It feels good to be back in the wild, wild Westworld.
Sixteen months after HBO鈥檚 sci-fi western concluded its first season, the series is back with a bigger, bloodier Season 2 tonight that manages to take the excellent groundwork the show laid in 2016 and change into something more mature, more emotional and more assured. The second season feels less like a freewheeling experiment and more like a TV show that knows what it鈥檚 doing and where it鈥檚 going.
When we left the notoriously complex and twisty series, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and many of the 鈥渁wakened鈥� hosts had started a rebellion, killing Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and laying waste to the human guests at a swanky board gala. The new season doesn鈥檛 pick up precisely where it left off 鈥� the timeline is still a bit fuzzy 鈥� but the new season鈥檚 main arc is the fallout from the hosts rising up and freeing themselves of their programmed 鈥渘arratives,鈥� both within and outside the park.
Dolores is now the leader of a bloody revolution. Maeve (Thandie Newton) is still looking for her daughter, now with the help of Sizemore (Simon Quarterman). William, aka the Man in Black (Ed Harris), is having the time of his life now that the stakes are real. Many of the other characters, both human and host, made it through the firefight, but it would be too much of a spoiler to reveal their paths.
Just like last season, the most compelling plot is Maeve鈥檚, and Newton continues to turn in career-best work as the park鈥檚 most conscious host, turning her emotions on a dime and making her sometimes-less-than-ethical character sympathetic and appealing. Unfortunately, the second season gives Dolores the least-interesting plot, and her scenes in the park feel sluggish and dull compared with the new locations, characters and technologies that many of the characters discover.
The first season felt like a 10-hour pilot, as the writers took their sweet time setting up every chess piece for the inevitable robot rebellion to begin.
Now that the hard work is over, the series is more assured, faster-paced and easier to watch. The characters feel more lived-in, and the dialogue, music and settings can be self-referential. Each scene conveys more meaning.
Perhaps the best part of the new season, at least in the five episodes made available for review, is that it鈥檚 far less of a frustrating puzzle.
While plenty of fans enjoy analyzing each scene for big clues, it鈥檚 only made Westworld stronger that the writers don鈥檛 seem all that interested (at least not yet) in putting one over on the audience. Of course, there are mysteries and twists galore, but they feel more in tune with the overall narrative than, say, all that timeline trickery in Season 1.
And don鈥檛 worry, the astute fans on Reddit will likely still predict where the story will go, as they did last time with the Man in Black reveal, but the show has evolved enough so that the twists aren鈥檛 鈥� to borrow a term from the robotic hosts 鈥� its 鈥渃ornerstone鈥� anymore. The new season proves that while Westworld may be known for its twists, that鈥檚 not the only part of the series worth tuning in for anymore.
Second seasons can make or break a series, especially one as high-concept and mythology-driven as Westworld. The drama could have turned far too out-there and wild to top the spectacle of Season 1. And while there鈥檚 still at least as much violence and nudity, Westworld is more focused, more character-driven and more thought-provoking.
And isn鈥檛 that the kind of beauty you want to see in this world?
