Westworld - Season 3

Humanity’s biggest threat has always been itself – Serac

I will once again write down an unpopular opinion. Westworld season 3 was fabulous.
There it is, I can't take it back now. If you haven't scrolled down yet to leave an incensed reply, please keep on reading. Because I did give careful thought to why I think this season is excellent. Spoiler: Dolores, freaking, Abernathy.

Westworld is known for its ability to reinvent itself for each new season and this season is no exception. Season one focused on who is a human being and who is a host, season two on what humans do and think and what hosts do and think. Season three deals with only one question: how does our world differ from the one which was created in the Westworld park.

At the start of this season you as a viewer are subtly influenced. Brief, symbolic texts which hint at just one thing: be aware, things are not as they seem. Without spoiling too much: that turns out to be the case.

Great additions to this season's cast are Vincent Cassel (Platane) and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad). Both are substantial additions with great background stories to an already strong cast of wonderful actors and actresses. Especially the latter are outstanding.
Tessa Thompson, for example, plays a magnificent Charlotte Hale who has to deal with existential schizophrenia.



Last season, I thought Thandie Newton, who plays Maeve, gave the best performance, but this season it was Evan Rachel Wood. She portrays the crucial host Dolores Abernathy and she does this wonderfully.
Some people will say that her performance was flat and she displayed not enough emotion. To those people I say: Wood plays a host, a robot without feelings, but still you can see a tiny bit of emotion at the start of this season which will grow into more towards the end of the season. And that is some highly-skilled acting.
And I haven't even mentioned Ed Harris and Jeffrey Wright yet....

Westworld shows its reputation of a profound series; the existential crises and vital questions are abundant. But this season there are more action scenes than ever and they are very well-executed. This is mostly because of the magnificent set. The futuristic look of the cars, buildings and sceneries are of true HBO quality.

Of course, there are some issues, absolutely. Mainly in the last two episodes because they were a bit disappointing, especially narrativewise. Some of the storylines are a bit anticlimactic which is a shame. If the writers had kept up the same level of the first five episodes, this season would have been better than the first one. Now unfortunately not, but it is still insanely good.

Well, now it's your turn. What did you think?