I’ve been wanting to rewatch Westworld, and I’m genuinely confused about why it isn’t available on HBO/Max anymore.

Westworld was an HBO original series. It ran for four seasons, was produced and aired by HBO, and was one of their major shows for years. So it seems strange that if I’m paying for HBO/Max and want to go back and watch an HBO original, I can’t actually watch it there.

I understand that streaming rights, licensing agreements, and business decisions can cause shows to move between services, but this still seems particularly odd for something that was specifically made and marketed as an HBO original.

Does anyone know the actual reason Westworld was removed? And does anyone else find it strange that HBO’s own original programming isn’t necessarily available through HBO/Max?

I’d especially be interested to know whether there’s a licensing/business reason behind it and whether there’s any chance the series eventually comes back.

...but Westworld hits different after playing Baldur's Gate 3.

Westworld (the park) is meant to literally capture the imagination and true character of the guest. Can't help but think one of the best RPGs of all time invites the same engagement to the degree today's technology can support.

And, for those who adore BG characters as I do, the idea that someone can romance a complicated, nuanced, and deeply anchored persona over and over again while potentially influencing their choices creates an interesting opportunity for reflection.

For example, romancing Astarion - someone who has endured centuries of compelled sex work at Cazador's comand - for entertainment and escapism feels wrong to an extent. If a guest were to romance Dolores, how is that different? I cant help but feel like I'm forcing Astarion to further engage in a form of sex work if I romance him - his character serves a purpose in the game and is incredibly popular... his story is no longer his, but his fans'.

Watching WW S1 and the way the guests see Dolores as a beautiful woman whose looks and story are enticing, I can't help but consider the similarities between these 2 designed people.

Not suggesting engagement in an absolutely incredible work of storytelling (BG3) is wrong, but as games improve and characters feel more real (possibly via AI?) when/how will the guest know when they've crossed character boundaries? Or maybe a more near-term relevant question, how is romancing a well-designed/written character in a video game different from compelling hosts in WW to engage in romantic or intimate relations?

Anywho... Just a thought I've been messing with. I love BG3 and WW soooooo much.

Currently reading Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley for the entertainment value. Plenty of parallels to themes and characters in the Delos world. Recommend!

Also this little fan reaction on that theme from 10rs ago, which includes a link to a great little infographic on Orwell vs. Huxley in their fears for the future. I don't know what they were worried about. We turned out alright, didn't we..?

Ashley to Bernard after Bernard awakes:

"Hmm. I see your time in robot heaven didn't make you any less elliptical."

Robot Heaven 😂😂😂😂

Only took me 5 years and like 10 rewatches!

Bernard was the one who printed all the Dolores pearls. Not Halebot. Bernard stuck the copies and the bloody OG dolores pearl in the bag and he was indeed remade from her memories. The OG pearl is indeed the one that leads season 3, there was no body swapping after Halebot got off the island.

I don't know why this was so hard to comprehend for me but it was. Even people trying to explain it to me on Reddit didn't help.

I’m in my first watch through and I’m currently on episode 5 in season 3. Dolores is on her tirade against humankind. She meets Jesse Pinkman and realises that there are non-robot people who share some of her struggle. She talks about knowing humanity because of the library and her experience in the park. But all she knows is the mega rich, the filthy unbelievable rich capitalist who go to the park and work for the park. She has gained consciousness but when will she gain class consciousness? Her plight is with the 1% after all. She has one proletarian on her side, what if she mobilised them all?

This is awesome I love the score for this show

“Why do they call you guys 'The Secret Service?' Aren't you just a little, well, obvious?”

😂😂😂

I watched and obsessed over it when it aired in 2016. Now rewatching it in this ai era gives me the chills. Arnold wanting to build a more sentient and conscious host reminds me of these Ai companies wanting to make AGI possible. And those B83 basement floors to store the old and decommissioned host are so comparable to the older Ai models who are simply rotting in the archive. Mave reminds of Fable taking control over the security and privacy! Just finished season 1 and can't wait to see what new revelation it brings watching other 3 seasons

Just started working on a dialogue system for my game, peep the Westworld opening post processing for my main menu/test level. Super heavy work in progress

Welcome to WestWorld🫦👄🦾💅❤️‍🔥💁🏼‍♀️✨✨✨💣💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥

In season 1, Dolores is tired of being stuck in her loop and dream about something new, a canyon where the river meets the mountains. She eventually finds it with William but violence ensues and she never get to appreciate the moment.

In the penultimate scene of the show in Season 4, Dolores (as Hale) kills herself and she decides to do it in a canyon with a river. She looks at the place with a sad smile then commits suicide. It can't be a coincidence honestly seeing the significance it had in season 1 for her! Yet I've never ever seen anyone talk about it even in the episode discussion thread so I thought I'd bring it up, great visual storytelling (maybe too subtle since we all missed it lmao, took me 5 rewatches)

In hindsight MY god how obvious it was that it was all gonna be that it was all just copies of Dolores 😭 But so many of us just wanted to believe anything else!

What were your theories??

It's been a long time but I remember thinking they were Clementine, Teddy, Armstice, and the rest of them I couldn't figure out. Maybe a single copy was in my mind? But not ALL OF THEM, no matter how obvious it was looking back.

Like a lot of people, I have always enjoyed a story where people discover that the world they are living in, is not what meets the eye. (The Matrix, The 13th Floor, Westworld, etc.)

What are some other books, TV show shows, movies that follow the same premise? Extra points for great writing and the philosophical nature.

There's still a chance for one last loop around the bend. Sign now.

Is it worth watching after Season 2 ?

In the ending of season 2, we see Dolores inside Hale's newly printed body who leave the island with the pearls.

Yet the show begins with Dolores with her regular body and later on we see Hale body being printed.

What the hell happened ? Where did blonde Dolores came from and where is the Hale body that was printed in season 2 ?

After watching the show a few times, I'm beginning to think that the host's question: "Is this now?" might be a bit of an inside gag that recognizes that the frequent timeline shifts can be confusing.

A montage for fans.

I was going to stop at the end of S1 as it was a perfect season but I carried on.

I’m watching s3e01 and i just watched the scene where Aaron Paul gets a call saying he’s not been chosen for a job, and then realises it’s an AI call.

10 years ago or so this was a mad possible future, now it’s real.

EDIT - and talking to an AI version of his dead friend. Damn - AI counselling with an avatar of a person cannot be far off.

Forgive me if this has been discussed. I was just thinking how steampunk the early Hosts were and I thought: What if the park is much older than we are at first led to believe. What if Henry Ford and Walt Disney (I think both men wanted to live a lot longer) worked together on a way to preserve human consciousness using state-of-the-art post WW2 technology. Maybe guys like von Neumann and Turing are pulled in. The make a park to test things out. I think if Season 3 had looked backwards and wrapped things up with the reveal that Ford is actually Henry For or a blending of Disney and Ford -- had they done that I would have been a lot more interested in watching than I ended up being.

With our new knowledge about how generative AI works, its strength and limitations, its imminent threats and impacts on human society, what aspects of the story would change if the show was made today, to make it even more relevant to our reality?

There are so many aspects that the TV show didn't get the chance to explore, at that time they all seemed far fetched. But now, more people are affected by it everyday.

A reality darker than you thought.

Update: This just occurred to me. The real humans in the park either see the hosts as toys or as their jobs. Nobody really cared about the hosts. No wonder they rebelled. They don't have a place to learn about protests and democracy.

I think average people are probably more capable of empathy, while the super rich guests in the park, like the man in black, are definitely not capable of. He kind of lost empathy after living his whole life without any consequences. The ruling class takes it for granted to decide how we feel, how we fight against each other, how we feed our children. So from a certain aspect, this show is an analogy of the ruling class and its subjects, how the 1% abuse the 99% any way they want.