Go Ahead, Watch the Second Episode of Westworld Early

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HBO is streaming the second episode of Westworld early

This is kind of an unprecedented move, at least for HBO. It would be shocking if HBO suddenly decided to stream an episode of Game of Thrones early, and Westworld is well on its way to being in that same league. You can now stream the second episode of Westworld early. And you totally should.

HBO pulled a similar move with Insecure, choosing to release the first episode early for streaming. That was more of a test, however, and a way to build hype for the new series. Westworld, with its first episode, has become well established — It doesn’t need the push. But there is more to it than that. This weekend is Comic Con weekend, and it was already confirmed that the second episode would be screened at Sunday afternoon.

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It’s highly likely that HBO didn’t want thousands of spoilers floating out there and also didn’t want to deal with stopping it. Now there will be no need to worry about that. This does, however, take away some of the special quality of actually attending the screening, though the producers and some of the cast will be there. This is also the episode that will introduce Jimmi Simpson’s character, one of the cast members that will be participating in a Facebook Live event.

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It will be interesting to see how this affects Sunday night’s live ratings, though that’s a number that is becoming less and less relevant. What will be even more interesting to see is whether or not this trend continues, and if HBO will announce the streams ahead of time. It’s a brave new world out there, and Westworld is the perfect show to play around with it.