#westworld season four

[teddy-and-dolores]

James Marsden attends the 75th Annual Directors Guild of America Awards at The Beverly Hilton on February 18, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California.

[legendarymoonsong]

[jamesmarsdenfan]

From Instagram Dave Stanwell. Groomer Dave Stanwell

[shrutithemisfit]

[delosdestinations]

"We wanted to make a show about consciousness; the kind of boastful ambition that works when you're pitching--and then falls apart when you find yourself trying to figure it out. There were few guides. Philosophers who'd lost their tenure. Computer scientists who'd lost their stock options. Guesses. Expletives. Crackpot theories. Hands wrung or simply thrown in the air. Even now, humans know more about what lies at the bottom of a supermassive black hole than the dark center of our minds.

But there are clues: language, semiotics; the distance between the notions rattling around in our minds and the ways in which we share them, and the ways in which humans share ideas between each other.

There's a language older than language, though. One that predates the written word or even the spoken one. Music. Its effects on people are fascinating--raw, direct, like an older interface that bypasses the newer, clunkier inputs. What music may lack in nuance versus spoken language, it more than gains in emotive power, as if transmitting emotion directly into the brain. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the right chord progression might reach nine figures.

So for our series about consciousness, we knew the music would be vital--and that we had the man for the job. Fittingly, Ramin's journey as a composer had been launched, in part, by Elmer Bernstein's achingly brilliant theme for The Magnificent Seven. Here he got to take a detour into the future in order to find his way back to the West.

He wanted to use guitars. We wanted piano (because the player piano had been the original western robot) and he gamely went along. I remember the themes as they came alive, anointing each character, imbuing them with even more depth and power. The craft and performances that came together for the series were all hard won--Ramin's music hooked everything to an undertoe of menace, melancholy and beauty.

As for Ramin's arrangements of contemporary music, they served two purposes; first, as a gentle reminder that our story was being told in the future tense, not the past. And second, as manipulation. If music is evocative, then music you've heard before takes on another dimension, dipping into circuits of lived experience and harnessing their power. A song you've listened to after a triumph or a breakup--even one rendered in a different timbre or arrangement--still has a grip on you. One that Ramin could pluck at, like the strings on his guitar. We spent four seasons exploring these questions and the closest we came to understanding consciousness--at least the variety that afflicts humans--is that any attempt to explain it without incorporating emotion is pointless.

The show is long since over. But I find myself whistling Ramin's timeless theme. Often. And I smile. That's the power of this music: that the indelible experiences of making Westworld, all of the incredible people who were part of it, all the days spent chasing the sun and capturing it on film, can all be conjured, instantly, in 8 perfectly chosen notes.

Westworld never died. It simply became music."

Jonathan Nolan, Executive Producer Liner Notes from Westworld: Season 4 (Music from the HBO Series) Vinyl

[paigegonerogue]

TLOU s2: Behind the Camera

One of the most anticipated shows of 2025, The Last of Us (my favorite show of all time), is likely getting an official teaser trailer this month for the absolutely stacked season 2! If you’ve been keeping up with the news around it, you’ll know the incredible new actors added like Kaitlyn Dever, Isabella Merced, Jeffrey Wright, Katherine O’Hara, and Young Mazino, but they’re not the only rockstars stepping onto the set.

(Super long post)

Directors:

Aside from the amazing returning directors, TLOU has added four prestige legends to the lineup. Thank you for your service, Ali Abassi, if you’re past work directing stories about blonde sex-offenders is any indication, your Trump biopic will be fantastic.

The four directors added to the lineup are Stephen Williams, Kate Herron, Nina Lopez-Corrado, and the legend himself, Mark Mylod.

Stephen Williams, the director who’s known for constantly directing episodes with an 8.7 score on IMDB (that’s not what he’s actually known for). He’s directed episodes of Westworld (one in s1 and one in s2, both with an 8.7 score) and Lost (in which he has two more 8.7s, and I believe over 10 other episodes in the range of .2 points of 8.7), so he’s pretty good with time-skips and flashbacks. He’s also worked on Persons of Interest in which he directed another, you guessed it, 8.7 episode, as well as two more win the .2 range of it. Recently he’s broken out of the “almost nine” range with HBO’s Watchmen, in which he directed episodes 3 and 6. (He’s directed 9s before, but this was the first time where they weren’t surrounded by 8.7s). His work with time shenanigans, and the fact that TLOU is rated 8.7 on IMDB, make this a fantastic match.

Kate Herron is next up, known best for her work on Loki. She directed the entirety of season 1, which includes my favorite episode of the show ‘The Variant’, in which Loki and Mobius go to the location of a disaster in the near future to find a sinister variant. It’s practically a demo real for TLOU, since a lot of it takes place in a supermarket filled with people waiting out a disaster that none of them survive, showing she’s got the skill to pull of apocalyptic. She also delivered us the absolute gold of the salad scene. Other than that, she directed multiple episodes of Sex Education back when it was still beloved and acclaimed.

Third we have Nina Lopez-Corrado. While she hasn’t directed shows quite as high-caliber as some of the other directors, she’s proven she’s good at found family through her work on Agents of Shield, in which she delivered one of the highest rated, and roughest episodes of the show ‘Devil Complex’, in which our favorite characters get put through absolute hell (so she’ll be perfect for TLOU s2!). She’s also shown that she can get Tumblr obsessed with queer ships with her work on Supernatural…

Last and certainly not least is the most well known and acclaimed of the new directors, Mark Mylod. I believe he will be directing the most episodes of this list, but I’m not entirely certain. Mylod is probably best known for his amazing work on Succession, which he won an Emmy for. He’s directed all of my favorite episodes except Panic Room and America Decides. While he’s worked on other projects like Game of Thrones, Entourage, and The Menu, it’s his directing for Succession that gets me most excited for his work on TLOU. He’s proven he can elevate emotional scenes, and his directing is consistently incredible across all spectrums of human feeling. His thematic work with grief, trauma, and the cycle of violence will very much carry over into TLOU, and I can’t wait to see the absolute emotional brutality and heartbreak of his direction paired with Bella’s acting. Actually I can wait because holy shit I’m not going to make it… He directed Kendall’s traumatizing car crash in the s1 finale, Shiv’s self-destructive decisions in Ternhaven, Kendall’s breakdown in s3 when he admits to Roman and Shiv what he did, Roman’s grief and self-harming behaviors at the funeral, the bittersweet bonding in the finale of the show, and obviously Connor’s Wedding. If you’ve seen Succession or know the plot of TLOU part 2 you’ll know exactly how that might carry over…

You thought this was the end? Hell no! Directors aren’t the only ones behind the camera!

Writers:

Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann wrote season one. Their brilliant writing elevated the show and led to some truly unforgettable moments, and this season they’ve brought in some more incredible writers to help!

Halley Gross co-wrote The Last of Us part 2 alongside Neil Druckmann. No one was particularly surprised by this news, but it’s still great nonetheless. It’s clear how much Mazin respects the source material, and I love how TLOU brings in the people who wrote the games to help adapt it for television. She also wrote episodes for Westworld s1.

The other writer is more unexpected. Bo Shim joined the writers room of TLOU s2, but we don’t know much about him. He currently has no official writing credits, which either means it’s a pseudonym (which I doubt), or, more likely, they found a young, talented writer who hasn’t made it big yet and decided to give him his big break and use his skills for TLOU. If you’re looking, Craig, I know a film student who’d love to join the writing room for TLOU…. She’ll do it for free… she’ll pay you… please??

Cinematographers:

Cinematographers work with directors to create the look of the show, the shots, the lighting, etc.

Ksenia Sereda, who did the cinematography for TLOU episodes 1, 2, and 7 will be returning along newcomer Catherine Goldschmidt who worked on the always-gorgeous House of the Dragon.

Some of her amazing HotD shots:

Finally, Emily Mendez and Timothy A. Good are returning as editors. Set designers Austin Chuqiao Wang, Kyle White, and Shannon McArthur are returning as well.

There are wild amounts of other crew members who work on everything from lighting to costumes to vfx to storyboards. If I mentioned all of them this post would be as long as the credits, but every single one of them is important to the show and helps make it as incredible as it is!

I can’t wait for season 2!

[scotianostra]

Happy Birthday the Scottish actor Peter Mullan born 2 November 1959 in Peterhead. I love Peter’s work and rate him as highly as Brian Cox and If ever there was a story of rags to riches it is Peter Mullan, born in Peterhead the family later moved to Mosspark in Glasgow. Mullans father was a drunken violent man but despite this Peter did well at school, at least till the age of 14 when the climate at home forced him out onto the streets and into a gang, spending less and less time at school. In his own words he was aggressively lobotomising himself but admitted he kept up his reading on the sly “You couldnae tell the gang you were reading Carl Jung.” he said. I’m not sure his heart was in the gang culture as he says he was “kicked out” after a couple of years, he returned to school and sailed through his Highers and started at Glasgow University at 17. His dad died of lung cancer on his first day. Mullan studied economic history and drama and despite suffering a nervous breakdown in his final year still managed to graduate. He went on to teach drama at Borstals, prisons and community centres while becoming involved in the left-wing theatre movement that flourished in Scotland in the 1980s. In 1987 he made his professional acting debut with the Wildcat theatre company in a political pantomime. Bit parts in Scottish films and TV series followed, The Steamie, Taggart, of course, and Rab C Nesbitt, as well as The Big Man and in Braveheart, he uttered the words, “We didn’t come here to fight for the” Danny Boyle, Shallow Grave and Trainspotting were another two films that Mullan served his apprenticeship in. The breakthrough came when Ken Loach chose him in the title role of “My Name is Joe” he gave a brilliant portrayal Jekyll-and-Hyde character , a recovering alcoholic whose humanity and warmth masked a frightening capacity for brutality. He won his first award at Cannes as Best Actor for the role. Around the same time Mullan was starting to get into directing, three surreal comic dramas set in the Glaswegian working-class world and then his first full length film, he not only directed but wrote the excellent Orphans an odyssey of four working-class siblings roving round Glasgow in the 24 hours after their mother dies. Channel Four, who funded the film chose not to distribute it as they didn’t think it would attract a large commercial audience. The film however was shown at Film festivals around Europe and won numerous awards, in interviews, Mullan has said that once Orphans started winning awards Channel Four apologised and asked if they could distribute it, an offer he refused. Since then Peter Mullan has not looked back, directing and penning The Magdalene Sisters and Neds as well as starring in amongst others, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, War Horse, Hector and Tommy’s Honour, on the small screen he was one of the main characters in ITV series The Fixer, The BBC Two drama Top of the Lake, and in the excellent drama series Gunpowder. More up to date Peter has appeared as Jacob Snell in the first two seasons of the Netflix series Ozark, all three series of the BBC Two sitcom Mum and a recurring role in the popular TV reboot of Westworld. He has also starred in the Netflix fantasy drama Cursed. We will next see Mullan alongside Colin Farrell and Tom Courtney in the BBC series The North Water. Peter was also one of the participants of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Scenes For Survival project, which featured talents from the country’s arts industry making lockdown-related short films as a response to the country’s theatres having to close during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mullan has been busy in the past few years, appearing in TV shows Liaison, Payback, After the Party and LOTR: Rings of Power, as well as the film, Baghead a Horror film which has average reviews on IMDb. Outlander fans look out for him in the spin off series Outlander: Blood of My Blood, a prequel to the popular Starz show, it follows the parents of both protagonists from the original series. Tony Curran is also cast as a younger Lord Lovatt. It is follows the parents of both protagonists from the original series it is expected to premiere in 2025 on Starz. He has a few oter projects on the go, the most hard hitting will no doubt be an ITV mini series called Lockerbie which will focus on the investigation into the crash on both sides of the Atlantic and the devastating effect it had on the small town and the families who lost loved ones.

[warningsine]

Do you know of any good westerns that revolve around women? I like the western vibe but I hate how racist and sexist the genre is

Oh, tough one, anon.

Kelly Reichardt is your go to director: "First Cow," "Certain Women" and "Meek's Cutoff."

Another American pearl: "Little Woods" by Nia DaCosta.

"Thousand Pieces Of Gold" (1990) by Nancy Kelly too.

Lily Ana Amirpour’s "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night" is a personal fave. It was called “the first Iranian vampire western."

"Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts" (2018) by Mouly Surya was made because the director disliked how macho the genre is.

"The Beguiled" by Sofia Coppola (a remake) has its issues, but hey.

"The Ballad of Little Jo" (1993) by Maggie Greenwald

"Woman Walks Ahead" (2017), dir. by Susanna White

"The Good Time Girls" (2017) by Courtney Hoffman

"The Wind" (2018) by Emma Tammi

"Nomadland" (2020) by Chloé Zhao

"The World to Come" (2020) by Mona Fastvold

By men directors, there are:

"Soldier Blue" (1970) by Ralph Nelson

"Thelma and Louise" (mostly a road movie, but duh)

"The Quick and the Dead" (1995) by Sam Raimi

"The Missing" (2003) by Ron Howard

"Down in the Valley" (2005) by David Jacobson

"My Sweet Pepper Land" (2013) by Huner Saleem

"Gold" (2013) by Thomas Arslan

"The Keeping Room" (2014) by Daniel Barber

"Brimstone" (2016) by Martin Koolhoven

"Hostiles" (2017) by Scott Cooper

"My Pure Land" (2017) by Sarmad Masud

"Damsel" (2018) by David & Nathan Zellner

"Savage State" (2019) by David Perrault

"The Dead Don't Hurt" (2023) by Viggo Mortensen

I'm assuming you know herstory:

"The Furies" (1950)

"Westward the Women" (1951) by William A. Wellman

"Rancho Notorious" (1952) by Fritz Lang

"Calamity Jane" (1953)

"Johnny Guitar" (1954) by Nicholas Ray

"Cattle Queen of Montana" (1954) by Allan Dwan

"Two-Gun Lady" (1955)

"Forty Guns" (1957), dir. by Samuel Fuller

"Cat Ballou" (1965, with Jane Fonda)

"The Shooting" (1966)

Do not expect any feminism from Leone's spaghetti westerns, but "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) is worth checking out imo.

"McCabe & Mrs. Miller" (1971) by Robert Altman

Oh, and there's "New Dark" (1987) by Kathryn Bigelow of course.

"The Homesman" (2014) is alright, but it's not exactly the epitome of nuance. The same goes for "Jane Got a Gun."

Jane Campion's "Power of the Dog" might not revolve around women, but if you're patient, you will notice the feminism in it.

As for television,

watch "Godless."

"The Girl Who Loved Horses" (the last episode of "Roar") was cute.

Listen, it's a Nolan show, but "Westworld" season 1 was interesting with some amazing female characters.

[baltears]

only gonna say this once. grasps your shoulders and stares into ur eyes. if u watch fallout and you love vaultghoul you simply must find a way to watch westworld. because the exact same dynamic already happened in that show and had a four season arc that was going to be five and it was the most insane and incredible thing ive literally ever seen. please for the love of god please. if u watch with faith and an open heart i swear you will not regret it. watch westworld.

[brokehorrorfan]

Westworld’s fourth season soundtrack is available on vinyl for $60 via Mondo. The score is composed by Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones, Iron Man, Pacific Rim).

The 3xLP album is pressed on 140-gram colored vinyl, limited to 3,000. It’s housed in a tri-fold sleeve with a die-cut outer jacket featuring artwork by Greg Ruth and layout by Alan Hynes.

An insert with liner notes by executive producer Jonathan Nolan is included along with slipcase to house all four season (first, second, third) soundtracks.

[elliehopaunt]

By Matt Grobar

EXCLUSIVE: Sheryl Lee Ralph (Abbott Elementary), Timothy V. Murphy (Appaloosa) and Bruce Greenwood (The Fall of the House of Usher) have boarded The Fabulous Four, a new comedy from Bleecker Street, which has entered production in Georgia under an Interim Agreement from SAG-AFTRA.

The actors join an ensemble that also includes Susan Sarandon, Bette Midler, and Megan Mullally, as previously announced. Ralph takes over the role of Sissy Spacek, who was attached as of last fall but was forced to drop out due to scheduling conflicts. Bleecker Street nabbed North American rights to the pic last October and will release the film in U.S. theaters in 2024. UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance arranged the financing and brokered the deal for U.S. rights, with Sierra/Affinity repping international sales.

Written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, the Cannes prize-winner best known for her Kate Winslet pic The Dressmaker, the film follows three life-long friends (Sarandon, Mullally, and Ralph) who travel to Key West, Florida to be bridesmaids in a surprise wedding of their college girlfriend Marilyn (Midler). Once there, sisterhoods are rekindled, the past rises up again in all its glory, and there are enough sparks, drinks and romance to change all their lives in ways they never expected.

Richard Barton Lewis’ Southpaw Entertainment is producing alongside Lauren Hantz of Hantz Motion Pictures.

An icon of stage and screen, Ralph has won an Emmy and numerous other accolades for her portrayal of kindergarten teacher Barbara Howard on Abbott Elementary, the ABC mockumentary that has emerged as one the most popular scripted series on linear. The show, created by and starring Quinta Brunson, was renewed for a third season in January but only recently returned to the writers’ room, following the conclusion of the WGA strike. Otherwise perhaps best known for her Tony-nominated turn as Deena Jones in Broadway’s Dreamgirls, Ralph has also been seen in Mistress with Robert de Niro, To Sleep with Anger with Danny Glover, The Distinguished Gentlemen with Eddie Murphy, and Sister Act 2 with Whoopi Goldberg, along with such series as Moesha and Ray Donovan.

Most recently recurring on Law & Order: Organized Crime and ABC’s The Company You Keep, Murphy previously reprised his role in Uni’s comedy MacGruber on the same-name Peacock series. Other recent credits for the actor on the TV side include S.W.A.T., Snowpiercer, Westworld, and True Detective, to name just a few. Additional feature credits include In Full Bloom, The Lone Ranger, and National Treasure: Book of Secrets.

Greenwood puts in a stellar turn as Fortunato Pharmaceuticals CEO Roderick Usher in Netflix’s Edgar Allen Poe-inspired miniseries The Fall of the House of Usher from Mike Flanagan, which bowed on the platform earlier this month. He also recently starred in the Fox medical drama The Resident, which ran for six seasons, and will soon appear in fantasy pic The Invisibles with Tim Blake Nelson and Gretchen Mol, among other projects.

At this year’s Toronto Film Festival, Bleecker Street nabbed U.S. rights to James Hawes’ One Life, starring Anthony Hopkins, and the starry British comedy Fackham Hall, which goes into production next year. The company also locked down UK rights, alongside Elysian Film Group and Anonymous Content, to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron. Upcoming releases include the Meg Ryan-helmed rom-com What Happens Later, coming to theaters November 3, which she leads with David Duchovny, and Sara Bareilles and Jessie Nelson’s Waitress: The Musical, out December 7 with Fathom Events.

[cha-melodius]

Nice Ask Week, you have been granted extremely specific time travel powers ✨✨✨you can go back in time and give another season to a show that you think was cancelled too soon.  What show are you going back to save? ✨✨✨

HI LIM!!

I did not have to think about this, I’m going and getting the final season of Westworld.

I mean, four seasons and they canceled it right before the planned last one. Wtf HBO. Wtf.

[maximumwobblerbanditdonut]

‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ Casts Peter Mullan as Red Jacob MacKenzie, Sara Vickers & 2 More

Kelli Boyle, TV Insider Apr 3, 2024

The Outlander spinoff, Outlander: Blood of My Blood, has added four more actors to the clan. TV Insider can exclusively announce that Peter Mullan, Sara Vickers, Brian McCardie, and Jhon Lumsden have joined the cast of the Starz series, currently in production in Scotland, and they’ll bring to life characters fans have already heard of in the flagship series.

Mullan will be playing Red Jacob MacKenzie, laird of Clan MacKenzie, father to Ellen (Harriet Slater), Dougal (Sam Retford), and Colum (Séamus McLean Ross), and maternal grandfather to Sam Heughan‘s Jamie Fraser.

Mullan, a veteran Scottish actor and filmmaker, can currently be seen in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power and recently starred in the series The Northwater with Colin Farrell and Jack O’Connell, as well as in Barry Jenkins’ critically acclaimed The Underground Railroad. He earned an Emmy nomination for Top of the Lake and has also been seen in Ozark, Westworld, Cursed, and Mum.

Brian McCardie

McCardie will be playing Isaac Grant, laird of Clan Grant. And Lumsden will be playing Malcolm Grant, Isaac’s son and a potential suitor for Ellen.

McCardie has been seen in Outlander before, in a Season 1 cameo as Sir Marcus MacRannoch. He’s also known for Rob Boy, Line of Duty, Low Winter Sun, Snatch, and more.

Jhon Lumsden

Lumsden is a relative newcomer, with roles in Karen Pirie, Blood, Sex & Royalty, and Pancake. He’ll next be seen in The Famous Five, coming out later this year.

Sara Vickers

Vickers will be playing Davina Porter, a housekeeper in the Lovat household, mother to Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy), and Jamie’s paternal grandmother. As previously announced, Brian’s father, Lord Lovat, will be played by Mary & George‘s Tony Curran.

Vickers is a stage and screen actor best known for her role as Joan Thursday in the Inspector Morse prequel, Endeavour from 2013-2023, as well as Sunshine on Leith and Shetland. Vickers played Ms. Crookshanks in Watchmen alongside Regina King and Jeremy Irons. She recently starred in Guilt.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood tells the love stories of Jamie (Heughan) and Claire’s (Caitríona Balfe) parents. Slater and Roy play Jamie’s parents in the 1700s Scottish Highlands, with Hermione Corfield and Jeremy Irvine as Claire’s parents, Julia Moriston and Henry Beauchamp, in the 1900s England during World War I.

#BloodofMyBlood# PeterMullan #SaraVickers #BrianMcCardie #JhonLumsden #BOMB💥#TVinsider #KelliBoyle #ScottishHighlands

Posted 3rd April 2024

[westeroswisdom]

^^^ from @Thrones_Facts

Just 6 episodes for Season 1 of Dunk & Egg?! Seasons are getting ridiculously short.

I was browsing at the Star Trek site Trekcore a couple of hours ago. The series Star Trek: The Next Generation ran from 1987 to 1994. What stands out in the scheduling is that of the seven seasons: four had 26 episodes, two had 25 episodes (if you count the two-hour premiere and finale episodes as one episode each) and one strike shortened season had only 22 episodes. And the seasons were all in consecutive years.

House of the Dragon had 10 episodes in its first season and will have just 8 in Season 2. And it’s difficult to imagine seeing S02E01 before April of 2024 at the earliest.

With all respect to HotD, it’s not the only series experiencing season shrinkage while making viewers wait longer for subsequent seasons. 

Westworld ran for four seasons. S1 and S2 were 10 episodes each while S3 and S4 each featured 8 episodes. And the seasons ran just every other year. It took from 02 October 2016 to 14 August 2022 to get from S01E01 to S04E08.

If such series are supposed to be epic narratives, the huge breaks between the shrinking clusters of episodes risk causing viewers to lose interest and writers & producers to lose concentration. Westworld, for example, showed a steady decline in viewers from season to season. Viewership for S4 was less than 20% of viewership for S1. 

I wonder if problems associated with GoT S8 had anything to do with it starting 18 months after the end of S7 and containing just 6 episodes.

Whatever the reasons for these fallow and sparse stretches (funding, studio politics, cast availability, pre- and post-production tech work, unexpected stuff like pandemics and strikes, etc.), a narrative series is going to suffer if it isn’t presented like an actual narrative.

Imagine reading a few chapters from a novel and then putting it aside for two years and then deciding to read a smaller number of chapters from that book before putting it aside once again. That’s what the current TV situation reminds me of.

Yeah, so I didn’t expect this to turn into a rant, but I hope it miraculously filters over to media companies and showrunners.

[delosdestinations]

Mondo, in association with Watertower Music, are proud to present WESTWORLD: SEASON 3 – Music from the HBO Series, the third in a series of four WESTWORLD soundtracks, and the first time on vinyl for this incredible album.    Conceived and art directed by Spencer Hickman, with original artwork by Greg Ruth and layout by Alan Hynes, each soundtrack is a 3xLP featuring Ramin Djawadi’s fully extended scores. Pressed on 140g vinyl, these Mondo exclusive releases are housed in tri-fold gatefold sleeves with die cut outer jackets, and are limited to editions of 3,000.    Season 4 will be available February 2024 with a slipcase to house all four seasons plus an insert with liner notes by Executive Producer Jonathan Nolan. (International customers please note that Season 2 is currently only available to US customers, while the other three seasons will ship worldwide.)    WESTWORLD: SEASON 3 hits The Record Shop on January 17 at 12 NOON CT. 

[psychewritesbs]

different anon here but i came across your evil post when i was perusing the tag — i loved seeing your thoughts as someone in the psychology field! i think you only watched the first season (based on the comment of watching 13 eps in 3 days), but if you were to continue watching seasons two and three (and four this summer!) i think you would find that the framing of the catholic church does get a little less "good guys"-y. this is probably in part due to the shift from being a cbs air-on-tv show with season 1, to a paramount+ online streaming show in seasons 2+. it's not a massive difference, to be fair, but they def start discussing some discriminatory aspects of the church, esp in regards to race & a bit in relation to sexuality and views on other religions. there is actually a very interesting plotline in season 3 regarding the catholic church that i would love to see your thoughts on, should you keep watching!

HOLA different anon. THANKS FOR THE ASK!!!! I love nerding out with others about psych. It's my thang.

Ok so, I just finished season 2 and these are my thoughts under el cut'o:

First I want to get this out of the way.

The Leland storyline... you know, where he gets to worm his way into everything that is convenient for the plot? I'm so over him.

I just want to punch him. Mrs. O'Brien and Thomas from Downton Abbey are far better at being cliché villains.

I love cliché machiuvelically tacky evil villains, but I have high standards because of Mexican novelas.

No one can ever trump Soraya Montenegro at being fabulously tacky evil.

Anyways, your comment totally reminded me about how in s1 they address the issue with children in the church and its stance on homophobia. So I love that they continue the theme with the exploration of how the church is racist, and my least favorite--sexist.

I have yet to see beyond the first couple of episodes in season 3, but I can appreciate that the church is framed as not such a good guy after all.

It's just that even if Evil is framing the church in not such a positive light, Evil still frames the Catholic God as "good", and the Catholic Devil as "evil".

At least from what I've seen... perhaps there's more surprises in s3 regarding that idea--the opening has been awfully similar to Westworld's opening since s1 so I get the sense the producers/writers are interested in delivering a similar feast for brainiac types like myself.

Um... ok so... everything comes back to Jujutsu Kaisen 😂.

Feel free to skip this section for more thoughts about the show.

Good vs. Evil

When I said that I preferred morally gray stories, I was specifically thinking about a liveblog post I had written about one of the chapters in the manga Jujutsu Kaisen. I'm not sure if the anon who recommended I watch Evil was thinking along the same lines, or if anon has read my jjk nerderies, but jjk puts a nice twist on the good vs. evil trope that Evil explores.

The mangaka, Gege Akutami, introduced a little symbol that I traced back to William Blake who had taken inspiration from Milton's "Paradise Lost" in his own understanding of the question of good vs. evil.

I haven't looked too deeply into either of their work, so read this with a grain of salt since I also can't confirm the accuracy of what I've read about them online, but I understand they both considered themselves to be Christian men who did not necessarily agree with the traditional interpretation to the problem of good vs. evil.

Regardless of the differences between Christianity and Catholicism, my understanding is that Blake saw "evil" as instinct free from reason, and "good" as reason (instinct may or may not be the right word).

Along the same lines, you have Jung's definition of libido.

Again, it's been years since I've read Jung's collected works, but if I remember correctly, the way Jung spoke of libido was as if it were psychic energy. In other words, unlike Freud, Jung did not necessarily see libido strictly as sexual desire, but rather our aliveness, our will, our desires, our instincts, etc.

Our neuroses, Jung thought, were often the cause of conflicts in the flow of said energy, like say, curbing your desires with reason.

From this perspective "evil" is not necessarily, you know... stereotypical selfish villain who is evil for the sake of evil evil...

... but rather the expression of libido unchecked by reason for self-serving purposes.

This all relates to jjk because jjk explores the idea that the stronger the ego sense of self, the stronger the character, which inevitably means that the character in question is selfish af and has no regard for others.

This is where it gets complicated because... how to say... is it truly evil for Kristen to have killed that serial killer dude when she was doing it to protect herself and her family?

I don't have the answer to it. All I can say is that Kristen had an impulse and acted on it without applying much reason outside of "I am doing it to protect my daughters and I will be careful not to incriminate his wife".

The show, however, explains this away as demonic possession (?) which doesn't sit right with me because it reduces her impulse to something "dark" and "undesirable" that only God (reason) can heal.

But like... reason devoid of instinct is basically artificial intelligence. In the end, you need them both. That is why people like Jung and Blake and even Buddhism advocate for a marriage of opposites, or walking a middle path.

It's really complicated and I feel like I am oversimplifying the whole thing lol. It's like Kant's trolley problem.

Maybe you have some insight about it or some nuance I may be missing that you'd like to share.

Anyways... it is the IRS episode that most felt like what good vs evil is from this Depth Psych perspective. And it kind of sucks because it only got such a brief mention with the Satanist t-shirt guy saying that he likes to do what pleases him as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

So my over-thinking brain can't get over the fact that Evil still frames the "devil" and "evil" as inherently bad. It reduces the concepts to black and white terminology when there is a lot of nuance to be had.

Evil

That out of the way... I was honestly getting bored with s2, ESPECIALLY with Leland, but the way it ended was so powerful. It's like they were saving the best for last.

Between Kristen's emotional confession and how s3 begins, I think I'm going to keep watching, just probably won't be as invested.

By the way, I LOVE Nun Andrea. What a fun and relatable character.

Ok, that's that. Thanks for reaching out! Looking forward to hearing from you again.