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The best moment of the premiere was when a robot given the role of the murderous bandit is shot dead mid-sentence by a "newcomer," shocking the bandit's partner into silence as she too is offed by the tourist happy to get a photo after with the corpses! It's a darkly funny moment to see the world's head writer roll his eyes at his character being cut off in the middle of his chilling speech. I find that moment fascinating since it reflects an interest of mine that's grown in the era of open world gaming: user interference with the intended story. I would be very happy to see Westworld become a sort of live action Grand Theft Auto, wherein the world's offerings and user desires clash to produce unintended outcomes. I think the Ed Harris character demonstrates this as well - a user so bored by the countless times he's seen the same story play out that he resorts to taunting the world's robots and engaging in the most depraved acts imaginable.

Also, the potential for exploration of simulated violence is exciting since few movies or TV shows have approached the kind of relentless murder and rape and whatever else an artificial world can cultivate. There are of course examples, but with the explosion of games that seemingly give the player absolute freedom, I was waiting for other media to catch up and wag a finger, so to speak. Westworld seems aiming for that kind of critique, as the users treat the bots like cattle to be killed or fucked. I particularly enjoyed the scene where two women look over James Marsden's good guy and the one remarks she's looking for a bad guy type. There's a lot of potential in the show so I hope it doesn't stumble too much going forward.

somewhere off the coast of China given the Chinese military showing up early on in the episode.

Interesting that the structural device of this season, so far, is that Bernard's critical malfunction is causing him to confuse past and present events.

Epic cameo tonight

When he meets the young Robert host, it's like the iconic moment between Henry Fonda and the child in Once Upon a Time in the West (which the show has frequently referenced all around) and when Michael Douglas talks to his television in The Game.

...the famous urban myth that Walt Disney had his body frozen with the hope of being reanimated through some kind of future technology.

the issue of stakes are becoming a bit unraveled if you can kill off characters but resurrect them almost immediately as they did with two characters

When I saw Paul in the trailer for Triple 9 I thought he looked like a cyberpunk version of Jesse. This seems to have realized that.