Westworld (Season 1)

Back in October, I, like many people, watched the premiere of Westworld on HBO and was immediately intrigued by the creativity, the suspense, and the overall scope of the show. I knew from the first episode that this was a show that I was going to enjoy. A lot of the time, when I find a show or a movie that I'm pretty confident I'm going to end up enjoying, I hold off on watching it because I want to savor it in the right mindset or the right amount of time where I can just binge watch it all with minimal interruptions. Westworld is a perfect example of such a show.

But obviously, I have gotten to the point where I decided to watch it. And these are my thoughts.

Westworld centers on a park where people can come and experience life in the Old West. It allows for guests of the park to basically have free roam of this world populated by human life-like robots who are programmed to serve the will of the park guests.

Guests can follow the path of the White Hat and go on scripted narratives where they go bring bandits to justice, fight warring Native American tribes, and save damsels.

Or they can go the route of the black hat... and just kill every robot (or host) you see, screw (or rape) any prostitute in sight, and join the bandits who pillage this entire world. There isn't an orientation or really any rules given to the guests at the park, the hosts are there to serve them and are programmed to never hurt a human.

Now I have to be pretty careful what I say in this review because watching this show is a bit of an experience and it's a really fun ride. It's the kind of show that you'll probably want to binge watch and since that's how I did it, I recommend it.

But the show also messes with your mind a good amount because it peace meals out the things it reveals to you little by little leading up to a really powerful finale where it all comes together it gets you pumped for Season 2.

But I will say, there is A LOT going in this season.

TV shows with large ensemble casts are not a new thing. They've been doing those kinds of shows where there are a lot of characters with a lot of backstories, their own motivations, and goals that you have to keep track of for a long time. The problem with Westworld is that not only do they have all these characters, but they have some really deep ideas that you're supposed to be keeping track of, and some of it, at least for me, gets a little bit lost in all the different stories, especially with the way these stories are told.

So each host has a narrative. You've got Dolores (played by Evan Rachel Wood), the cute damsel. You've got Maeve (played by Thandie Newton) who is the Madam of the whorehouse in the main town. You've got Teddy (played by James Marsden) who has the exact same storyline as James Marsden always has where he can never quite get the girl and he's always being beaten out by somebody else. Let's be honest, it just sucks to be James Marsden in anything. You've also got a bunch of other hosts who the show does a really good job at creating a duality for. From the very beginning, you know that they're programmed to feel, to act, to behave in a certain way and yet you eventually start to feel for them, even if they're their programming and you really start to question what is programmed and what isn't.

But then you've got the characters in the real world or the human characters.

Anthony Hopkins plays Robert Ford, the founder of the park and the creator of the first hosts.

Before I go on, I have to say, this is a chillingly great performance from Anthony Hopkins. I mean, what do you expect he's Anthony Hopkins, but I originally thought he was just going to be the kindly old founder like John Hammond from Jurassic Park, and that's how he's portrayed in the beginning. But as the show goes on you figure more and more about him and I could never really decide how I felt about this character. Every time he was on screen it was incredibly entertaining and I had no idea what he was going to do next or what his next move was.

The rest of the cast was pretty good too.

Jeffery Wright plays Bernard Lowe, the head of the behavior division where he designs and maintains the behavior of the hosts. He's got a really interesting backstory and it really shows off the wide range of Jeffery Wright. He may have been one of my favorite characters throughout.

He's accompanied by Shannon Woodword who plays a behaviorist under Bernard and she's just one of the really well casted characters who work as the overseers of this world as they monitor the park and the activity of the hosts.

Sidse Babett Knudsen plays Theresea Cullen, the director of operations, and Simon Quarterman plays a writer for the park.

All these characters, and more tie into how the park runs and there's a lot going on from their motivations, their influence from higher influences like executive boards, and personal relationships.

And then you have the people who attend the park.

Jimmi Simpson plays William who is taken to Westworld by his future brother in-law Logan (played by Ben Barnes) and the two have their own experiences and encounters that make them actually some of the most interesting characters in the show.

These two were actually a bit of a surprise. I don't dislike Ben Barnes as an actor, I just can't say I've seen him in anything incredibly good. Maybe it was just the recent bad taste of Seventh Son that made me worried about these two when I first started but I didn't think they were going to be one of the stronger parts. And Jimmi Simpson... what a turn. I only knew Simpson from his role in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where he was...

This...

He was the biggest surprise probably of the entire show because I really enjoyed his character. It shows a really great range of character because I absolutely hate Simpson in Always Sunny but I really liked him in this show. 

Now I think that these two are helped a little bit by the fact that this entire show is just well written and it keeps your engaged. These two don't even have the best written story in the show and I was still intrigued. 

But of course, I think my favorite character of them all was Ed Harris as The Man in Black. 

This is a situation where I really can't say anything more about this character because I don't want anything given away about him. Almost everything about this character worked and Ed Harris just nailed it throughout. I really hope they bring him back for Season 2 because this was just a character I enjoyed throughout. Like Ford, I wasn't sure if I was enjoying just despising this character like a good villain, or if I actually was starting to like him. 

Now those were all the big characters introduced in the first two-ish episodes and there's still a lot to discuss about them and a lot to discover and it's done incredibly well. 

However, that still is A LOT of characters. Put on top of all of those characters the fact that the story doesn't really give you a great sense of time when it comes to the narratives, the fact that hosts are questioning their reality and there are artfully shot glitches, as well as the fact that you've got corporate agendas and personal grudges, all thrown into 10 episodes where they're jumping back and forth from each story to story making you question what is real, what has stakes, and what doesn't, yeah the show is a little convoluted. 

I think a lot of it is done well. I feel like this show might be fun to watch a second time because you can start catching onto things that you may have missed before. However, it is convoluted at times and while the pacing is really good (you'll breeze through the 10 episodes) it's not hard to get confused with all the characters, motives, agendas, and realities in this show. 

I've talked about some of the performances from this show and not all of them are even the ones that stood out the most. Thandie Newton kills it in this show, Evan Rachel Wood shows a range that I never saw before from her. Tessa Thompson gives a really great performance. The list goes on.

I think the most fun part about this show is the twists and turns you'll find yourself in. My friend pestered me about watching this show because he wanted so badly to talk about it and he told me, you won't guess the ending and that is true.

I used to date a girl who was really good at guessing the endings of movies and it drove me nuts because she was never surprised. Well Westworld would surprise her.

Westworld piecemeals information to you bit by bit. Now I personally don't have an issue with this as my mind was pretty blown with every reveal. But it kind of takes the fun out of trying to predict what is going to happen in the show because there's a very good chance you don't have all the information to make an informed prediction, even if you think you do.

And speaking of mind F-ing... this show will do it.

Much of the show is written by Jonathan Nolan and I'm pretty sure mind blowing writing is part of the Nolan DNA and I want some...

Is the show perfect? No.

I'm still reeling a little bit from all the reveals and twists from the last few episodes because, yes, they are good.

The show also sets up perfectly for a lot of possibilities to happen in the next season. There's a lot of fun ideas, great characters, and mysteries to delve into with a second season.

The big problem I have with this show is that it's gaining a lot of it's popularity by the moments where it blows your mind and reveals a twist that you weren't expecting. Again, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing, especially if the twists are good. But a show that builds its success on tricking the audience eventually isn't able to wow the audience the way they did in the first season, the best example of this is Lost.

Lost made a show that went for 7 seasons and eventually the big shock of the cliff hangers and twists got a little bit old and without proper support from the rest of the show, it fell apart.

Now Westworld has some great writers and I thoroughly enjoyed the season, I'm just a little bit worried about the future of the show based on the precedent that was set by this one.

I hope my fears are baseless, but we'll have to see in Season 2.

Overall, Westworld is a fun ride. You'll be hooked from the first episode and the acting, action, and twists will keep you engaged till the last second. Is Westworld a prequel to Terminator, Blade Runner, or the Matrix, probably, but for now I recommend you check out this really well done show out of HBO.

But what did you think? Did you enjoy Westworld? How does it stalk up against other HBO shows like Game of Thrones? Comment and Discuss below! I also want to hear theories, I'm all caught up, let's talk Westworld. You can also send me your thoughts and conspiracies on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and you can also send me your requests for films and TV shows I should 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. Something I didn't mention enough is the music. It's really, really good. Here's an Acapella of the opening theme. Enjoy!