WestWorld: ...Where nothing can possibly go worng!

isn't it what the tech guy trying to revive the bird is all about ?

yeah that's what i was thinking

If anybody is the same guy as another guy, look at Knee-Pants Kid, not the adults.

Knee-Pants Kid is either a simulacrum of Young Ford or of Arnold

if ed harris = dork and this show is taking place in 2 periods decades apart i am officially out, fuck that

pretty sure this isn't the case

I'll see this to the end but I'll be very surprised at myself if I bother to look at a second season

if ed harris = dork and this show is taking place in 2 periods decades apart i am officially out, fuck that

woah glitch in the matrix

I said Bernard when I meant Ford earlier

but the fact that she said "he doesn't know" in reference to Ford suggestss Bernard's "have you ever lied to me/don't tell anybody about this" stuff isn't going to do him much good either

I dunno about Ed Harris/dork being the same guy but those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

we do not see the MIB rape dolores. We see him get out a knife. I am pretty sure he was modifying her or something, or checking for maze clues.

those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

different days or weeks maybe? the daily resetting of the bots gives them a lot of outs on this...

my basic assumption is that like vg npcs the bots have short hourly/daily routines but if a guest gets involved with them in a longer narrative then they go off on that for the duration.

i haven't really put together what happened with 'lawrence' tho, seeing him pop up in badguytown read like it was meant to mean something but idgi

I had thought that was just pre-hanging Lawrence? Earlier in his routine before he'd been caught by the law? No? Keep in mind it was like 1am and I had imbibed a fair bit

Like, Lawrence gets Mad-Maxed for his blood, the park crew comes and fixes him up and then sets him back at the beginning of his loop, then our heroes run into him

those stories are definitely taking place in two different time periods

They have set up enough things so that if McPoyle does turn out be young MIB it won't be a shock: MIB having familiarity with the robots we see McPoyle interacting with, McPoyle learning that WW may be going under financially/MIB being given anything he wants (investor who saved the park?)

this neatly sums up the evidence for multiple timelines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLli7Gc1ZBU

in any case, the show is definitely going out of its way to misdirect the viewer.

man i have some kind of allergy to ropy-ass theorizing and the marshaling of 'evidence' thereto. a mystery is a different thing than doing a puzzle!

try being into twin peaks rn :-/

Is it misdirecting or just leaving everything vague, a la Stranger Things, which ended its first season with a "well, that happened" indifference.

Eh for better or worse this show seems to be a puzzle box/theory-generating machine by design so AFAIC it's fair game to over-analyze and speculate about it.

re:misdirection: well, having Dolores fall into McPoyle's camp seemingly as a result of some recently recovered memory or whatever made it seem like the two stories were happening concurrently, but that could be some fucking-around-with-us stuff

yes i think you're right, don't mean to sound snappish

my preferred mode of engagement is to let those kind of thoughts spin out in the moment in a cloud of wonder and not commit them to youtube

I prefer to swish an ep around in my mouth for a few seconds and then spit it out into a cup

spreading the resultant paste, etc

I'm liking this series precisely for the fact that it is, for once, NOT driven by the "what happens next" strategy of engagement. It's actually a show that stays focused on its big ideas, themes, and a willingness to own up to its own artifice. It does a good job of being frank about the fact that its drama is all manufactured and manipulated, yet showing how the viewers of the show (us )are willing, like the "guests" in the simulation to be swept up in its fiction. It's a meta narrative about narrative. Like Blade Runner, it uses the idea of artificial people to bring virtual reality (virtual experience) into the physical world. And like any good story about virtual reality, it reminds us how much we define our own lives by self-imposed beliefs and arbitrary rules. So far, good stuff.

Thoughts on Fiction

Why don't the cartoon cat brothers just dial Maeve down to stupid obedience town when they have the controls right there? I can tolerate / justify a LOT of plot holes in my speculative fiction teevee, but seriously, if you got privs, just make her dumb again! Was this explained earlier and I didn't catch it?

they're dumb fuck-ups

^^^was wondering the same thing

also, why was she naked again?? also also if she was in a position to make demands, why didn't she just demand they max out her stats across the board

xp

they told her she could be anything she wanted, so she became....really excellent at bulk apperception but not like hand to hand combat, cmon maeve

wonder if she'll find out that bulk apperception is a blessing + a curse when she starts taking zoloft to deal w/ her existential crisis induced dyspnea

dear god if I ever wake up on a table with those two I'ma be like DIAL ME BACK DOWN TO CLETUS

*Spoiler*Guys I got an advance copy of next week's ep and you won't believe the identity of "Arnold":

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/d9/2b/a4/d92ba4064b56613cf7c609ba36d873d8.jpg

http://venividivici.us/sites/default/files/angolo-arnold-happydays.gif

i checked out on this episode. the moment of the whiny writer picking up the guest was the sloppiest hackiest writing i've seen in an HBO show like ever. couldn't get thru it. i'll probably go back but eh.

bu then it turns out she's not a guest right?

idk man i turned it off!

well so you missed the payoff! (i mean it wasn't much of a payoff but maybe not quite as bad as drunken scripter hits on cute guest)

the actor is so bad he makes the whole scene bad; i don't really think it was the writing

just going to discreetly mention that peter chung up there ^ is the creator and director of Aeon Flux icymi

i don't know why, but no matter how bad the acting is, or how obviously the characters get pushed around like chess pieces, i don't mind. there's something earnest and generous and sprawling about the show; it is Going For It, hurtling forward with conviction to god knows where. but probably my good faith is ultimately secured by a few really unshakeably great actors - thandie newton, ed harris. they keep me grounded, they keep the whole thing from flying away.

i liked seeing the resort/bar area of the park

No one noticed the Yul Brynner model on the Lower level?

Thumbs in pockets etc

beyond the "Motion Picture Soundtrack" sequence I found this one a snooze

No one noticed the Yul Brynner model on the Lower level?

― calstars, Monday, November 7, 2016 7:38 PM (seven minutes ago)

Yes, loved this.

I thought I saw a Marti the female gunslinger model too. Thought she was a guest.

unexpectedly fun episode imo. p okay with it being portentous nonsense on rails if it keeps up at this silly clip

guessing/hoping it's the securitybro that grabs her at the end and they can resume being xander and riley

Does all the surface apparent vastness of the park have sub levels to it? I was surprised by Bernard being able to take a lift into the place where he found the family. Since I thought it was way away from where other events were happening.
Not sure how centralised the maintenance area where they're fixing broken robots is , seemed to be a single multilevel building from what i've seen elsewhere. Including the trip that Tandie Newton took with the tech guy.

Also I thought the bird thing was a robot but one that the tech didn't have direct permission to be working on. & it seemed that protocol was to stick as close to documented procedure as possible. Since he was working on his own projects in company time he was going against the protocol. But I guess it was only to herald the idea that this was going to be the guy that could be manipulated into upgrading Tandie against protocol.

& the bird and teh pleasure droids have had me wondering how heavy an individual unit is. Would think that making a machine taht was capable of human like movement would mean the workings had to weigh something. & a pleasure droid would feel all wrong if the weight was wrong.

I read or heard somewhere that thsi was supposed to be 200 years in the future but not sure if I've come across anything else to support that. It hasn't been announced in the actual show or anything has it?

Do wonder what the story is on population in the world of this show. how the park could be as large as it appears to be if the population is still growing.
& presumably the only people we're seeing in this are the wealthy elite plus the technicians for the park.

The swimming pool/bar where the writer meets the company executive girl. Is that employee only area where staff are allowed to relax between shifts or is there part of the park that isn't themed?

...

Finding it odd that if Arnold or Ford wanted to hide the family based on Ford's he'd do so next to a liftshaft point. Unless there are a lot of them around and not everybody has access to the interconnecting routes.

Also had previously thought of the surface as mainly accessed from the surface. Presuming that surface area genuinely is surface area.

only two episodes in but this is ... pretty good? Still a little skeptical of any show that's built around a central "mystery". Also some of the meta-commentary stuff about exploitative entertainment is a pretty heavy-handed, would prefer it if they stuff to things like character development. Am encouraged by the involvement of some of my favorite people, at least (McPoyle actor + Charles Yu!)

Was so thrilled to see Tessa Thompson introduced that I didn't notice if that scene was badly written :)

This show lost me episodes 3-5, but came back strong this week and I'm very, very excited to see how they plan to end it. For my money it's just badly conceived as a serial but will probably end brilliantly, fingers crossed

It's funny because the show aspires to be a smart, deep-thinking show, but once you start thinking about it, it crumbles. But in the moment, the show is super watchable and entertaining. I look forward to it every week.

you know how disneyland/world has a bunch of secret doors and elevators all over the park to the staff has access? it's like that. you know how dl/world has a bunch of land that isn't being used right now where old rides were? it's like that.