WUnderground WashU's Premier (only) Satirical Newspaper Est. 2004
Viewers and critics alike had long awaited the premiere of HBO’s Westworld spinoff. Last Tuesday, after nearly a year of speculation, HBO released the pilot to wildly varying reviews.
“Midwestworld is boring, racist, and remarkably accurate,” observed Twitter user @mattsimmons, who told reporters he grew up in a Michigan suburb, but moved to Boston “the first fucking chance I got.” “The CGI was so real that the scene with the strip mall Applebee’s actually triggered some childhood trauma and kept me up for several nights.”
But not all viewers shared Simmons’ sentiment. Mary, a mother of six children and three dogs from Granville, OH, tweeted out praise for the show.
“Finally A Show That Gets It !!This,, Is How Real Americans Live, ” she wrote, tweeting from the handle @marymotherofjeezus. Mary’s tweet has since gone Midwest-viral, garnering more than ten favorites and two retweets, and millions of similar reactions have been expressed across publications and social media platforms worldwide.
“Believability is the linchpin behind HBO’s greatest hits,” observes James Poniewozik, television critic for The New York Times. “It seems the network has outdone itself with Midwestworld, which was largely filmed on location in Milwaukee, WI.” Adds Poniewozik, “Only viewers patient enough to endure the half-hour montage of cornfields out the window of a 2005 Chevrolet station wagon make it to the establishment of a narrative arc, which largely takes place in the bathroom of a truck stop White Castle. Steadfast attention to detail was maintained throughout.”
Meanwhile, HBO has taken some heat from a Walgreens in Branson, MO, which has filed a lawsuit against the network over allegations of the use of stolen footage from a security camera installed on the premises.
“The shot of kids shooting bb guns at strays, that was OUR dumpster they were sittin’ on,” said Walgreens manager Ray-Nathan Smith in a statement issued to the press. “That’s my sacred spot, that’s where I proposed to my wife the day her daddy gave us his blessing, and Further more [sic] thats [sic] our private, LEGALLY ORDAINED property and you can rest assured on the lord’s hunting pistol that I will send all nine of my sons and twelve dozen eggs to the house of anyone lookin’ to tussle about it.”
HBO has yet to address the matter, but sources close to the network report that the show has been approved for a full season.
