4 ms·

The ratings drop-off is interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)#Ratings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)#Ratings Se

The ratings drop-off is interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)#Ratings https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westworld_(TV_series)#Ratings Seasons 3 and 4 had basically steady viewership through their whole runs, but each had way fewer viewers than the preceding season. So a lot of people who watched S2 until the end didn't even start S3, and many who finished S3 didn't bother with S4. I wonder why this is? If viewership dropped through the season it'd be more obvious - people just didn't like the season. But to me this indicates that it lost mindshare between seasons. Was it interesting enough to watch as it was going, but not interesting enough to wonder what would happen next? I've definitely had that happen, where I binge watched a season of a show, but didn't bother (or dropped off quickly) when a new season started, just because I had sort of lost interest during the break and didn't get pulled back in the same way.

Justin_K 4y ago
To me, it means viewers disliked the last season they watched but hung in through to end, in hopes for something good. It didn't deliver, so they didn't bother with the next season. This is based on my opinion of the above said show.
- saghm 4y ago
  This is exactly what happened with me, my roommate at the time, and my girlfriend. Season 1 was an excellent arc and was super well done from start to finish. However, because sometimes having satisfying twists requires dropping some hints here and there, and because the internet hive mind is incredibly good at predicting twists based off of hints, essentially the entire plot of the first season was successfully predicting through reddit collaboration and consensus after like the second episode, which then got distributed as usual through articles, social media, etc. I think the people who made the show were disappointed in this, and from what I can tell, the solution they seemed to have come up with was to make the plot of the second season so convoluted and the final "twists" so ridiculous that no one would predtict them. This worked, but it also ended up making it very dissatisfying overall, and with the clear implication that the show would be taking place in the "real word" instead of in the mostly closed off sandbox of the theme park, it didn't seem super likely that the writers would be able to improve on the previous season given the new setting, so I just didn't bother watching after that.
  - WorldMaker 4y ago
    I predicted a lot of Season 2 during Season 1, though I was called a bit of a quack for it at the time. I don't think they tried to complicate it because of people solving the Season 1 puzzle box, I think they picked too esoteric of a plot framework (lost books of the bible/biblical "fan fiction") at the start of the series bible and S2 was always the planned consequence of S1. I blame Neal Stephenson for this, both in why I spotted the things that I did and where a lot of S2 came from even though it felt so left field for the average viewer. (I tend to refer to S2 as the "Futurama's Robot Church" season and think it makes a lot more sense when you see it as a struggle between the Robot God and the Robot Devil, and the Robot Devil is not who most people think it is despite S1 laying out a lot of hints.)
logical_proof 4y ago
Totally anecdotal but I am thinking that this is due to the long delay between seasons. I think this is happening with many shows that have these multi year hiatus style productions. There is so much great media out there that trying to get back in to something that is almost two years old takes a lot of effort.
- ghaff 4y ago
  And with complex highly serialized shows that you maybe didn’t follow fanatically, you’ve sort of forgotten what was going on 18 months previously.
jdhn 4y ago
It's because there was a huge drop in quality between the seasons. I believe I made it to Season 3 (spoiler: the one with the supercomputer) and the story just got too ridiculous to me. Didn't even watch Season 4 which was disappointing because Season 1 was some amazing TV.
weard_beard 4y ago
My wife and I LOVED season 1 and season 2. Our opinion is basically the "park" premise was run through by the end of season 2. Season 3 went from an interesting existential commentary on society and our dystopian future with a gorgeous backdrop and compelling characters to... a lot of exposition and kind of predictable schlocky cyberpunk, "keanu reeves starts the revolution with the help of an AI" storyline... without much in the way of real interesting ideas or commentary that brought something new, and without the beautiful and interesting backdrop of, "the park".
yashg 4y ago
I have only watched S1. Never bothered with S2 even though I was mildly curious about what would happen next.
- bumbledraven 4y ago
  S2E8 ("Kiksyua") is superb. That episode alone makes a great epilogue to S1.
watwut 4y ago
You finish the season you don't like much, because you want to know how it ends. Then you don't start a new season. I stopped when Dolores ceased to be the best female psychopath on television, but they instead tried to reframe her as someone good. That serie just did not had that something special first one had, so I lost interest.

Justin_K 4y ago

To me, it means viewers disliked the last season they watched but hung in through to end, in hopes for something good. It didn't deliver, so they didn't bother with the next season. This is based on my opinion of the above said show.

saghm 4y ago
This is exactly what happened with me, my roommate at the time, and my girlfriend. Season 1 was an excellent arc and was super well done from start to finish. However, because sometimes having satisfying twists requires dropping some hints here and there, and because the internet hive mind is incredibly good at predicting twists based off of hints, essentially the entire plot of the first season was successfully predicting through reddit collaboration and consensus after like the second episode, which then got distributed as usual through articles, social media, etc. I think the people who made the show were disappointed in this, and from what I can tell, the solution they seemed to have come up with was to make the plot of the second season so convoluted and the final "twists" so ridiculous that no one would predtict them. This worked, but it also ended up making it very dissatisfying overall, and with the clear implication that the show would be taking place in the "real word" instead of in the mostly closed off sandbox of the theme park, it didn't seem super likely that the writers would be able to improve on the previous season given the new setting, so I just didn't bother watching after that.
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  I predicted a lot of Season 2 during Season 1, though I was called a bit of a quack for it at the time. I don't think they tried to complicate it because of people solving the Season 1 puzzle box, I think they picked too esoteric of a plot framework (lost books of the bible/biblical "fan fiction") at the start of the series bible and S2 was always the planned consequence of S1. I blame Neal Stephenson for this, both in why I spotted the things that I did and where a lot of S2 came from even though it felt so left field for the average viewer. (I tend to refer to S2 as the "Futurama's Robot Church" season and think it makes a lot more sense when you see it as a struggle between the Robot God and the Robot Devil, and the Robot Devil is not who most people think it is despite S1 laying out a lot of hints.)

logical_proof 4y ago

Totally anecdotal but I am thinking that this is due to the long delay between seasons. I think this is happening with many shows that have these multi year hiatus style productions. There is so much great media out there that trying to get back in to something that is almost two years old takes a lot of effort.

ghaff 4y ago
And with complex highly serialized shows that you maybe didn’t follow fanatically, you’ve sort of forgotten what was going on 18 months previously.

jdhn 4y ago

It's because there was a huge drop in quality between the seasons. I believe I made it to Season 3 (spoiler: the one with the supercomputer) and the story just got too ridiculous to me. Didn't even watch Season 4 which was disappointing because Season 1 was some amazing TV.

weard_beard 4y ago

My wife and I LOVED season 1 and season 2. Our opinion is basically the "park" premise was run through by the end of season 2. Season 3 went from an interesting existential commentary on society and our dystopian future with a gorgeous backdrop and compelling characters to... a lot of exposition and kind of predictable schlocky cyberpunk, "keanu reeves starts the revolution with the help of an AI" storyline... without much in the way of real interesting ideas or commentary that brought something new, and without the beautiful and interesting backdrop of, "the park".

yashg 4y ago

I have only watched S1. Never bothered with S2 even though I was mildly curious about what would happen next.

bumbledraven 4y ago
S2E8 ("Kiksyua") is superb. That episode alone makes a great epilogue to S1.

watwut 4y ago

You finish the season you don't like much, because you want to know how it ends. Then you don't start a new season. I stopped when Dolores ceased to be the best female psychopath on television, but they instead tried to reframe her as someone good. That serie just did not had that something special first one had, so I lost interest.