Okay--I don't know if anyone else is watching this HBO series but I just wanted to say a few things about it.
I REALLY want to like this show. I LOVED the Yul Brynner film back in the 70s. I've wanted a remake for years and when I heard it was going to be an HBO show I was really excited.
I have been pretty forgiving on some things that have annoyed me about the series, and tried being very patient. But they are into episode 5 right now--halfway through--and the show--which has been one huge puzzle at the expense of thrills and drama, just seems stuck in its own loop.
At this point I don't even know if the writers have any idea where they are going. There are so many things going on--so many puzzles to solve and so much misdirection(different timelines--maybe)that they forgot about story.
The 1973 film was tense and simple and fun.
This show is anything but fun.
I've been on fan boards reading through theory after theory and even they are looping over themselves now.
Everyone is confused and there is just too much of nothing going on, really.
The acting is fine--there are some real heavyweights here with Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins. But they just spend their time talking in riddles.
I love a thoughtful, deep mystery.
Unfortunately the show is shaping up as not much more than that--and I have a fear that when the answers start coming a lot of this won't add up. I fear the show is missing a great opportunity. It wants to be too smart and to mislead the viewer to the point that misleading the viewer IS the plot. They obviously want to set up some shocking answers but my brain may be too numb to appreciate any of that.
5 episodes to go, I believe, and I know they have 5 seasons mapped out but this show will never make it if they don't start changing some things. There is really not enough emotional involvement at this point. It's become a brain exercise and a frustrating one at that.
Oh yes--I will watch til the end. But if the show doesn't have some big payoffs soon for all that it has been doing, I'm not sure I'll be able to sign up for another season.
I just finished season one. Binged it in 3 days time.
I pretty much agree with your take. Incredible looking series, good to great acting but my God this story is a convoluted pretentious mess. It's co written by Lisa Joy who i know nothing about, and Jonathan Nolan. Nolan being the brother of one Christopher Nolan. While i do like a few of Nolan's films(Memento, Interstellar) i find most of his writing to be pretentious schlock. Constantly changing the ground rules to create higher steps of drama, mystery and suspense. You can't do that with sci fi.
It seems that Jonathan Nolan writes the same way. The deeper the story goes the more pretentious it becomes. IMO.
I too loved the original Michael Crichton film. I own it on DVD. '73 Westworld was the "original" Jurassic Park theme he wrote before he wrote Jurassic Park. Robots instead of dinosaurs. A theme park where rich people go to to fight and fuck their fantasies away. Awesome.
This new series holds to all those original themes and when it stays tight and focused on that stuff it's very good, but all the rest in between is a confusing mess. Thru the first several episodes i was genuinely interested and intrigued by this arcing, underlying theme of The Maze, and time, and AI consciousness etc. Promising.
Halfway thru i was like WTF is going on and why does it matter? I'm lost and i don't care anymore.
The Nolan's are infatuated with themes about dreams and time, and i too really find those themes fascinating...but ENOUGH with the (real or not real) flashbacks and misdirectional nonsense and endless moments of dramatic contradictory epiphanies that just don't make sense.
You could watch the first and last episodes only, and probably get about as much out of this without subjecting yourself to the drawn out head scratching of the episodes in between.
I bought this....so i will watch it again and hope to get something more out of it. I'll watch season 2 hoping this thing gets WAY more focused.
I'm not a writer but i do know quality, intelligent content in films and this was a case of failing to just stick with what was already a brilliant premise and put your own touch on it by freshening it up a bit. This remake was completely over done.
