Midweek Update: It's the End of the (West)world as We Know It

I’m sending out this mid-week update a day earlier because tomorrow the midterm election results will take up all the oxygen in the room, and that’s fine, but I think even on a normal day it’s tough to make the case that my assorted thoughts are worth someone’s attention. Trying to make that case as the political landscape shifts is even tougher. So all I’ll say is that if you haven’t voted yet, please get out and vote.

In other news, Westworld was canceled after its fourth season. I loved the first season of the show, but it quickly stumbled in its second season and never really recovered. What made the show captivating at first was that it was in this interesting area of slave/master relationships leading to a new evolutionary paradigm while also exploring the power of memory (the robots have the ability to remember every traumatic thing that’s ever happened to them and so that leads to the question of how that would shape their culture and personalities).

But the story got away from showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy as their choices felt increasingly reactionary. Season 2 was a chronological jumble because it seemed like the showrunners were trying to outwit fans who had figured out the game in Season 1. Season 3 left the park entirely to be a story of algorithmic control and privacy violations essentially turning humans into robots themselves (the data supplied to a supercomputer would dictate the opportunities you had available to you similar to how the robots had branching decision trees). None of these ideas are inherently bad (even the jumble of Season 2 was arguably an attempt to mimic how the robots process time and memory), but it frequently came at the expense of both character and narrative fluency. By the end of Season 3, I had run out of patience. The show had developed a pattern of coming out the gate with something interesting only to falter at the end. I heard Season 4 had the same issue of a strong start only to have a weak finish.

However, what damned the show wasn’t bad storytelling (worse shows have endured for far longer) but a diminishing fanbase for what had always been a pricey show. Perhaps Nolan and Joy felt that producer’s J.J. Abrams’ fat Warner Bros. contract (reportedly worth $250 million) might protect the show, but with the new regime at Warner Bros. Discovery cutting costs, there wasn’t room for a show like Westworld that was never short on ambition but couldn’t maintain an audience or critical acclaim. If anything, its demise feels like a cautionary tale where even a prestige genre show can be shut down if it fails to garner interest. I don’t think this will necessarily lead to less ambitious genre programming, but I do think there’s a lesson here for showrunners who feel like they can keep stringing the audience along without a clear destination.

What I’m Watching

I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever last night, and since the review embargo has lifted, I’ll provide a mini-review. Basically, it’s not as good as the first movie, but still a good film, especially when you consider the struggles the production went through. Losing Chadwick Boseman was a tremendous blow and I can’t imagine how hard it was for everyone to return without him. Then you have a production that’s further weighted with COVID compliance and a major cast member who was anti-vax. Then you’ve still got to make a good movie that honors Boseman, tells a new story, and moves the world forward.

It’s a tall order, and I applaud co-writer/director Ryan Coogler for pulling it off. There are some exciting set pieces, Tenoch Huerta is terrific as the antagonist Namor, and like the first movie, the film thoughtfully explores what it means to have power in a world where colonialists will always seek to take what you have. Whereas in the first movie, Killmonger’s solution was to go full imperialist and conquer the world, Namor is an extreme isolationist. Once again, the task for Wakanda is how they’ll exist in the world without bringing it to war. The problem is compounded with the loss of their leader and protector, the Black Panther.

In some ways, you can see how Wakanda Forever was meant to feature T’Challa. If you swap out Shuri and drop in T’Challa, a lot of the story still makes sense and continues to develop the conflict of the first movie about what it means to be a “good king.” But without T’Challa and a greater focus on grief and loss, the film becomes a tricky balancing act that isn’t always certain of where to go. Again, I applaud Coogler attempting to reckon with both stories, but it’s a lot for the film to tackle, and that’s before you get to your typical MCU table setting like the stuff with Everett Ross (returning in Secret Invasion and likely Thunderbolts) and Riri Williams (who will have her own series with the upcoming Ironheart).

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the close of the MCU: Phase 4 and also its best movie. I also fear it’s the best Marvel can do from here on out. While some may argue that it’s simply tough to recapture the magic after the crescendo of Endgame, I think the reason why these movies and shows are struggling is far more pedestrian, which is that Marvel is stretched too thin. How can you make sure every project is getting the attention it deserves and will excite audiences when the content machine demands fresh product? In 2022 alone, we’ve gotten three movies and three TV series (not to mention one “Special Presentation” with another on the way). Disney, as it’s currently constituted, does not care about quality as much as they do about production. If the Marvel stuff is “decent” then out the door it goes and it’s on to the next.

On the TV side, my wife and I finished our 30 Rock rewatch, and now we’re taking a break from the comfort shows. It’s just getting to be a lot to be on phones while a show plays in the background. Again, it’s fine for unwinding, but we’ve decided for the time being that if we’re going to have a show on, we’re going to watch it, and if we’re going to tool around on our phones, we’ll just put on a record or something.

As for new shows, I’m five episodes into Andor and am kind of floored by it. I’ll have more to say at the end of Season 1, but at the very least, I think it makes for a fascinating case study in the divide over what the future of Star Wars should look like. My wife and I also can’t get enough of Welcome to Wrexham, but we’re savoring it one episode at a time because it’s such a great portrait of a community rather than just an underdog sports story. Oh, and the Love Is Blind: Season 3 finale is tomorrow so that should be fun.

What I’m Reading

I finally finished Jewish People, Jewish Thought. Only took me five months. But I’m proud that I read it, and it helped clarify some of my thoughts on Judaism while also providing a strong primer on Jewish history (a “primer” being almost 800 pages in this case, but to be fair, there are about 3,200 years to cover). It was fascinating to see how Judaism has transformed and shifted to try and meet various ideological movements through the centuries while also remaining committed to its core ideals. Anyway, I don’t know if I’d say, “Pick up a copy!” since it’s out print, but I’m glad I read it.

Now I’m treating myself to Volume 10 of Fiona Staples and Brian K. Vaughan’s Saga, and because the book was on hiatus for a couple years, I had forgotten how utterly hard it goes. The series has always prided itself on being unadaptable (too sprawling and NC-17 for a movie, too expensive for a TV show), but the story simply remains unflinching about how hard everyone has to live during wartime where you’re just trying to live your life but the lunacy, chaos, and ultimately violence of the world will come for you. The fact that the book has a sense of humor is all the more remarkable (although unsurprising when you consider the blend of darkness and levity that Vaughan typically brings to his work).

What I’m Hearing

It’s more You Must Remember This. I’m currently working my way through the MGM Stories season, and, not to flatten Longworth’s reporting, but it does seem like every single dude was an alcoholic, a bastard, or most often than not, an alcoholic bastard. It’s amazing anyone was able to make movies given the behind-the-scenes drama.

What I’m Playing

Plenty of Marvel Snap but starting tomorrow God of War: Ragnarok will be my new best friend.

That’s it! Come back Sunday for my article on Tár, a film that looks like it will be awards contender and therefore shredded by The Discourse.