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This is a spoiler-free review, or as spoiler free as possible, of the first four episodes of Westworld season three. It does contain spoilers for the first two seasons.

And we’re back! Back in a sumptuous world where nothing is what it seems and we never really know who anyone is, or why they are doing what they are doing, or whether they are free agents or merely robot slaves. And yet how lovely it is to be back.

This time the violent delights of Westworld continue to lead to violent ends, but they also lead to a bit less bafflement. I’m only four episodes in, but the storytelling this time seems to be more linear. Which for me, having spent a lot of season two going, “HUH?”, amounts to welcome respite.

My top tip is that if you have forgotten any of the 45,000 plot twists from season two, you might want to watch a recap of some kind before entering season three. Or you will have to just let it wash deliciously over you and hope that at some point you remember which Bernard you are watching (or is it Arnold, hang on, did we definitely establish that Bernard was actually Arnold?).

Season one was set in a Western-themed amusement park filled with realistic androids. That first story told how the park’s robotic hosts evolved from mindless, abused creations of man into conscious creatures capable of murder. Except, of course, it was far more complicated than that. And we could never really be sure if the hosts, or indeed the park’s human guests, had much in the way of free will.

In season two the revolution mushroomed out of control, partly at park headquarters, partly in the cowboy park and for a time in other parks too. It ended with utter mayhem.

So to season three, now set in the “real” world. I say “real” because I would be a right fool to imagine that anything is what it seems at the episode four mark. What it seems like, though, is an impossibly glamorous, highly urbanised future world where the sky scrapers have lovely wall gardens, but elephants apparently are extinct and something has happened to Paris.

We already know from season two that the farmer’s daughter turned warrior queen Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is on the outside, having seen her waved out of the park as a refugee. The most murderous and powerful of all the park hosts is a guest in our world. What could possibly go wrong?

We also know that at least the body of baddie park boss Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) has survived, given that it is the body Dolores walked out of the park in. And we know Bernard, or rather one of the Bernards, made it, thanks to Dolores. And that Dolores, who appears to have her body back, also smuggled some host minds out of the park in her bag. So there are plenty of old favourites to look out for.

Wood is as wonderful as ever as the steel-eyed murderer you can’t help but root for. I’ve read Wood has a few tricks to doing Dolores, like moving her eyes to look at someone before she moves her head. Whatever it is, it works. I buy this woman as a planet-busting weapon.

There are also some great additions to the cast. Aaron Paul, of Breaking Bad, is immediately winning as a new main character. I was a bit sick of drip/sociopath Teddy as Dolores’s companion – apologies if that’s heresy – so a new lead man (if he’s going to be a lead, if he’s a man, if he’s destined for Dolores) is a good idea in my book.

It’s obviously very early on to call it, but so far this is five-star TV. I can’t wait to find out – maybe – what on Earth is going on. (If indeed we are on Earth.)

Westworld season 3 starts March 15 on HBO in the US and March 16 on SkyAtlantic and NowTV in the UK.