![]() ![]() If you thought the cover of Kanye West’s “Runaway” (coincidentally the week he went full MAGA) or the “White Stripes: Indian Edition” version of “Seven Nation Army” were hard to take, wait until you hear faux-Japanese versions of the Stones’ “Paint It Black” and the Wu-Tang Clan’s “C.R.E.A.M.” The former, at least, is a callback to the show’s first use of the song, during the Sweetwater bandit raid that ShogunWorld has recycled for its own setting. What’s the point of all that precise blade-wielding if you don’t actually get to see the damn blades?Īlso, true to the show’s programming, cringeworthy music cues are abound here. ![]() Since neither of those factors appear to apply, it comes across like sheer addiction to the murky, somber lighting and color palette of Prestige TV. This is usually either a cost-cutting measure (you don’t need to pay for details you can’t see) or a way to hide sloppy swordplay. For starters, despite what looks like very strong fight choreography and a behind-the-scenes budget bigger than a small country’s GDP, all the combat is shot in the dark. The flow from East to West is simply reversed here.īut – listen, this is Westworld, there’s always a but – enough baffling decisions remain to knock you out of the action faster than a katana to the face. encounter are recycled completely from Westworld (a running gag with narrative department chief Sizemore, who’s apparently as lazy as he is sleazy), you even get a bit of the Japan/Western cross-pollination vibe found not just in Kill Bill but in cowboy remakes of samurai classics like The Magnificent Seven and A Fistful of Dollars. Remember in The Matrix when Neo suddenly starts seeing in code? It’s that kind of “holy shit!” moment.Īnd since the characters and storyline Maeve & Co. Then, on the verge of being strangled to death by one of the black-clad attackers, she mentally commands him to impale himself on a nearby spearhead. First, she senses the arrival of the shogun’s ninjas before their attack begins, narrowly saving her from an assassin’s knife. So she spontaneously manifests a new talent: telepathy. If there’s a language barrier, or if she gets choked or gagged, or if her intended targets have their ears burned off by a crazed shogun (hey, it happens), the transmitter and receiver can’t connect properly. Her voice control over other hosts is impressive, though it’s started to prove spotty. ![]() Maeve, for example, is not just one of the park’s two Patient Zeroes when it comes to the robot revolution (the other being Dolores) – she’s slowly manifesting the powers of a superhero, or even a messiah. This is Westworld in peak pulp-thrill mode. But plotwise, it’s the breeziest, most action-driven episode we’ve seen in a long time. The dialogue still feels stilted, the pace slow. As both her robotic and human companions keep telling her, this is a hugely unnecessary risk for Maeve to take …which is what makes it worth taking. Set in a simulacrum of feudal Japan, it revolves around Maeve‘s quest to help a local madam named Akane (whose gig and personality are based on the former saloon-dwelling alpha female’s own template) rescue her adoptive daughter Sakura from the clutches of an evil shogun. For proof, look no further than tonight’s sword-slinging episode – “Akane No Mai” – in which Westworld officially goes East. What’s true of Grand Theft Auto or The Legend of Zelda is true for the occasional blockbuster TV series too: Sometimes, a side quest can be the best part of a game. ![]()
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