Even by Legion standards, “Chapter 16” was a narrative mess. Perhaps that was the point – highlighting the confusion and jumbling of one’s mental state as insanity takes hold (even though Insanity was defeated last week). But as a viewer, it seemed more like Noah Hawley had a bunch of story ideas and wanted to fling […]
I have a proposal for Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy: Let’s just spend the rest of the Westworld season with Maeve and her band of interesting supporting characters (including their delightful Shogun World counterparts). Let’s follow them as they explore the parks and Maeve’s ever-growing power. Let’s see Maeve try and find her daughter (who I […]
After last week’s disappointing episode that tried to do too much too late in the game with the Amy/David relationship, Legion‘s “Chapter 15” offered a more satisfying course correction back to the main theme of the season: How do you solve a problem like an apocalypse? Was the episode a home run? Hardly. But it did […]
Westworld‘s most interesting characters got a week off with “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” which swung the focus back to William’s life story (and continuing adventures on Ford’s boring quest). While I’m normally one to complain about time spent with William (who, despite some baby steps towards characterization in “The Riddle of the Sphinx,” continues […]
If you had asked me back in January which second season would be more satisfying, Legion or Westworld, I would have laughed at you for even suggesting that Westworld could put together a better string of episodes than the widely inventive Legion. Yet, here we are, living in a world where Legion can’t seem to pull itself out of the narrative […]
Westworld has been dinged, by myself and others, for its seeming inability to tell a coherent and cohesive story. And while season two has been much better at avoiding the solely puzzlebox nature of season one, it wasn’t until watching that opening sequence of “Virtú e Fortuna” that I began to believe that Westworld can be […]
I’ve consistently praised Aubrey Plaza’s great work throughout the first season and a half of Legion, and I’ve certainly wanted to see more of her and Lenny as the series continues to unspool itself. So while it was lovely to get an hour centered on Lenny (even if it was just an hour answering the big […]
Last week, I mentioned that it was hard to care about William (Jimmi Simpson/Ed Harris), as the show hasn’t done much to flesh out the character in either time period. Well, what do you know, Westworld decided to take some time this week to dive into who William once was (after he started operating in […]
After I spent last week talking about how Legion often values style over substance (and the style is often so spectacular that the lack of major plot and character developments don’t really matter all that much), “Chapter 12” comes around and completely flips the script in terms of creating key character moments and driving the plot […]
My main complaint about season one of Westworld (which was also the main complaint of seemingly every other TV critic) was that the series was far more concerned with creating and springing its puzzle box traps than with crafting a complex and interesting story populated by complex and interesting characters. By the end of season […]
