Category: TV

Most shows usually make us ask a bunch of questions, but then they never really answer them.  They know you will tune in week to week in hope that you will finally learn something.  Thankfully Westworld is not most shows.  No in Westworld’s hour and a half long finale it did its best to answer most of the audience’s questions before of course getting them to ask a few more just before the credits roll.

For a series that got a reputation for sex and violence, looking back it is amazing how restrained it was.  While Westworld did indeed show us just about everything, it was always shown as though we were the observer to some grim simulation.  It didn’t take us in first hand to titillate us.  It was always saying, “Look at what these terrible people are doing!”  Not until the robots started to come alive did the violence even start to register.

After the setup that this season gave us, next season should be crazy.  I am not even sure how they are going to fill ten episodes with what they teased.  That being the case its going to be over a year before Westworld season 2 hits, and it will be a long wait.  I was skeptical that a Sci-Fi classic needed a reboot, but HBO has done something special with Westworld, and I am sure Michael Crichton would have approved (though he always seemed to approve what made him money).

After the first two episodes of Westworld I still have no idea what is going on, and that is great.  Considering the fact that Westworld is based on the classic Sci-Fi film by Michael Crichton with the same name it would be easy to think that we understand what is going on here.  People go to a wild west themed amusement park inhabited by androids, and because these androids aren’t ‘real’ it allows the people visiting the park to be as terrible as they want to be.  At some point something goes wrong and the androids get their revenge.

While Westworld still seems to be headed that way, there also seems to be a much bigger game at play.  The company running Westworld apparently has some grand android plans beyond the park.  The Man in Black (Ed Harris) is looking for the game inside the game, and for the life of me I haven’t a clue what is going on with Anthony Hopkins’ character.  The android Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) is going off the rails in a creepy and unexpected way.  Will she be bad, or will she be good?  Who knows!  I am hoping for bad.

All of this to say, I think the transition from movie to TV show has gone well.  Even if the show seems to be borrowing from every other Sci-Fi movie to have come out recently.  The only flaw that Westworld has so far is that it is very HBO, and no doubt that will turn a lot of viewers off.  Not that I can blame them.  Though I will say that all the sex and violence they have shown thus far has been displayed very matter-of-factly.  Like, ‘look at what these horrible people are doing!’. I am guessing to help us feel better about what these androids are about to do.  I am hooked so far Westwold, don’t let me down!