ended up season 2 feeling the same way - don't think I'll bother to watch it anymore...

MC is one of my favorite authors. Why do you say this?

@LaMariposa
A number of reason, firstly there is his public reaction to the last time that there was a Westworld TV series back in the 1970s, then there is his assertion that west world was just a prototype for Jurassic Park that he had simply attempted to write too early.
The general philosophy of the series is not in line with Crichton's ethos, the running theme of which was that life finds a way to evolve and be itself, not that simply looking like something will imprint on it and have it endevour to be that thing.
In Westworld, the film (1973), the android do not revolt in some kind of half asses allegory of the French or Russian revolution, they revolt because they are what they have been programmed to be, in the case of The Gunfighter (Yul Brenner) that is a killer and the best gun fighter in the world, he kills because he is sick of losing to inferiors, he "becomes"
Likewise the animals in Jurrasic Park "become" what they were genetically designed to be, predators, not safe version for public consumption.
The Terminal man, is implanted with technology to control his violent impulses, in stead it pits his mind in a war with the AI and he "becomes" the psychotic killer he always had the potential to be.
In the Andromeda Strain the team are forced by time constraints to "become" what they have always had the potential to be, while faced with an enemy that is evolving fast to "become" the perfect conqueror.

Crichton writes about the mantel of the arrogant Gods being ripped away and who not fully understanding their own creations are saved only by embracing there true nature, the noble savage, which ironically what they was seeking for in the first place.

Westworld the TV series is about the decadence of humanity getting it's just comeuppance at the hands of the oppressed new peasantry or slave race, hardly the same thing.

I suppose I expected that Season 2 would skip to the type of action you imagine will come along in Season 3. What I liked about the first season was the philosophical depth behind the narrative. It's also told in clever way. Some of the androids are able to remember. However, they don't have a clear conception of when things happened. The series is told in the same way. All the narratives appear to be taking place at the same time. Yet, in fact, we later discover that they actually take place decades apart. Season 2 seems not to have any clear direction and the pacing is glacial. Superficially, a great deal is happening in terms of action sequences but little in terms of character development. I expected, early on, that Dolores and Maev would take over the production facilities at the top of the mesa and then try to figure out what to do next. The debates and discussions about this would allow the androids to develop as characters. Simultaneously, Delos would be preparing to move in to wipe them out, an ominous backdrop developing throughout the course of the season. The Delos plot, and discussions about the situation in Westworld, would give us an insight into the outside world and its problems (especially with mechanization). The way the outside world is handled in Season 2, however, is relatively clumsy. Suddenly Dolores is aware of all these memories she never had any inkling about in Season 1; yet, it seems she remembers fragments of everything else (by the way, the Spanish word 'dolor' means pain; this is an appropriate base for her name is Season 1; in Season 2 'psicópata' might be a better substitute than Wyatt). Another irritating inconsistency is that in Season 1, Abernathy has clearly been put on a train before Robert orchestrates the Westworld massacre of the Board. Yet, in Season 2, his wondering around in the park is a major plot device.

A third interesting line of development would involve William's character and the extent to which he would sympathise with the hosts' rebellion (he might also have the power to stop reprisals from Delos). There could be a slow build towards a final meeting between William and Dolores (perhaps involving D's mixed feelings about her love for W). Or they could be in close proximity from early on, with D unsure about whether to kill W owing to her former feelings for him. Finally, some androids might venture into the outside world earlier or later in the season (as you suggest will happen in Season 3) and we could see their impressions regarding the justice and injustice of that world. I wonder if this series will end up a bit like the Hunger Games, trapped into weaker and weaker repetitions of its initial plot owing to its early success. It must be stressed, though, that the first season was brilliant (orders of magnitude better than anything in Hunger Games), though I did have some reservations about the ending in the last episode.

@Herodotus2100 yeah. I see what you're saying. And one had enough of Walter wandering the desert, even if it is metaphorical. But the reveal in the last episode that basically confirms the whole thing was started to find putting the Uber rich into immortal host bodies... I mean. Wow. Huge development. And walked mental break down was well done. Albeit a little jittery.