"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Monday, March 16, 2020

Westworld 3.1: The Great Outside



Westworld checked in with a fine cyberpunk third season last night, with an at once sharp and lush episode that had fine outings for two of the major original characters, introduced a new one or two, and brought back another original in a surprising coda.

Dolores is in better shape than ever, now out in the world, and doing her best to get an in with the AI brain that moves a lot of the world, by forging a relationship with Liam, the son of the man who may or may not control the AI company.   She's true to herself and talents, and offers more of the philosophic commentary which we first saw signs of last season.  She also intersects significantly with Aaron Paul's character Caleb, who pretty much saves her life.

Bernard's story is a little less, but nonetheless promising.  He's doing his best, and he's been doing for most of his host life, to live his life as a human.  But that doesn't include being beaten to a pulp, and it was good to see him rise up and exercise his rights, literally.

Liam is a good new character, as is Caleb, and I'd add Liam's minder with that great UK accent, whom Dolores replaces with a host double.   In previous seasons, that kind of replacement was a big deal, sometimes the biggest deal of the season, and it's a measure of how far and well Westworld has evolved that it happens just a little more than casually in this first episode.

And then there's Maeve, who continues to inhabit the surprising coda category in the narrative.  In this one, we find her in the third Nazi story I've seen on television in the past few days (the other two are Hunters, reviewed here, and The Plot Against America, which I'll review soon).  The tiny piece of this story we saw after the closing credits is the closest to what we saw last season, since it takes place in yet another theme park.  But I wouldn't be completely sure that it has the same creators as the earlier ones.

See you here next week.  One advantage of staying home in this time of the Coronavirus is you get a lot more time to watch television.  And it just occurred to me: hosts probably don't suffer the ravages of viruses, right?  The physical kind of virus, that is ... because AIs are prone to be infected by the digital kind.  There's some kind of odd parity in that.



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