“Westworld” doesn’t just respect the audience’s intelligence, but demands it. Now, sadly, it feels like it’s starting to abuse it, says “Streaming”columnist NICK OVERALL.

THERE’S a moment where the fun of trying to solve a Rubik’s cube gets just a little bit too irritating.

It’s looking great, one side starts to seem complete, and then that frustrating realisation as all the progress starts to fall apart. Time to do something else, or rip the stickers off.

It’s an experience that came to mind while watching the latest season of the blockbuster sci-fi series “Westworld”, a puzzle of a show that, now in its sixth year, is still too cagey with the answers to the many, many intriguing questions it’s set up.

By all accounts, “Westworld” (streaming on Binge) has a chance to be one of the best things on TV.

It’s the saga of a Wild West digital theme park populated by robotic “hosts”, where people can live out their deepest and darkest fantasies without consequence.

The life-like automatons are designed to be shot, slept with or whatever else cashed-up visitors to the park wish to do with them, but when the robots start to gain consciousness all hell breaks loose.

The first season of “Westworld” was a truly inspired slice of sci-fi television. It flowed with fantastical ideas, but remained grounded enough to draw in viewers who don’t normally go for the out-there nature of the genre.

Throwing a Western setting into the mix was a flash of genius, and combined with the HBO staples of a triple-A cast, unabated nudity and cinematic action, “Westworld” was an immediate hit.

Particularly refreshing though was that the show wanted audiences to solve the puzzle themselves. Looking down at one’s phone for a few minutes had the chance to derail any understanding of its sprawling and intricate plot that’s packed with characters.

The show doesn’t just respect the audience’s intelligence, but demands it. Now, sadly, it feels like it’s starting to abuse it.

Four seasons in and things are still intriguing, but the series is too heavily relying on tantalising the viewers with the answers it’s overdue to be more generous with. It’s reflected in the series’ viewership, which has more than halved since its first season.

There are many still hanging on to see “Westworld” realise its potential, but there’s only so long one can play with a Rubik’s cube before throwing it away, or just googling the answer instead.

ADAM Sandler has fallen into that ultra obscure category of actor that’s known for a string of obnoxiously bad comedies yet every now and again reveals true talent with some bizarrely excellent movie that comes out of nowhere.

Last time he did it was in 2019 with “Uncut Gems”, a film with a garish ’80s aesthetic at the basis of its intriguing mood board and a performance from Sandler as an ostentatious jeweller that many critics were outraged was not nominated for an Oscar.

In comparison, the last widely released thing Sandler was in before that was “Pixels”, a movie where Pac-man comes to life, or something.

In the years since “Uncut Gems”, the actor has put his name to stuff such as “Hubie Halloween”, “The Wrong Missy” and other movies that seem as determined to get as close to 0 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes as possible.

And yet, just dropping on Netflix the other week was the newest Sandler flick called “Hustle”, which is nothing short of one of the best sports films of the last decade. 

This comes from someone who actively avoids Sandler movies, and one who has little to no interest in basketball, the sport at the centre of this rags to riches story.

Sandler brings a charming every-man persona to a jaded basketball talent scout who, while almost at the end of his tether, happens upon a once-in-a-lifetime amateur player who he becomes determined to make a star.

It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it doesn’t have to, “Hustle” shoots and scores.

ON the less pricey side of streaming this month, ABC iView has a little home-grown gem of a show called “Diary of an Uber Driver”.

Here viewers can find six, 20-odd minute episodes about an Uber driver who tries to figure out what to do with his own life while taking strangers to where they need to go.

From having to avert his eyes from a couple in the backseat getting frisky while dressed as Simpsons characters to pretending to be a drug dealer’s referee in order to help get him a job, the interactions are absurdly comical yet always feel oddly real.

But while there’s laughs in the car, there’s also a remarkable amount of emotion packed into the show’s run-time barely totalling three hours.

The result is a brief burst of fun and one that certainly adds profound new meaning to the question “been busy tonight, mate?”