Westworld once wanted to be the biggest drama on television. Not the most popular – it was always too complex and ambitious to sweep up as many viewers as Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead. But at its inception, it had designs on being the prestige box set with the widest scope, asking the weightiest questions about mankind and technology, demanding the deepest commitment to keep up with its leaping intellect.
As it returns for a fourth season, though, it’s feeling small. Dull, even. The season four opener is the least chaotic in the show’s history, with signs that Westworld has succumbed to the fate that befalls all but the best high-concept sci-fi stories when they are given too long a run: every massive idea and reality-switching twist has been another step into an ever-narrowing maze of the show’s own mythology. Now the grand point Westworld was originally making is no longer in sight.
