According to emotion measurement company Canvs, the season two premiere HBO’s Westworld was the #1 most emotionally reacted-to airing among Sunday, April 22 primetime series on premium cable.
While there was the usual excitement, love and enjoyment being expressed about the premiere (as we often see with highly anticipated episodes across genres), it’s notable that much of the conversation was driven by emotional responses to the two key characters, Maeve (portrayed by Thandie Newton) and Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood).
Viewers liked the dynamics of these two strong female heroines and are responding very well to the evolution these characters experienced.
While there’s been some buzz about how the storyline was a bit crazy, it seems that most of the emotional reactions (ERs) expressing craziness and unsureness were prompted by a positive response to its complexity that kept people thinking about the episode — definitely a positive thing because it kept people watching. And according to Canvs, there was only a handful of viewers (less than 1% of ERs) who expressed genuine confusion.
During the second episode, it was Dolores who was the character driving the most conversation, but it’s also worth noting one other element that sparked viewer emotion: the inclusion of a piano version of “Runaway,” the song by Kanye West. People mentioned “Runaway” even more than they mentioned “Maeve” during this episode. Many fans loved the use of the song, with more than one commenting that it was “total perfection.”
[embed]https://twitter.com/kaitdivi/status/990760955012317184[/embed]
