Hot take: Westworld is awesome

I know, I know, I'm late getting to this particular party. What can I say? I spend more time gaming than watching TV. But with the current global situation being what it is, I suddenly find myself spending an extra couple of hours a day at home, and have finally started catching up on my watch time backlog.

Some quick impressions:

• Altered Carbon is very, very, good -- in fact, I like the television adaptation better than I liked the books (and, yes, I did like the books; all three of them are on my bookshelf right now). If you haven't watched this one, definitely give it a try.
• Star Trek: Picard is only okay -- better than Star Trek: Discovery, in that I wanted to watch more after watching the first hour (the first part of Discovery's pilot, by comparison, left me feeling so goddamned angry at that show's writers and showrunners that I could never bring myself watch part 2, or any of the episodes that followed), but not good enough to get me past episode four. I'm sorry, but Romulan warrior-nun-boy was all I could handle; I tapped out after that. Watch only if you're seriously jonesing for something that vaguely resembles Star Trek, or just have to have some Sir Patrick Stewart in your day.
• Avenue 5 was also only okay -- Hugh Laurie is still very fun to watch, and his somewhat hapless actor-captain of a ship crewed by other actors, with all the competent crew hidden well out of sight, was an interesting switch from Doctor Sherlock Holmes House M.D. The show's not as funny as it thinks it is, though, and some of the gags, like the radiation shield made of the passengers' fecal matter (did the ship put out into space with a full load of shit pre-loaded? if not, how long does it take for the passengers to fill up the ship's "wet suit?" and are they heavily dosed with anti-cancer drugs in the meantime?), are so illogical as to be immersion-breaking, even as "jokes." I eventually stopped watching The Orville, too, for the same reason.
• Doctor Who's season 12 was definitely an improvement over season 11, but still hardly must see T.V. If you want to give her another chance, though, I recommend watching the Spyfall two-parter, followed by Fugitive of the Judoon, Ascension of the Cybermen, and The Timeless Children. If you must have a couple of famous-people episodes, then add Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror and The Haunting of Villa Diodati to the mix -- personally, these "famous people" episodes have always felt like a waste of time (I mean, it's literally the laziest thing you can do with a fictional time machine, although still better than Rosa or Demons of the Punjab, which were too busy being "woke" to actually be stories). Definitely avoid S12's "woke" episodes, though (Orphan 55 and Praxeus), both of which are "woke" in only the bluntest and laziest ways possible, essentially name-checking the issues of the day without saying anything about them which might be useful, moving, or profound.

You may be noticing a pattern, by now. Yes, these are all sci-fi shows. I am a sci-fi junkie of long standing; I got a taste for the stuff from lighter fare like Space 1999, Star Trek, and Star Wars, before moving on to the hard stuff; once you start main-lining the likes of Asimov, or Clarke, you never really kick the habit again. I love trashy sci-fi; I love flashy sci-fi; but, more than anything else, I love smart sci-fi. I love Independence Day; I love the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, and especially the last two Avengers movies (yes, I love both Infinity War and End Game); and I loved Arrival, which you should totally see if you haven't already.

And I love Westworld, which somehow manages to trashy, flashy, and smart, in all the best ways, all at the same time, all the time.

• Do you want gratuitous nudity, violence and gore? Westworld's got 'em in all their trashy glory, except that it's not entirely gratuitous; the way in which the shows humans dehumanize and mistreat the show's hosts is the entire fucking point. 
• Do you want excellent visual effects, detailed world-building, gorgeous production design, and fantasic cinematography? Westworld's got those too, in spades. This show is gorgeous, even when it's being ugly. Maybe especially when it's being ugly.
• Do you want deeply weird philosophical musings about the nature of consciousness, dehumanizing pop culture, the awfulness of massively multiplayer games, and what makes us all human? Well, friend, you've come to the right place.
• Do you want a twisty plot, that plays with time like Christopher Nolan at his peak, and jaw-dropping reveals that somehow manage to be both completely surprising and totally obvious in hindsight? Prepare to have your mind. blown.
• Do you want terrific acting? Westworld's got that, too, with Sir Anthony Hopkins bringing his "A" game for the first time in years, and the rest of the show's cast rising to match him, and even outdo him. I'm a fan of Thandie Newton now, because of this show. I'm a fan of Evan Rachael Wood now, because of this show. Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Tessa Thompson, Rodrigo Santoro, Jimmi Simpson, Clifton Collins, Jr. ...they're all terrific in this show.

Of every show I've binged in the last year, I'd recommend Westworld before all others. I'm burning my way through season two now, but if you haven't even watched season one yet, then do yourself a favour: give it a try. Don't read a synopsis, don't read any of a dozen articles that will try to catch you up on two seasons of terrific television just so that you can start with the third season: watch the entire run of the show. It's worth it. I promise you, it's worth it.

Westworld, folks, is how you do it. A+