TV Review: Westworld S1E1 “The Original”

Entertainment media is starting to get a little ridiculous.  TV shows are being produced so frequently that before you know it shows like Ash Vs Evil Dead already have a second season rolling out, even though it feels like the series just premiered a month or two ago.  This isn’t a bad thing, but it does require us, as film nerds, to be a little more selective with what we watch.  It’s not a matter of picking out what is good or not, because the baseline of quality is now so high that more often than not a new series is going to be pretty good.  Now it has really become a matter of seeking out the entertainment you really want to see.  We’ve moved past the point of requiring everyone to watch Seinfeld and Mad About You every Thursday night.  Now I find myself in need of some serious convincing before I pick up a new show or movie.  Typically if the guys review something favorably on one of the podcasts, I’ll seek it out.  If you, like me, look towards Binge Media for your weekly recommendations, then let me be the first to tell you this; of all the TV pilots I’ve seen in my life, I don’t know that I’ve seen one better than Westworld.

For those unfamiliar with the movie from which this series is based, here’s the synopsis; Jurassic Park with cowboys instead of dinosaurs.  Got it?  Good.  The boys reviewed the movie on a recent podcast and we all agreed at the time that this is the type of story that should be remade since the first pass was lacking some depth.  Not a bad flick, just could have been expanded upon.  From the first five minutes of this pilot, it is clear to me that the creative team behind this series has a firm grasp on what they want this show to be, and I am in 110%.

Westworld starts as the story of Dolores, a woman living on the frontier with her parents who lives her days keeping positive and looking for the good in her world.  She goes about her daily chores, riding into town to get supplies for the family where she runs into Teddy, the clear love of her life who has been away for some unidentified amount of time.  Upon returning to her homestead with Teddy, Dolores sees an attack of some sort going on, prompting Teddy to ride in and save the day.  As he does, he bests the two bandits who have murdered Dolores’ mother and father.  However, a man dressed in all black, who is impervious to bullets (played by Ed Harris) starts talking about how he’s been doing this for “30 years”, then shoots Teddy and drags Dolores into the barn to have his way with her.

Cut to the next day, where the cycle repeats as if nothing happened, and we get the wider scope of what’s going on.  Westworld is a playground for the wealthy and well off.  Have the cash?  Come on down for a totally immersive theme park experience, complete with prostitutes, guns, bandits, Indians and cowboys to help you live out your fantasy of having an adventure in the old American west.  The operation, being run by Jeffrey Wright as a lead programmer and Anthony Hopkins, the doctor who first devised the idea of Westworld, operate from a technologically advanced control center located somewhere within the land that the park resides in.  From here, they have complete control of the park, from the androids, or as they call them hosts, to the storylines going on in the world.  From here the show takes us to some interesting places, not wasting any time in setting up both the conflicts in Westworld and also the more global plotlines revolving around the park management.

I like a story that finds a lot of rich thematic questions to present and expound upon.  It’s part of the reason why Lost was so intriguing in those early episodes, what with not only the mystery of how the plane crashed but also how’s and why’s of who those people were.  Westworld brings out the big guns, literally and figuratively, with some very solid action scenes featuring shootouts reminiscent of stuff we’ve seen from modern westerns 3:10 To Yuma, The Assassination of Jesse James or even The Proposition.  That being said, there were some much more intriguing and surprising scenes where we get to see and understand the characters.  My favorite moment in the pilot was when Anthony Hopkins, playing Dr. Robert Ford, questions a host whose software has clearly malfunctioned.  The pervading question on my mind throughout the episode was whether or not these machines are becoming self-aware.  The question doesn’t get answered, but I’m interested to see how the writers are going to deal with it.  Ed Harris, stepping into the role of the Gunslinger/Man in Black role that Yul Brynner made famous in the original film, is pretty fantastic as the show’s current wildcard.  We’re not sure what he’s doing or why but it’s clear he knows more than anyone else in Westworld, even seemingly operating outside the view of the park managers.  It will be interesting to see where they take him before the series’ end.

From top to bottom, everything here is working flawlessly in the opener, so much so that I don’t know how I couldn’t be disappointed with what’s to come.  The cast is chock-full of phenomenal talent across the board, from the aforementioned Anthony Hopkins to famous character actors like Michael Wincott and, of course, Evan Rachel Wood with maybe the most nuanced performance of her career.  I know there is an overabundance of stuff these days to keep up with, but you need to be watching this show.  It is thematically interesting, well written, action packed and well made.  I can only hope the show runners have the gusto to keep this going for a full season.

9 strong synthetic members on 10