Dolores on the move. Image: HBO
Writing a complex ensemble cast in an ongoing television show is tricky. Sometimes, you want to build up the major conflict, but you just… can’t let it happen. It’s a problem.
In the new video by Just Write, the YouTube critic looks at the ensemble plotting of Westworld, particularly focusing on his complaints with the second season and its approach to narrative conflict. Specifically, that there’s not enough of it, for reasons having to do with the way the cast and their conflicts are structured throughout the plot.
I always enjoy Just Write’s stuff — he focuses on the pure mechanics of writing that it’s easy to lose track of while watching or even reading about TV like this. Beneath the ciphers and mysteries, Westworld is just a story, with rules like any other, and Just Write has a clever way of demystifying and then critiquing those rules.
Be warned, the above video has some spoilers in it.
Now, I’m interested in hearing what y’all would change about Westworld in its upcoming third season. Is it a great show? What would it need to get there, if it’s not? Let’s have a nice critical chat this Sunday.