A Tale of Two Series, or, These Violent Delights Have Violent Ends (sometimes)
A couple of weeks late, but both Westworld and Handmaid's Tale wrapped up their second seasons. (my last discussion of tv shows also included 13 Reasons Why, s2 of which wrapped up earlier, as in, we binge watched, and was great and I highly recommend it and I meant to write about it at the time but oh well; go watch it's good)
Things they have in common: Both prestige dramas with a ton of Emmy and other nominations. Both artistic events with something to say about all sorts of things. Both dystopias of a sort, though in both cases many of the characters think they are in their personal utopia, however horrifying that makes them as human beings or sentient entities of any sort (this is less true of s2 of Westworld, which was basically dealing w/the fallout/aftermatch/continuation of the climax of s1.
And the beginning of s2 of each started a bit slow for many viewers tastes. Here is where the similarities end. Slow for Westworld meant jumps around in time and temporarily moving away from the violent ends to the violent delights. (since several of you haven't seen these shows, and several of you are all that left on lj to read at this point, I shall not discuss in much detail) Slow for Handmaid's Tale meant my wife frequently had to wake me up. (that is not hyperbole)
I had faith in the writers of Westworld that the new areas of exploration in Westworld would all have a point. They did. The show used its beginnings and its past to build to a brilliant crescendo, and my pantheon of "all time best tv shows" has a new member sharing the top. It was Twin Peaks, then BtVS, then The Wire, then Breaking Bad. And now, after two seasons, Westworld firmly established itself as one of best shows ever. The latter 3 have the advantage of consistency, so I'd put them ahead of Twin Peaks and Buffy. Absolutely brilliant, if you watch TV or film at all, you should watch this. Seriously.
Handmaid's Tale. Ummmm. Well. It is well acted. It is, taken one piece at a time, well written and directed. The rest is cut becoz non-spoiler brief recount still sorta spoilery
It has also invented the genre of Oppression Porn. Because, really, that's all it is at this point. And I shall edit this later to elaborate a little, but, ummm, deeply, deeply frustrated. This show needs Dark Phoenix to show up and incinerate all the humans in Gilead. That I would wanna see. More of the same? No. We're getting to the point where it's like "Sophie's Choice, S3--the next torture!" Except w/out the exclamation point.
Things they have in common: Both prestige dramas with a ton of Emmy and other nominations. Both artistic events with something to say about all sorts of things. Both dystopias of a sort, though in both cases many of the characters think they are in their personal utopia, however horrifying that makes them as human beings or sentient entities of any sort (this is less true of s2 of Westworld, which was basically dealing w/the fallout/aftermatch/continuation of the climax of s1.
And the beginning of s2 of each started a bit slow for many viewers tastes. Here is where the similarities end. Slow for Westworld meant jumps around in time and temporarily moving away from the violent ends to the violent delights. (since several of you haven't seen these shows, and several of you are all that left on lj to read at this point, I shall not discuss in much detail) Slow for Handmaid's Tale meant my wife frequently had to wake me up. (that is not hyperbole)
I had faith in the writers of Westworld that the new areas of exploration in Westworld would all have a point. They did. The show used its beginnings and its past to build to a brilliant crescendo, and my pantheon of "all time best tv shows" has a new member sharing the top. It was Twin Peaks, then BtVS, then The Wire, then Breaking Bad. And now, after two seasons, Westworld firmly established itself as one of best shows ever. The latter 3 have the advantage of consistency, so I'd put them ahead of Twin Peaks and Buffy. Absolutely brilliant, if you watch TV or film at all, you should watch this. Seriously.
Handmaid's Tale. Ummmm. Well. It is well acted. It is, taken one piece at a time, well written and directed. The rest is cut becoz non-spoiler brief recount still sorta spoilery
It has also invented the genre of Oppression Porn. Because, really, that's all it is at this point. And I shall edit this later to elaborate a little, but, ummm, deeply, deeply frustrated. This show needs Dark Phoenix to show up and incinerate all the humans in Gilead. That I would wanna see. More of the same? No. We're getting to the point where it's like "Sophie's Choice, S3--the next torture!" Except w/out the exclamation point.