Westworld is back with a vengeance – and more action
The first season of Westworld (Sky Atlantic) was so confusing that attempting to explain it to a newcomer required a degree in metaphysics, a 10ft whiteboard and some Nurofen. Set in a futuristic Wild West theme park, peopled by robots indistinguishable from humans, where “guests” could play out their basest human desires, it was unashamedly a treatise on the nature of reality, consciousness and determinism. And if that sounds a bit heavy for a Monday night, plenty agreed.
But actually, as the series returns for a second run, what’s most striking about Westworld is just how much fun it all is. It probably isn’t what its creators want people to like it for – as evidenced by their insistence on some pseudishly circular dialogue about reality, consciousness and determinism – but Westworld is best enjoyed as an epic shoot ’em up.
There was a lot of epically shooting ’em up in last night’s first episode, which contained a body count that made Rambo look like The Sound of Music. The robots had acquired both self-awareness and guns, and you can guess what followed. It was hard not to root for Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) as they meted out great vengeance on their cruel former masters.
The best scenes involved Newton and the park’s unctuous “story architect” Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman). Sporting a power-suit and a large rifle she humiliated him for some of the duff lines he’d written for her and then made him strip off entirely. Given that Newton had had to parade nude to no obvious purpose in series one, this felt like a rejoinder both to the slimeball Sizemore and to the series’s critics.
Those same critics felt that series one asked too many wafty, highfalutin questions without providing any satisfying answers; this time around the show appears to have greater direction. Increasingly we’re following Bernard (Jeffrey Wright), the programmer who turned out to be a robot himself. It’s the right play – Wright is terrific. He’s able to express an ontological crisis (which is basically what Westworld is) through gestures and expressions, rather than in quotable, but ultimately meaningless, aphorisms. Westworld is best when there’s less talk, more action. Benji Wilson
Even habitual harrumpher Jeremy Paxman was impressed by the standard of quizzing in the grand final of University Challenge (BBC Two). “It’s amazing what people know, isn’t it?” marvelled the host. Indeed it was, covering eclectic topics from the Shipping Forecast to Chinese literature, from the Black Lives Matter movement in the US to Egyptian politician Boutros Boutros-ghali.
For the fifth year in a row, the showdown was an all-oxbridge affair. It’s becoming like a brainbox version of the Boat Race. First-time finalists St John’s College, Cambridge, took on Merton College, Oxford, who last won the contest back in 1980.
At a cursory glance, this episode could have been filmed anytime in the last half-century. University Challenge is impervious to change, with everything reassuringly familiar: the jaunty string music, the lo-fi buzzers, the split-screen effect, viewers’ air-punching pride when they get one right. Even the teams’ appearances – ill-fitting blazers, patterned ties, polo-necks, non-statement specs and resolutely unfashionable haircuts – were a throwback.
Once battle commenced, it was a women’s world out there. The star players were the only two female participants: Merton captain Leonie Woodland, who looked worried even while reeling off correct answers, and St John’s’ Rosie Mckeown, lightningquick queen of the starter question. The six males – even the teams’ respective “human Googles”, Merton’s Akira Wiberg and John-clark Levin from St John’s – barely got a look-in.
It was a ding-dong clash, with Merton racing into an early lead before St John’s clawed their way back. Once the Cambridge college got their bookish noses in front, they stayed there, winning by 145 points to 100. This final’s female domination continued as the trophy was presented by composer Judith Weir.
This 47th series hasn’t been a vintage one, due to the lack of a cult figure like 2009 phenomenon Gail Trimble, 2010’s deadpan Alexander Guttenplan, 2015’s Ted Loveday or last year’s Eric Monkman, whose grimacing, gurning facial expressions inspired “Monkmania”. However, it remains quietly gripping and pleasingly highbrow in a dumbed-down world. As Paxman concluded: “Until next time, goodbye.” Michael Hogan
Westworld ★★★★ University Challenge ★★★