HBO's Ambitious 36-Episode Sci-Fi Series Turned Frustration Into An Art Form

Published Jul 18, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones. You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep." Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant. Frustration is not always a bad thing. The age of streaming has changed the way we watch TV, with series being released at once for binge-watching, rather than weekly, meaning that even TV episodes with the best twists can move on immediately afterward, lessening their impact. With a weekly release, complex and mind-bending sci-fi TV series like Lost would be discussed until the next episode arrived, allowing these shows to build a fanbase through word of mouth. Now, even the most bingeable TV shows can be forgotten if they have not captured enough attention on release, which is then directly linked to some of the most frustrating TV cancelations, which are often due to low viewership and disproportionately affect genres like fantasy and sci-fi. Suspense, frustration, and cliffhangers can be valuable for pacing a twist-filled sci-fi TV show, and one of the best benefited from its initial weekly release schedule, giving us a groundbreaking first season. Based on the 1973 movie by Michael Crichton, Westworld is one of the greatest sci-fi Westerns ever made. While Firefly might have popularized the space Western genre blend for TV, the Westworld reboot was a much more ambitious show. Set in a theme park populated by robots whose memories are wiped after every interaction, humans can live out their Wild West fantasies, which inevitably include violence, assault, and murder. When the robots begin to gain consciousness and retain memories, they rise up against the human programmers who facilitated the torture. This was riveting, but the show soon faced problems. Why Westworld Is One Of The Most Frustrating TV Shows Ever Made Credit: MovieStillsDB Westworld had one of the most incredible first seasons seen in a sci-fi TV show, with many reviewers counting it among the best first seasons of any TV show across genres. Rotten Tomatoes audiences gave it a 93% positive rating and praised the story and acting, especially by Thandiwe Newton, and the explosive ending that featured both a twist and a massacre was an exercise in suspense as viewers then had to wait two years to find out what would happen next. While the second season was still well-regarded, it did not match up to the first, with audiences giving it a 76% positive Rotten Tomatoes score. This is by no means a bad rating, but it was a drastic drop in quality after such a standout first season. The series could have improved from then onward, but it instead became messier, with the tangled layers of plot becoming increasingly difficult to follow. You need to be a genius to understand some sci-fi TV shows, but this felt like carelessness rather than cleverness. With viewers falling in love with the distinctive setting, leading to Westworld being compared to some of the best TV Westerns of all time, this could have been enough to keep people watching. However, the series took another unexpected twist, moving the setting to a futuristic city. This took away much of the character and aesthetic that had defined Westworld for its first two seasons. The changing atmosphere could have been a great move in another show, but when the series was already starting to struggle, this loss of consistency was an exercise in frustration rather than novelty. Frustrating As It Was, Westworld Kept Us Hooked The mysteries and twists that began to cause issues for Westworld were also some of its most compelling. The questions over which characters were human, what their intentions were, and even whose perspective you were watching from were so ambitious that the series kept us watching, even as viewers could see that the quality was dropping. This led to many fans having a complicated relationship with the show, appreciating the ambition but missing the tight storytelling that season 1 had shown. Westworld's writer and creator, Michael Crichton, is also responsible for Jurassic Park. Unlike many otherwise great sci-fi TV shows, Westworld did explain most of its mysteries even while introducing greater ones. What began as a much simpler story evolved into a question exploring what consciousness truly is, and this could have turned the show into a masterpiece, if not for the issues surrounding its plot. Westworld also had one of this century's best casts, with Anthony Hopkins, Tessa Thompson and Aaron Paul among them, which meant that even with the show's declining quality, the cast was always outstanding. Westworld Being Canceled One Season Before The End Has Only Enhanced The Frustration With season 4 of Westworld being set in a futuristic environment in which the global order has been reversed, with humans now in the position of Hosts, the series was drastically different from its origins. The series always felt as though it was building towards something groundbreaking, but with the solution apparently being a recreation of the original Westworld theme park simulation, this was both perplexing and exciting for viewers who wanted to see the series return to its original setting. Unfortunately, this is where the series was canceled. The four seasons of Westworld Season Episodes Year Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating Rotten Tomatoes audience rating 1: The Maze 10 2016 87% 93% 2: The Door 10 2018 86% 76% 3: The New World 8 2020 73% 61% 4: The Choice 8 2022 75% 69% The TV show's creators, Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, had planned for a five-season arc that would have brought Westworld back to its roots. This could have provided answers and clarification for the story's overarching themes of free will and consciousness, and this circular plan could have revealed a hidden genius in the confusing structure. It is possible that Westworld was about to become another mind-bending sci-fi TV show you need to watch twice, but the show's frustrating cancelation never allowed this possibility to play out. Westworld's Refusal To Provide Easy Answers Suited Its Story Many great sci-fi stories begin with a small mystery that develops into something far greater that raises questions about the nature of life. It is arguably the greatest strength of both Altered Carbon and The Expanse, both of which began with small mysteries before drastically opening up their worlds. Westworld's exploration of free will allowed the characters to discover themselves without constantly being handed the answers, and this was reflected in the way the show treated the viewer. No matter how frustrating, Westworld's refusal to hand audiences the answers suited the story, treating viewers as characters too. This final season was about to bring the questions full circle, placing the final piece of the puzzle, and it is likely that the series feels more confusing due to the lack of final context that the fifth season would have provided. Now, with Westworld getting a reboot as a movie, this could end the frustration by finishing the story as Serenity did with Firefly, or be the start of a new era for Westworld, beginning the story again. Westworld 6/10 Release Date 2016 - 2022 Network HBO Showrunner Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy