HBO’s Westworld is the robotic cowboy headtrip that you didn’t know you were waiting for

Expectations are ridiculously excessive as Westworld rides onto HBO tonight. the primary season value a mentioned $ 100 million to make, and it’s being pitched in some quarters as the brand new sport of Thrones.

whilst you’ve received any television show with that so much hype, some disappointment appears inevitable, however judging from the primary two episodes, Westworld is even higher than anticipated.

according to a 1973 movie of the same title (written and directed by means of Jurassic Park writer Michael Crichton), Westworld takes situation at a Western theme park populated with the aid of realistic robotic “hosts” who engage with “newbies” — people guests who’ve paid a hefty ticket for his or her consult with. The activities of the beginners (freed from the constraints of everyday society and morality) are anxious sufficient, however it quickly becomes clear that Westworld’s house owners have their own hidden agenda, as does a mysterious guest known best as the Gunslinger (played by way of Ed Harris).

This new new release of Westworld used to be created with the aid of husband-and-wife writing group Jonathan Nolan and Lisa pleasure. Nolan is best possible referred to as co-creator of some of his brother Christopher’s films, including The darkish Knight, and also as creator of the science fiction surveillance drama individual of passion. He’s obviously a bold creator, however he’s also one with a weak spot for painfully on-the-nose dialogue. (To be honest, I’m now not sure whether accountable him or his brother for Interstellar‘s long, awkward speeches concerning the power of love).

Westworld isn’t entirely immune to that tendency — Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins, who play the park’s key technical minds, each get to ship expository monologues about weighty issues just like the path of human evolution. however the actors are talented sufficient to tug it off, and most likely because of the show’s extra mysterious structure (or the contribution of joy, an experienced television writer herself), the dialogue feels nimbler and trickier than in Nolan’s earlier work.

Which brings me to any other one of the exhibit’s government producers — J.J. Abrams, who’s famous for loving mysteries. before bringing megastar Wars again to film displays, he co-created misplaced and gave a so much-mentioned TED discuss on the pleasures of the “thriller box.”  someone disillusioned by means of the ending of lost (or of Abrams’ 2d celebrity Trek movie, Into Darkness) might be wary of any other exhibit with unanswered questions at its heart.

however even more than lost, Westworld seems ok with mysteries. the primary episode, particularly, unfolds like a Philip okay. Dick novel, continuously destabilizing viewers and forcing them to query what they’ve been watching. So whereas i am hoping there’s some type of plan for the endgame, I’m already taking part in the just about delirious unfolding of the thriller, whatever the solution.

Westworld also premieres at a time when morally ambiguous robots and artificial intelligences keep doping up on-screen, most particularly with last year’s unlock of Ex Machina. That film’s writer and director, Alex Garland, speculated that this recent spate of movies could have much less to do the current state of AI analysis and extra with our basic nervousness round expertise — particularly, all the data that we’re sharing with on-line products and services and the businesses in the back of them.

in a similar way, pleasure told us that Westworld is “an opportunity to tell a frontier story on two ranges.” On each the Western frontier and the scientific one, the principles of morality and society may appear rather less certain, which is exactly what Westworld is focused on.

Even with those aforementioned monologues, the convey doesn’t go into a lot element in regards to the know-how powering its robotic host. It’s more interested in the philosophical and ethical questions that the hosts’ existence raises.

On one stage, the deck would possibly appear to be beautiful stacked in any “Are they human?” debate — the empathetic performances by way of the actors, including Evan Rachel timber and Thandie Newton, will make it difficult for any individual to be as blasé Westworld’s guests and employees in regards to the brutal issues that are incessantly executed to the park’s hosts.

alternatively, there’s nonetheless plenty of room to discover the precise nature and stage of the host’s consciousness — not to mention what this may increasingly imply for their makers. And there are different, promising questions round built realities and the extent to which virtual worlds can push us to divulge of our true selves.

The trickiest thing that Westworld‘s first episodes pull off is making us question the dignity between host and guest. Naturally, this makes for thrilling, suspenseful viewing, however i ponder if it’s additionally the important thing to the show’s ethical design — helping us see ourselves as now not only the victims or the victimizers, the watchers or the watched, however both. presumably that distinction is best going to get messier because the exhibit moves on.

Featured picture: HBO