worldbuilding to me. It's been several years since season three, and I know they needed to catch the audience up, but I felt it could have been done more gracefully.

Pros:

Obviously this show is gorgeous, you can see the budget it how it's shot and the effects and everything. It's always a treat just to look at the screen when Westworld is on.

The second I saw Teddy at the end of the episode, or at least someone who looks like Teddy, I got super pumped. I always loved all the drama with him and Dolores, a good romantic tragedy... it ties in with what Christina is saying she wants to write (romance) with what her bosses are making her write (tragedy). Could be interesting!

Also, the idea of a writer inadvertently subjecting real consciousness to the whims of storytelling conventions is not original to Westworld, but it is a storytelling trope I've always liked. There's just so much you can do with it! The idea of NPCs being written for video games and then actually existing in some form of consciousness is really just another version of the Westworld concept we see in the first season of this show, right? But now it's this recursive, ever-narrowing spiral of complexity. In this world, with this sort of technological advancement, who and what can we classify as an individual consciousness, and what rights do they have? If this show can manage to address these things in an interesting way, I might come around on this season and get properly interested in this show again for the first time since maybe the first season.

I love Aaron Paul, so seeing him here is always nice. I didn't really know what to make of Caleb as a character all last season, but here I think he's got a stronger established vibe. He's got a wife and a kid, but his PTSD is haunting him and leaving him to pass on his fears to his child. Of course, his paranoia is proved to be legitimate, and by the end of the episode he's going off with Maeve to try and track down the people who mean him and his family harm.

Speaking of Maeve, it's super wonderful to see her again! We see flashbacks as she deals with her own trauma, and then we see William has sent hosts after her to kill her. You can't take her down that easily! A lot of the Maeve material was setup this week, so I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

And that's where we'll stop. Sure, there are things I don't remember or understand from previous seasons, and sure, I'm not going to bother to look them up because who cares! Still, I'm willing to see where the journey takes us next.

7.5/10