Every sci-fi and fantasy show you should watch in 2022

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Westworld
Image: Westworld/HBO /

Westworld season 4 — HBO — 2022

2022 will also see the return of HBO’s mind-bending AI drama Westworld. What began as a relatively straightforward story about self-aware androids in a western-themed amusement park has transformed into something so complicated it’s hard to put into words. Westworld is one of those rare shows that has had to reinvent itself every season, and so far it’s managed this feat pretty well. Season 1 was about the titular theme park going off the rails — think Jurassic Park but with robots who realize they are being constantly murdered by the park’s human tourists. Season 2 was about those androids, called hosts, waging a war for their freedom. Season 3 saw a handful of the main host characters escaping the now-defunct theme park only to discover that humanity is similarly enslaved by a future-predicting quantum computer called Rehoboam.

Season 4…well, what happens next is anyone’s guess. In the season 3 finale, Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) sacrificed herself in order to break the hold that Rehoboam had on human agency. So now human fate is no longer decided by a computer, several other hosts are free out in the world, and all bets are off.

We also got a hint that another copy of Dolores inhabiting the body of a host named Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) is building an army of robots for some nefarious purpose. Whatever’s coming this season, the one thing we can count on with Westworld is that it’s likely to be pretty crazy.

It was confirmed in HBO’s 2022 sizzle reel that Westworld will be returning this year. It’s been speculated that this could be the final season of the show, but so far that has yet to be confirmed. — Daniel