Comments by "Ronin Dave" (@RoninDave) on "Westworld Needs To Stop" video.

  1. With the failure of so many linear story series promising answers to gimmicky mysteries I'd kind of like going back to old episodic TV shows where everything is pretty much wrapped up by the end of the episode unless it's a special 2-parter. So many of these shows are good at grabbing people's attention and creating a cottage industry of websites and youtube videos dedicated to dissecting the story and characters and musing about the answers to the mysteries (which in turn can lead the writers to make shitty decisions to try and fool audience expectations). Eventually it all dissolves into a soap opera where things happen more for emotional catharsis and "shocking" twisty twists rather than narrative sense. These shows (GOT, LOST, Westworld, Walking Dead, Sherlock, new Battlestar Galactica to name a few) start off with random unassuming characters who eventually become the most important beings in their universe where every event and other character revolves around them (and the fan's ego who identifies with those characters). And as the story goes along it begins to unravel as you realize the writers' really had no answers to the original mysteries or changed them because some autistic nitpicker on youtube figured it out. To cover up the main narrative's deterioration you get a lot of soap opera vignettes focused on characters who are fan favorites from badass fight/kill scenes to "shocking" romantic trysts none of which advances the story that is floundering anyway. And then add a thick gooey layer of pseudo-intellectual hamfisted socio-political analogies, allusions, and commentary to give the show and the dull-witted fans an essence of cleverness which will be helped by overthinking (yet amazingly shallow) media critics and vloggers. Viola! TV writing in the 21st Century! And who's going to rewatch these shows down the road? Or get into them for the first time if they already know it fizzles out? I don't see many fans of GOT going back to rewatch the series knowing how it ends nor people who never watched as they know going in the show devolves into a mess. Conversely, old episodic shows are easily re-watchable as you can jump in practically anywhere and enjoy a compact story without all the bullshit pretense of cleverness.
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