After four seasons, HBO has officially pulled the plug on its original sci-fi series Westworld. Created by Johnathan Nolan and Lisa Joy with executive producer J.J Abrams, the once-popular series starred Evan Rachel-Wood, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, Tessa Thompson, and Thandiwe Newton to name a few. With an overall IMDb rating of 8.5/10, season one garnered nearly two million viewers for its pilot episode. Viewership remained steady and slightly increased as the season progressed, with the highly original and thought-provoking content. The highest rated episode was the tenth and final, “The Bicameral Mind”, with 2.24 million viewers. The reviews were overall highly positive, and the second season opened to over 2.2 million viewers, though the number gradually declined throughout the run of season two.

Fans: fear not, the series is not officially done for. It will now enter a new era as it is moved to a third party streaming platform, FAST services. The future of the series on this new platform remains uncertain, but in any case, it is unlikely to fade from pop culture given the groundbreaking material it brought forth.

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Series Synopsis and Analysis

Evan Rachel Wood in Westworld (2016)
HBO

Westworld is a dystopian science fiction drama based on a live-action role-play theme park of the same name. Wealthy guests pay great prices to be granted unrestricted access to the park, which simulates life on the wild Western American frontier. Since the inhabitants of Westworld are hyper-realistic robots, referred to as “hosts”, guests can lose themselves in a fully immersive world where they can act with utter impunity towards what essentially looks and feels like real people in a real landscape. The hosts are programmed with storylines that they unconsciously adhere to, giving guests a general structure and narrative to their experience. If you want battle, venture off to the plains. If you want some indulgences and festivity, enjoy some time at the saloon.

In the initial episodes, we meet Dolores Abernathy and her beau, Teddy. The two are meant to be recreations of a romanticized American settler couple. With her perfectly styled blonde locks and Teddy’s iridescent yet superficial charm, the two are primed for the manipulation of the often bloodthirsty and violent guests. The engineers of Westworld assure guests that the hosts are entirely harmless, unable to cause harm to any creature as their entire purpose is to serve and please. This all changed as Dr. Robert Ford installs a software upgrade, or rather, an expansion of sorts, into the hosts. It causes some, including Dolores Abernathy and the saloon Madam, Maeve Millay, to begin to gain awareness of their artificial existence. As Dolores slaps a fly that lands on her neck, a seemingly innocuous gesture, but one with deep implications. Dolores is now capable of causing harm, something that will certainly present issues with the guests, who often enjoy brutalizing her and the other hosts. Tensions escalate and the hosts’ behaviors become increasingly unpredictable, culminating in the murder of Dr. Ford by none other than Dolores.

The series effectively explored a rather existential idea. The hosts fully felt real, and as they begin to break out of their simulation, they still question whether they are fully in control. The premise is entirely anxiety-inducing, lending the show a sort of thriller-like quality in addition to the main sci-fi constructs. As the series progresses, the plot lines become increasingly less straightforward than sentient robots gaining self-awareness. After the hosts massacre guests and employees, the entire existence of Westworld is revealed to be a part of an experiment on human immortality. For critics, this storyline, along with others, were straying from the main appeal of the show. The bare-bones concept of the show was interesting enough, and perhaps the series would have fared better if it took the time to dissect and digest that idea more thoroughly.

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The Show’s Highs and Lows

Westworld
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution

While season one did exceptionally well, and season two started off rather strong, ratings began to taper drastically in the latter half of the sophomore season. Ratings fell to about 0.8 million in season three and just 0.3 million for season four. With those sorts of numbers, it becomes clear why HBO decided to bring the program to a close. Reviews became increasingly mixed until they began to falter into the negative. How could a series that began so positively descend into a final season that is generally considered a flop? Perhaps it is the shifting and increasingly complicated storylines, which may provide insight into what the network could have done differently to save the series.

Why HBO Shouldn’t Have Canceled Westworld

Aaron paul in Westworld season 3
Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution

Ultimately, HBO may have just made an error in canceling Westworld. The fact remains that the series had enormous potential in its first season. Had the writers taken the time to flesh out the concept more, they could have created a slow-burning psychological thriller with greater opportunities to sell the show on account of its cinematography and artistic visions. Rather than canceling the series altogether, HBO should have reassessed the direction the show was headed in. Though it is not likely that Westworld will erase its mark on television on account of its novel premise, allowing the series to dramatically decline with a final season that no show runner or network would be proud to flaunt. HBO should have had the show runners reign in the various convoluted plot lines early on to redirect at the first sign of things headed in the wrong direction.

If they had, they could have established a cultural phenomenon as large as the likes of Game of Thrones. After all, Westworld is one of the suggested programs that appears when one finishes Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. The initial direction seemed to suggest that the show could have performed to this caliber, but what it needed was more controlled vision rather than experiments that allowed the show to be run to the ground. Had this been the case, cancelation could have been avoided and altogether unnecessary. Should the series see a renewed interest and rise in viewership on FAST, HBO just may come to regret the mismanagement of Westworld.