These are my notes for Bicameral Mind, episode ten (the finale!) of Westworld, season one. As with all these “notes” posts: Serious Series Spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve seen season one!

The season two premiere dropped last Sunday, and it seems worth the wait! The second season looks to be just as enthralling as the first one. It’s interesting to read the various reviews (which often say as much about the reviewer as they do about the reviewed). Some loved the puzzle-box aspect of season one and miss it in the new season; others are relieved there’s less of that and more action. A few seemed disappointed the show didn’t live up to their personal expectations.

I loved it, and I’m so looking forward to watching the story unfold over the next nine weeks! Meanwhile, the exciting finale of season one—

Continue reading

These are my notes for The Well-Tempered Clavier, episode nine of Westworld, season one. As with all these “notes” posts: Serious Series Spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve seen season one!

These last episodes are so full and complex that even a mere outline makes for a long post! So while this may be bare bones and really sketchy, it’ll still be long!

One very neat thing that’s happened is that, despite all the times I’ve watched the series, it’s only watching carefully and taking notes that has really clarified the storyline for me. I feel that I understand what happened a lot better than I have until now. (Which is good considering we jump into season two tomorrow. Whoo Hoo! The wait is over!)
Continue reading

These are my notes for Trace Decay, episode eight of Westworld, season one. As with all these “notes” posts: Serious Series Spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve seen season one!

The pace is definitely picking up in the later episodes as much of what has been set up is paying off (but much is left still unexplained).

Because the second season premiere is so close, these notes are getting fairly skeletal, but I’m still finding the idea of even an outline useful, so I’m still hanging in there (and even as an outline, this episode made for a long post).

Continue reading

These are my notes for Trompe L’Oeil, episode seven of Westworld, season one. As with all these “notes” posts: Serious Series Spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve seen season one!

Still trying to get these posts done before the season two premiere on Sunday, but it’s not looking good. At least not for a careful look as I’d planned. On the other hand, it’s becoming apparent to me that one could spend a lot more time analyzing each episode and writing about it. These notes posts are longer than my usual limit (about 1500 or so words), and even the longer ones only seem to scratch the surface. Part of what’s working against me here is a bit of despair over doing this series real justice.

But whatever. Even these bare bones notes have been helpful in getting to me really think about the series, so on we go!

Continue reading

These are my notes for The Adversary, episode six of Westworld, season one. As with all these “notes” posts: Serious Series Spoilers! Do not read unless you’ve seen season one.

I’m faced with the prospect of rushing through the second half of the season in order to post all these episode notes before the new season airs this Sunday. Watching, thinking about, and writing about, an episode per day doesn’t sound like fun (mostly on account of all the writing), and I have no intention of turning this into work. (And I’m getting tired of writing about Westworld so much.) On the other hand, I do need to at least see the remaining episodes before the new season starts, so I might do these in a far more bare-bones fashion (and then maybe later come back and flesh them out).

I’ll see how it goes. For now, here’s episode six:

Continue reading