Westworld

Do any of us really have the free will to make our own choices? That’s the underlying theme for the finale of Season 2, and a line from Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) sums it up like this: in being free, one should be able to question fundamental drives and to override them. From the point…

Many individuals—robots and humans alike—are losing their minds this week. Some are on the brink of taking their own lives, while others struggle to find some hope of regaining lost connections and self-control. “Vanishing Point” features indications of even deeper secrets, which wily, old Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is well aware of yet no one else…

I have been a fan of Zahn McClarnon from the time I started watching the Longmire series, where the actor played Officer Mathias, chief law enforcement on the reservation and intermittent thwarter of lead character Sherriff Longmire’s investigations. McClarnon was never given enough screentime to develop character depth or display the actor’s range, and I…

Bouncing back and forth between timelines and storylines, it’s easy to lose track of what is possibly present day. But the impression is that we begin this episode in the present, with Charlotte (Tessa Thompson), Karl Strand (Gustaf Skarsgard), Ashley Stubbs (Luke Hemsworth), and Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright) in the outpost where Theresa Cullen was…

The action ramped up while following more storylines in this episode, but the lack of surprises was, well, surprising for a show that normally serves up a few each time. Probably the most interesting twist occurred in the opening flashback when Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) was interviewing Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and deliberating whether he should…

Where have you gone, Toshiro Mifune, when this bland East-meets-West episode turns its eyes to you as Maeve’s (Thandie Newton) story arc crosses over into Shogun World. Hell, your stone-faced Red Sun costar Charles Bronson would be a welcome addition to what felt like “everything but the kitchen sink” of Japanese culture, and for all…

This episode could easily have been named “The Riddle of Time” since it can be a head-scratcher trying to pinpoint where we are in the narrative—past, present, or past-past—as it jumps back and forth through a series of plotlines. Satisfaction is served up, though, as several major threads begin to tie into one another. Clementine…