WESTWORLD Season Four
Our Friends Electric
UK Sky Atlantic/now, streaming now US HBO, streaming now
Showrunners Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy Cast Evan Rachel Wood, Tessa
Thompson, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Aaron Paul, Ed Harris
Anyone who has stuck with Westworld through three seasons of philosophical musings on free will and confusing timelines must be in it for the long haul – and season four certainly repays that time commitment, with the best eight episodes since the initial run.
As we soon learn, it takes place seven years after the war between humans and Hosts. One of the season’s central mysteries is the
Delivers far more answers than questions
identity of Christina (Evan Rachel Wood), a new character who works as a writer creating stories for videogames – and who also looks exactly like a brunette Dolores. But Dolores is dead, isn’t she? Or is she Hale now? Hang on, let’s check the recap…
Of course, this confusion as to who is who, and exactly which timeline we’re in, is meat and drink to the show, but season four eventually delivers far more answers than questions and has a hell of a good time while doing it. The production values remain exquisite, and while dialogue sometimes veers towards the cheesily generic, it’s never glaring enough to make you wince.
There’s no room here for Lost-style flashback interludes – every episode drives the narrative relentlessly forward. Talking of Lost, there are at least two whopping great Moments of the “We must go back to the island” calibre, and the finale is audacious in its totality. But creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy said from the start that they had planned for five seasons, and so it seems the next (as yet unconfirmed) will be the last. If it can match the narrative oomph of this one, it’ll be a hell of a way to go out. Ed Ricketts
Aurora Perrineau, who plays C, is the daughter of Harold Perrineau – Michael in Lost, and now in From as Sheriff Boyd.