Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends, I told you the last Westworld post. In “Trace Decay,” the eighth episode, we have reached the end of the middle. We had reached that point where all storylines veer towards the towards the final confrontations, where all protagonists are destined to face their antagonists in the climatic...
Stories have beginnings, middles, and ends. There’s nothing profound in this statement. And I confess a lack of originality in it. Every book on fiction writing tells us this, and many books of literary critique state the same. Novels are often divided into three parts to represent the beginning, middle, and end. J. R....
Episode 6 of HBO’s Westworld, “The Adversary,” feels like a line between two dots that need to be connected in order to complete the picture. Following the big revelations and dramatic turning points of “Contrapasso,” episode 5, this episode slowed the pace down. In “Contrapasso,” we left William and Dolores in a cliffhanger, and...
If you follow my blog posts, you know I have mixed feelings over superhero movies, especially as adapted by Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you are unaware of these mixed feelings, I wrote a rant about them a few months ago that you might want to read. Though I find them fun, entertaining movies—great popcorn...
If episode 4 was about subtle conflict and inner revelations, episode 5, “Contrapasso,” turned to violent conflict and major revelations. This was an episode of big changes for several characters—Dolores, Maeve, William, and others. Elsie, in behavior, made a discovery that frightened her. And Dr. Robert Ford met with the Man in Black for...
For the first time since reviewing HBO’s Westworld, I found myself uncertain what to write about an episode, episode 4, “Dissonance Theory.” For the first time, I felt I needed to rewatch the show before writing my review. I liked the episode. More than that, I recognized its significance in the general plot. Though...
Eva Green is fast becoming—if she hasn’t already become—one of my favorites actors. I first saw her in Casino Royale (2008) as Vesper Lynd. Since she didn’t want to be a Bond Girl, she was going to decline the role, until she read the screenplay and realized that Vesper was not just another Bond Girl....
To borrow a cliché: The plot thickens. That was my first reaction after seeing episode 3 of HBO’s Westworld. During the first two episodes—“The Original” and “Chestnut”—the series introduced the main characters and began the plot of a glitch that caused the android hosts of Westworld to malfunction. Now that we know the characters...
About halfway through The Circle, Mae Holland’s exboyfriend, Mercer, called her boring. Yes, she is boring, but having another character point it out did little to save this novel from itself. Mae is the protagonist; she’s not supposed to be boring. Her goal is to have a successful career at the Circle, the hot...
Westworld is a theme park. It’s a tourist attraction. It’s competing for the same dollars as Las Vegas, Miami, New Orleans, and other popular destinations across the globe. Like Disneyland, tourists flock there to submerged themselves into fantasy, and like Las Vegas, they come to engage in activities that they either wouldn’t or can’t...
