Westworld Isn’t Even Really a TV Show Anymore

Published November 4, 2016 · Updated July 6, 2022

This show isn’t even really a TV show anymore – VIC

No new theories this week. Too many out in the general geekverse to come up with any new ones now, lol. Most of them good.

But I still have some stuff to say.

In general, this show isn’t even really a TV show anymore, at least I don’t watch it for it’s TV-ness. It’s a puzzle show. I watch it to see how the new bits of evidence we’re given this week confirm or debunk any previous theory. Is this a good TV show? is it good pure storytelling? Good filmmaking? I don’t know! I kinda think it’s probably a bit more clunky and narratively weak than my perception is because I’m more invested in the puzzle. Now, I don’t go INTO the show or episode for the puzzle aspect, but five minutes in, my brain is whirring and lining images and dialogue up with all of the theories.

This isn’t necessarily a BAD thing, but it IS how the vast majority of viewers seem to be ingesting this show. While we may have (okay, DEFINITELY have) gone light years beyond what the Nolans likely intended, or expected us to discover, the fact remains that they intended this show to be a big ole mystery box. But as has been think-pieced numerous times, in this day and age, there’s no way for a TV show to get ahead of audience crowdsourcing, especially when that crowd is all in on solving the show before we get to the end.

In all honesty, I really don’t care what happens to Dolores, or the Man in Black, at least from a character standpoint. I’m not living and dying with Dolores’ fate, or her slow emergence into self-dom. It’s neat, and interesting, but if she doesn’t achieve independence, I won’t feel bad for her or any of the characters like I do for a Game of Thrones character, or a Fargo character (it’s not just that Westworld is a new show). The puzzle is far FAR more compelling than the narrative of the show itself.

And while everyone has a theory (including me), that they happily spout into the world, I think you do many of them (myself included) by lumping everyone into the same “What’s wrong with everyone and their crazy theories??” bucket. While my theories were crazy, to be sure, I was in no way invested in them or relying on them to provide my enjoyment in the show. I’m sure that’s the case for SOME people and their crazy theories, but for many of us (maybe even most of us), it’s all just part of the fun of this show and shows like this. Finding a wrinkle that maybe no one has touched upon and throwing it out there for the world to evaluate. It’s more like the Crackpot Theory Lottery. You pick your theories, and then each time they play an episode, you check your ticket to see if anything you guessed had any merit. If you’re lucky, you got one number right out of six.

I think this is different than LOST, where many people DID pour their hearts into their theories and were disappointed an angry when those theories didn’t pan out. For Westworld, I think huge numbers of people are coming to the show FOR the puzzle. It’s what makes it fun. Because it’s an otherwise, not-that-fun of a show.

LOST came along at the right/wrong time, when people were ready for a big mystery box show, but the creators of the show seriously underestimated the amount of work and attention the viewers were going to put into it. We expected more because they GAVE us more and made us think that it all WAS deliberately put into the show. Remember the metal door in the hatch that had all the map stuff show up when the blacklight came on? Remember how that turned out to be nothing? How the Numbers turned out to be nothing? On and on. They created this stuff with no idea what it was going to turn into (if anything), but it was certainly cool, in and of itself. This was the first time an audience had really cared about all these sorts of details as much as we did, and the creators weren’t prepared. They couldn’t cash those checks.

But both audience and show creators are more savvy now, and we know the drill. The audience is just still WAY ahead of the creators. To the point where I don’t think ANY show like this has a chance of succeeding on its own mystery box terms. We’ll always solve it.

Okay, rambling email is over.

Keep up the good work, and fighting the good fight. – Vic

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