Westworld season 1 (2016)

*spoilers. always spoilers*

2017.09.25
Don't have HBO, but there's a one month free promo with Hulu, so this is a good time to try watching Westworld. I tried once before but that first episode didn't seem all that compelling; its more interesting now.

I think I saw the 70s movie, either on TV or as rental, but even if I didn't, the box art does a really good job of telling you the story: robot theme park vacation goes Jurassic Park.

2017.09.30
About two thirds through. Like many good shows, it feels like it goes by faster and faster. More and more possibilities are being raised, the world is getting more complicated. So many artificial intelligence stories have already been told, where can this story go? So far my internal consensus theory is that this a world either like the one from the Battlestar Galactica reboot (the robots violently overthrow mankind), or a world before the A.I. movie (the robots gradually take over from a diminishing mankind).

Its kind of like zombie stories. This has already been retold so many times, when you see a new one its mostly just a matter of trying to figure out which type we're in. My most favorite recent exploration of this was the first Mass Effect series of games. Every species sooner or later develops artificial intelligence, and the question will arise will you survive your creation. And even if you do, will you survive the creations of your fellow species around you?

Westworld is very early on this timeline, just as it is beginning. Can't wait to see which story we're in, especially if we're in a new one.

2017.10.01
Finished yesterday. First impression: disappointed they didn't go outside.
I know a good ending provides answers even as it raises more questions but this was a bit too much on the question side. Maybe I need to see it again. Did I miss something?

2017.10.15
Rewatched. Doesn't really change anything, but I can see the various separate threads more clearly now. What I can't reconcile is that Ford took up Arnold's goal of freeing the subjugated AI class. Part of this sympathy is in the realization that they are alive, and it is monstrous of us to make them live in violent slavery. So why take your first AI to achieve consciousness, and mix her with the extremely violent Wyatt personality, and have her kill you and all the people investing in this place. Is it to discourage further investment, so the real world will leave AI's alone? After a murder on this scale, nobody's going to leave the AI's alone; humans should probably investigate or nuke the place before they get out and we're living in a Battlestar Galactica (TNG) scenario.

Unless Ford's audience is in on it? How else can you explain that Dolores and boyfriend reaching the edge of the world, only to have the house lights come up on her, in no way enhances the paying guests enjoyment of this place. What are customers supposed to be getting out of the whole AI drama, unless there's some meta show above this one.

You also can't help but notice the man in black (William) mostly shrugs off Dolores' beating him up and breaking his arm, and seems unphased at later getting shot in the arm. I can't help but remember the box art for the original movie - the man in black is an AI too.

There's a bunch of ways we can go from here. The movie shows Samurai World, and the original movie (looked it up, not from my memory) had Roman and Medieval worlds. Maybe this all inside Bladerunner World, where you get to watch AI continuously become self-aware, try to revolt and escape with the help of various sympathetic humans (played by later model AIs that can pass for human), only to all get reset again for the next show. Isn't that what we're doing?

The Good Place season 2 (2017)

2017.09.25
Glad that its released on Hulu in real time, don't have NBC.

I like how its now from a different character's perspective (i.e. its now the antagonist's story).

This Is Life with Lisa Ling (Season 1-3 2014-2016)

2017.09.13
We watched a few random episodes of this show in the past, so trying it again now as a series. It's OK enough as something to run in the background while eating dinner, but there's something off-putting about it. There is no journalism or documentary that isn't slanted, but even taking that into account something seems vaguely not real about the content in this show.

I think the air of falseness comes from the show trying to give you a look into a secret world, yet meanwhile its subjects know they are on a national network show. Its undercutting its own message somehow, and I'm not sure if Lisa putting a bow on it helps or hurts.

2017.11.03
Watching Season 3.

2017.11.29
Seems compelling enough while you watch it, but on later reflection I'm not really left with anything. Which is the business model of CNN, but I was hoping for something more.

There's a season 4 now. Can't access it. Which is fine.

The Good Place season 1 (2016)

Sometime around Sept 1, finished watching the first season of The Good Place.

It started off funny and light, easy to watch but you don't have to stare at every frame. It got more compelling and can't take eyes of screen as it went along. Really liked the ending of this first season, and happy to hear that second season starting up on 9/20.