"Westworld," Year Three

Minor spoilers ahead.

"Westworld" is one of the most frustrating series that is currently airing. Despite plenty of resources at their disposal - a great cast, spectacular production values, and talented writers and directors - they just can't quite seem to pull it together. The third season was their chance to revitalize the show, changing the setting from the Westworld amusement park to the outside world that we've only glimpsed so far. The show's creators do a great job of setting up the human world of the future, a sleekly gorgeous dystopia where individuals are guided by a supercomputer called Rehoboam, that preserves the social order and keeps larger dangers at bay.

We have a few new human characters, chief among them Caleb (Aaron Paul), an ex-soldier who gets caught up in Dolores's plans, and the mysterious Serac (Vincent Cassel), who controls Rehoboam, and by proxy the world. However, the major conflict is between the escaped hosts, namely Dolores and Maeve. Dolores and her allies - including Caleb and Hale - want to disrupt the human world and take down Rehoboam. Maeve is being incentivized to stop them. Bernard and another host, Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), have teamed up to try and keep the situation from blowing up. Oh, and the Man in Black is still in play, and has his own ideas about how to go about saving the world.

The human world looks absolutely fantastic. The actors, especially Evan Rachel Woods as Dolores, do a great job of introducing all these new concepts and hyping up the impending clashes to come. However, "Westworld" runs into some of the same problems that it's had since the beginning. On the one hand, it tackles all these big, fascinating ideas, and does a good job of setting up a compelling set of problems. I love the human world having all these parallels to the Westworld park, including the way Serac has justified setting individual human beings on predetermined courses of action, with grave consequences if they deviate. On the other hand, "Westworld" is still obligated to be an action show first and foremost, and nearly every episode involves some kind of big fight or chase sequence. The series largely abandons the mystery format and never gets quite as cerebral or philosophical as it has in the past. The show dispensed with its "final five Cylons" cliffhanger mystery in one, tidy swoop.

This shift is not necessarily a bad thing. It's much easier to follow this year's streamlined narrative and to stay invested in the various characters. The twists tend to come off better, and there's not the sense that the show's creators are rewriting the rules every time they need an escape hatch. There's also less filler and vastly improved material for some of the characters. Tessa Thompson is finally getting meatier scenes as Charlotte Hale. Some of Ed Harris's best moments are in this season, including a therapy scene involving several different versions of his character. Vincent Cassel and Aaron Paul are excellent additions to the cast, and none of the returning regulars feel shortchanged or sidelined this year.

However, the show seems to have gotten a little too wrapped up in spectacle for its own sake. Some of the big action moments are great, but others are duds, including nearly all the physical fights between Dolores and Maeve. The story often moves too quickly with the reduced episode count, and there are still several instances where reversals and changes of heart seem to come at the drop of a hat. In trying to be more cinematic, weekly developments are often less impactful, and the storytelling less thoughtful. It's fine if "Westworld" wants to be more of an action thriller from this point on, but I feel like the creators haven't quite figured how to balance those elements with the more ambitious sci-fi ideas they're trying to explore.

I also can't help drawing comparisons to Jonathan Nolan's last series, "Person of Interest," which shares a lot of the same themes and concepts with this season of "Westworld." I think "Person of Interest" sidestepped a lot of the thornier story issues, because it had a much simpler, straightforward premise and characters. "Westworld," by comparison, is juggling at least four different characters with major identity crises, who have a terrible habit of switching bodies and allegiances whenever it suits them. And, of course, nobody ever stays dead.

Still, "Westworld" remains very watchable, and I'm keen to give this season a pass because it feels like it's going to end up serving as an important connector piece to whatever is coming next. And, unlike the previous seasons, this year's finale was actually very satisfying.
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