Westworld: Pilot

So its that time of the year where a lot of new shows come out and I'm taste testing each one of them to see if I like them. I always get a little worried about doing this because I sometimes over extend myself and start watching so many shows and forget about others and I never do the full review. Next thing you know a year has passed and I just have a pilot review and I never watched the entire season. Its not necessarily a bad thing, sometimes shows don't live up to expectations and I just don't finish them. However, for some reason I don't think that's going to happen with Westworld.

Westworld takes place in a future where we have figured out a way to make near human-like quality robots. And what do we do with them? Of course we create a theme park that is themed as a Western where normal people can have their own adventures and choose whether or not they want to go down the heroes path, stop bandits and save the day, or go down the villain path and rape and pillage the old West. The best way to think about it is a very realistic Role Playing Game like Mass Effect or Knights of the Old Republic, where you can choose to hunt down some robbers or you can kill innocent people.

The world is populated by these human-like robots called hosts. The game makers tinker and toy with these robots to make them as life like as they can, manipulating what they remember and what they don't to keep the realistic reactions, but keep them in a cycle where they don't remember that the patrons of the park do to them. The other interesting thing about this is that the robots are also at the height of innovation in the world because they've been used to create new limbs and even the creator of the world, Dr. Robert Ford (played by Anthony Hopkins) has said that this technology could even bring someone back from the dead if they took it to the next level.

In a way, this show is very much like Jurassic Park but instead of Dinosaurs, you have Terminators, and Anthony Hopkins is their John Hammond.

So there are a couple of things to unpack with this pilot because a lot happens.

First and foremost, I didn't just say Jurassic Park with Terminators because they were human-like robots, there is a sense in the show that these guys might be forming sentience due to an update in their system, created by the guy who created artificial people, Bernard Lowe (played by Jeffery Wright). You've got Lowe, and Ford and all the other staff of Westworld trying to figure out the issues with the program since the new update and trying to make the world safe and yet at the same time, keep it profitable.

Then you have the actual world. Its a really interesting dynamic having the duality of a modern to almost sci fi world in the "the real world" with the gamemakers, and then the western world. In Westworld, you have the computer programs that you will be seeing week to week, most namely the ones played by big name actors like James Marsden, and Thandie Newton. However, even in the pilot you start to see some kind of personality forming and you're not totally sure if its sentience or just the update making them more realistic.

On top of all of that, you have Ed Harris playing a man who has been playing the game a very long time. I thought he said 30 years but regardless, he has been playing for a long time and he definitely has some kind of secret goal in the show. He's a brutal guy and he knows the rules of the game. I'm really interested to see where his character goes, not only because he is Ed Harris, but because he is so very evil that I'm really looking forward to how his character progresses.

And then you have Evan Rachael Wood playing the Host, Delores.

So in the first episode, Delores doesn't exactly do a lot. She kind of plays the damsel, she needs saving and she just seems content with the entire experience of being in a program like this. However, there is definitely an inkling, without giving too much away, that she is going to be a huge part of this show and its going to be in a very bad ass way.

Unfortunately, there's not a lot to talk about because the pilot spends a lot of time introducing the characters and laying down the rules of Westworld. There is definitely some foreshadowing for some shit that is no doubt going to go down, and some foreshadowing for future plot lines like Ed Harris's whole story to come out in future episodes.

There is also only so much I can say because there is a reveal at the end of the episode that is pretty important and will drive the entire story going forward.

Am I going to check out Westworld next week? I think I am. I think it had a really strong pilot with some really interesting characters, some really interesting ideas, and again, its basically Jurassic Park with Terminators, what else could you ask for? My only hope for the future of the show is that it doesn't get too much more sci-fi-y.

I love a good sci fi film or TV show. My favorite movie of all time, Star Wars, is a sci fi fantasy film, so I do love it when things get to that level. However, the cool thing about the pilot episode is that this is in a very unique style of sci fi. It has the elements of science fiction, it takes place in a world with technology that does not exist. And yet, it has a real world feeling to it. People aren't wearing weird headsets or shooting lazers, it feels like this could actually happen. It also has more of a cerebral feeling to it as opposed to overtly science fiction and that's what I like about it. I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes but I don't want it to get too far down the science fiction road that it doesn't feel real or gritty. I usually hate when people say gritty and realistic because it has a bad connotation now but for this I feel like it works.

Luckily, I think HBO has a very good track record at easing us into the overtly science fiction or fantasy tropes. Just look at Game of Thrones, it is set in a world of Fantasy but it took them a long time to really delve into the stereotypical fantasy tropes like giants, dragons, and magic because they wanted to lay down a foundation of realistic groundedness and as long as they do the same for Westworld, I am going to be on board for a long time.

But those are my thoughts on Westworld. What do you think? Have you checked it out yet? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should watch and review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. In case you haven't seen the pilot and still have no idea what the show is like, here's the trailer for the show to give you a better look. Enjoy!