Jessica Naftaly

The final episode of the premiere season of Westworld, “The Bicameral Mind,” was bittersweet, sentimental, violent, satisfying, and only benefits from a repeat viewing or two. With everything riding on the finale and the show's massively built up audience praying for a finale that would live up tot he rest of the season's carefully and deftly crafted episodes, WESTWORLD didn't disappoint. Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan proved that they had hit on something truly special and are focused on a narrative deeper and more thoughtful than the majority of shows currently and previously reaching the top of the ratings. WESTWORLD's finale only cemented the show's narrative theme of autonomy, storytelling and subverting the traditional tropes of stories, as well as it's ultimate deconstruction of archetypes through our ultimate lenses; Maeve and Dolores. 

WESTWORLD's penultimate episode entitled 'The Well-Tempered Clavier' just aired last night and as we head into the finale of the first season, the show proves it's not holding back any of its punches. The show has certainly taken on a bigger life in the online community with fan theorizing and discussion and WESTWORLD does what most shows should follow suit in revealing answers to questions the fans are asking and are already forming their own answers to. By doing so, they avoid the probable let down in the future that comes with an anticlimactic reveal of something the consumers have been building up in their heads for so long in such a grandiose way that the final product could never hold a candle to what they were imagining it to be. They also prove that the show overall, as a narrative and a piece of thematic storytelling, isn't about the twists, despite their existence in the narrative. They exist, but as the theories prove by being completely true, the information was all there from the beginning and the questions about consciousness, autonomy, and humanity are the real grounding force of the epic scale drama that is WESTWORLD.

Only two more episodes of WESTWORLD left and the jam-packed show only intensifies with each week! This week Thandie Newton once again flexes her incredible acting muscles as Maeve truly begins taking control of her own narrative, some of our most asked questions begin to get answered, and the show confirms one of the most talked about theories surrounding it since the season started airing. 

Seven episodes into WESTWORLD, “Trompe L'Oeil” paints a clearer picture of where the series is going, all the while setting to rest some popular fan theories and revealing who its characters truly are. WESTWORLD has always been about dimensions and facades and what it means when you see behind the curtain. This week, we were given a sneak peek behind everyone's curtain projecting us on a ramped up climax that is sure to follow in the final three weeks to come. 

The penultimate episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ROANOKE just aired and while it was a thrilling gore fest, the introduction of new characters solely as extra lenses to tell the story only to have them killed off within the very same episode was the perfect example of the cheapening overall effect of where this story was always fated to end up. 

Over half way through the first season of HBO's WESTWORLD and we have decidedly taken the red pill. In Episode 6, entitled “The Adversary,” the stakes are raised as both hosts and humans become aware of the true nature of their reality.

With only two more episodes left of AMERICAN HORROR STORY and a death toll we're just counting down, as could be predicted 'Chapter 7' would be filled with more carnage, brutality, and...you guessed it...death. The show went from five to three this week and the only thing keeping the audience hanging on with suspense is the knowledge that only one of this thrilling cast of characters will survive. This episode, as did last week's, toed the line between horror and torture porn, but ultimately barely treads above that water by focusing on the compelling performances and dealing with the effects this hellish situation is having on these people. As the steaks are upped, everyone appears to be pushed to the edge and it is clear that no one will walk away without first getting their hands dirty.

“Contrapasso,” the title of Episode 5 of WESTWORLD refers to the concept in Dante's Inferno that every sinner should see an equally fitting punishment for their crime as the one they had committed. As guests continually exercise their id and indulge in depravity and the hosts who are victims of said indulgence start gaining consciousness and pushing back, they may find their own ring of hell at the end of their vacation. Everyone this week faces their demons and sees justice, in whatever form that maybe. For the more unsavory workers and guests of Westworld and their instinctually detached approach to the hosts from a more voyeuristic perspective, they will find an equally fitting end to their equally horrifying “sins”. For those with purer intentions and good hearts, they will battle against the sin exercising all around them and tempting them in to struggle in the search for a haven. “Contrapasso” is all about ones actions and the due retribution they will face, allowing the characters to reach a beautiful climax as the world and the balance starts shifting for them, be it in the positive or negative light.

This weeks episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY was bloody, blood, bloody, as if all that death we were waiting for all season finally caught up to us. As members of the cast of Return to Roanoke: 3 Days in Hell quickly get picked off, we soon learn that it might not be just the ghostly demons of the land that are doing all of the killing. While this season is picking up speed, feeling like it's hurtling towards its conclusion, a result that cannot be said for many past seasons, murder-filled blood moon countdown starts to toe the line between horror and torture-porn. Whether it succeeds or falls into its own trap depends on the outcome of the horror that will occur during the blood moon.

Guts, gore, heists, shoot outs, revelations, and one gnarly snake tattoo are just some of what you can find in the fourth and most explosively exciting episode of WESTWORLD to date. The episode, entitled “Dissonance Theory,” already starts laying the firm foundation for where the season is headed, while doing what WESTWORLD does best; satiates your appetite but with such incredible flavors that make you want to come back for more just to confirm its brilliance. “Dissonance Theory,” and what the concept of the title suggests, is that the human mind is constantly trying to find patterns amongst their cognitions and understanding (i.e. how your brain works and what it is understanding) but when a dissonance arrises, there is a need to take action to get rid of said dissonance to return to the peaceful equilibrium of before. As the hosts' world begins to unravel from inside out, and the inner workings of Westworld on every level start exposing their pure selfish corruption, dissonances are cropping up all around at a rate so quick, the possibility attaining pure and consistent cognitions is falling too far out of reach. 

All is finally revealed on the sixth episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY Season 6; and it's safe to say, most of us aren't surprised. The big twist that creator Ryan Murphy is finally out and while it isn't completely surprising, elements of it certainly are while the show finally delivered on what we've been wanting and became the horror and suspense drama it promises to be. We find out immediately, just as many predicted, that the sixth episode would turn the docu-drama series that was My Roanoke Nightmare on its head; integrating both the subjects and the actors portraying them in the reenactments. In what was a brilliantly directed episode by Angela Bassett, making her behind the camera debut, Episode 6 really brought a new flavor, feel, and urgency to the series that elevated it above what we've seen the rest of the season, turning in on itself to make commentary on the industry and culture AMERICAN HORROR STORY itself is so ingrained in while upping the stakes for the story. 

The third episode of WESTWORLD, entitled “The Stray,” sheds light on both the past and future of the park and its inhabitants. While we are allowed a closer look at the history of the creation of the hosts, we begin to realize just how much that history is responsible for what they are quickly becoming. Sentience, as always, as well as consciousness, is the ultimate question, for understanding and awakening are traits we attribute to life and the human experience. While we, as an audience, automatically begin to personify the hosts and connect with them from a story perspective, as they are most of our eyes into this world, the guests and those that run Westworld must combat their want for ignorance with their indifference to the truth about the hosts and what said indifference says about them. 

The fifth and final episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY (before the big “twist” creator Ryan Murphy revealed would be happening in the sixth episode of the sixth season) just aired and if anything, it was horrifying, bloody, and emotional.

Episode 2 of Westworld just aired on HBO and, along with tonight's presidential debate, leaves us questioning humanity. In what is an even further step above its pilot and its ability to explore these complex questions and cultural infrastructures through it's narrative, Westworld continues to shine as creatively intelligent and mindfully captivating. This episode, entitled “Chesnut” explores the hosts and their humanity. What is humanity? What is it to remember? What is it to think or to feel? What is morality and how does it define us? As the hosts start recalling their past lives, the paths the guests choose to take in Westworld will be of dire consequence. 

With us almost halfway through American Horror Story: Roanoke, the series is getting to a point where it feels like it is spinning its wheels until it reaches the much awaited sixth episode where, as creator Ryan Murphy has promised, the show will reveal a big twist. Most fans have theorized what that twist could be, debating on whether or not it will tie all of the seasons together or if it will explain why AHS chose the docudrama format for this season other than just for aesthetic purposes. The anticipation for the reveal, however, overwhelms any anticipation for the episodes preceding it.

“Every hero has a choice.” That's not exactly the tagline of HBO's new drama Westworld, but it should be. Westworld explores mankind at it's core and what our choices say about us. It explores the depths and depravity of humanity, our culture, and our pleasures. What do our choices and our desires say? What is entertainment and why is it so often riddled with sex, violence, and most frequently sexual violence? While we constantly hide behind the separation between fiction and reality, the perverted, exploitative, and gratuitous demand for inclusion of what we generally condemn as morally wrong in our society to be present and pronounced in our media is undoubtable and HBO as a network is frequently one of our biggest culprits. But, perhaps that is why Westworld works so brilliantly.

Three weeks into American Horror Story's sixth season and just three more weeks until the all too anticipated twist that creator Ryan Murphy confirmed in episode 6. “Chapter Three” brought us death, gore, and some trademark disturbing fornication. It also didn't light up on the horror, which has been what “My Roanoke Nightmare” has been most undoubtably praised for. 

This weeks episode of American Horror Story came with the series' subtitle “Roanoke”. Thus, the possibility that this will be several anthologies or hauntings captured in a faux- documentary episodic format is pretty much debunked; however, that doesn't mean that this season will be in anyway straightforward. This is American Horror Story after all! 

The sixth season of FX's American Horror Story premiered last night, and after taking a completely different approach in marketing, we also learned that the season was formatted quite different than we are used. With the excitement for future seasons always stemming from the announcement of the theme, something that AHS has become known for and what makes it so exciting and refreshing each year, the knowledge that the team were choosing to keep this years theme closely under wraps and in much guarded secrecy until the series premiere (so successfully that the team on Thrones could probably take a few pointers!) was a shock and interesting choice. Last night, however, all was revealed…or was it? 

Last night was the finale of Season 6 of HBO's Game of Thrones and after a riveting epic episode of battles, we got something rather different this week. It had your standard Thrones finale elements; death, shocks, violence, and twists. However, most of it didn't really make much sense. We got plot development, but Thrones just seems like it's on a high speed train, eager to get to the final stop, without caring about the journey along the way. We had to say goodbye to a great many cast members this season, but this episode alone wiped out so many that it was hard to take a moment to even feel the impact of their character's death. The show has really embraced the 'efficiency is coming' methodology and it can surely be felt in this packed, fast-paced, and rather convoluted episode built on shocks but devoid of logic.