Welcome back to Series Regular, The Hollywood Reporter's weekly podcast dedicated to diving deep into hit TV shows.
Every episode of Series Regular comes courtesy of Josh Wigler (that's me!) and takes a closer look at the genre television space — and right now, it's all about one space in particular: Westworld, the HBO drama from Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, currently in its third season. Every week, Wigler recaps the latest hour of the genre-bending (not to mention mind-bending) drama, this week turning toward episode two, "The Winter Line."
In "The Winter Line," Westworld gets some Game of Thrones mixed into its sci-fi soup, as David Benioff and Dan Weiss appeared in a blink-for-a-very-long-time-and-you-still-probably-won't-miss-it cameo as a pair of lab technicians butchering poor Drogon the dragon. It's confirmation of a medieval-themed park in the confines of Westworld, though whether we're calling it Medieval World, Westerosworld or something else? Entirely up to the viewers, according to showrunners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
But the Benioff and Weiss cameo wasn't just a Game of Thrones shoutout. Beyond the dragon of it all, there was a dinosaur reference baked into the scene as well. Listen to the Series Regular podcast for some more insight into what was referenced in the scene between the two Thrones creators.
Beyond the Targaryen drama, Westworld returned viewers to the park in a couple of different ways. In a literal sense, Jeffrey Wright's Bernard headed back to his old stomping grounds in an attempt to find Maeve (Thandie Newton), and while his mission wasn't a success, he didn't walk away empty-handed: he's now linked up with Luke Hemsworth's Ashley Stubbs, fully confirmed as a host, and a pretty tough one at that.
Meanwhile, Maeve appears to be in a new park called War World, only for the world to be revealed as a fraud designed by Serac (Vincent Cassel), a mysterious entity with an axe to grind against Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood). His goal: save humanity, and kill Dolores in the process — all with Maeve's help, whether she wants to volunteer her services or not.
Listen to the Westworld podcast below for Wigler's recap and his conversation with THR senior producer Marya Gullo all about "The Winter Line." Subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode. Follow Wigler on Twitter at @roundhoward and send your questions and feedback to SeriesRegular@THR.com.
Series Regular is part of THR's roster of podcasts, including TV's Top 5, the weekly TV news analysis podcast hosted by West Coast TV editor Lesley Goldberg and chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg; Awards Chatter, Scott Feinberg's weekly in-depth (and award-winning) interview show focusing on the most interesting talents of the Oscar and Emmy seasons; crafts expert Carolyn Giardina's weekly series, Behind the Screen, which explores the top artists and technologies creating film and TV magic; Seth Abramovitch's monthly series, It Happened in Hollywood, which revisits indelible moments from 90 years of THR's entertainment history; and Hollywood Remixed, hosted by Rebecca Ford and Rebecca Sun, which focuses on underrepresented or misrepresented stories and characters in Hollywood. Other podcasts are in the works.
