Thandiwe Newton

(On Cable TV, August 2022) While Westworld’s fourth season goes back to the initial themes of the series after a dubious third season, I’m still increasingly frustrated at how the entire show doesn’t seem to be under greater control. (Which is ironic, considering its overarching theme.)  Each season seems to zig and zag in another direction, with some great ideas being dashed by wonky execution, very strange concepts improperly executed, and inconsistent interest from one subplot to another. As I edit this review, one month after the final episode aired, there’s still no confirmation of season 5 happening despite putative plans for it—so it would make some sense to consider this a final season. In which case, it does offer some closure of sorts—especially given how nearly every single character dies in the last two episodes. (Of course, much of Westworld’s magic is that death is never final.)  I did enjoy quite a bit of it: This season clearly wanted to replicate some of the mind-bending twistiness of the first two, and so there’s a rather audacious time-skip midway through the episodes, and a gut-wrenching declaration in the final episode that doesn’t seem to leave anywhere to go. Of the returning characters, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) spends much of the season as an enigmatic oracle who has simulated all the possibilities, lending further appeal to an already-complex oracular character. The casting remains as astonishing as it did, with some added appeal if you like a certain type of actress (as I do)—this season features not only Thandiwe Newton and Tessa Thompson on a final collision course, but also Aurora Perrineau and a surprisingly short supporting turn from recent Academy Award-winner Ariana DeBose. (This is what happens when you sign an actor before they get an Oscar.) The series pays itself another visit to a different simulated world (albeit one with the same plotlines), has a few moments of pure visual horror (robot faces come apart in the most disturbing ways!) and even has a somewhat self-contained episode that riffs off a central concept, like some of the previous best episodes of the series. Still, it’s hard to take all of this as seriously as it wants when the world-building seems too sketchy and convenient. Much of the details still feel improvised from one season to another, and I still haven’t figured out how people can get on a boat and travel from California to New York City to Nevada in a few hours. (Yes, it’s probably not “California” and “New York” and “Nevada,” but the series doesn’t clarify that.) There’s also a mean-spirited quality to the series’ objectives that feels off-putting to me, such as playing with the end of the human race in simplistic matters that only make sense if you’re willing to forgive the series’ quirks. There may be a fifth-and-final season and if there is, I will be watching it live—but I’m not sure anything means anything anymore in this series, and that suggests that it took quite a few wrong turns along the way. Maybe, in a few decades, someone will take the best bits of Westworld, polish it to a self-consistent gleam, and remake it all over again. Which would almost be a fitting fate for a series so obsessed with repetition, iteration, legacy and perfection.