9 Reasons You Need to Watch HBO's Westworld

With Games of Thrones announced to end after its eighth season, HBO – and television generally – will lose a rare show that can draw in viewers and consistently please the critics. Thankfully, if what people are saying is true, they might have already found an ideal replacement in Westworld. Loosely based on the 1973 movie written and directed by Jurassic Park scribe Michael Crichton, Westworld is part of a new wave of TV shows that have both a cinematic budget and A-list talent (behind and in front of the camera) on board in the hopes of making a high quality series. In this case, it seems to have worked. Only two episodes of the show have been released so far, but already it's being tipped to be the next must-see TV series. You've probably heard that said about various other shows out there that turned out to be a letdown, but trust us on this one, Westworld is good. Like, really good, and here are a few reasons why you need to give it a go if you haven't done so already. 9) It’s An Ingenious Update Of The Original You may well be familiar with the previously mentioned Westworld movie. Starring Yul Bryner, Richard Benjamin and James Brolin, it took place in a Wild West-themed amusement park that was populated by androids. As androids tend to do in movies, they broke out of the conditioning and ran amok. This basic premise of technology going haywire is carried over for the new TV show, but it's suitably updated and morphed into a very different beast. Firstly, similar to Jurassic World’s relationship to Jurassic Park, there is the implication that this is the same establishment from the original film, just moved on a few decades later. As the methods have become more sophisticated, the apparent dangers of any malfunctions have gone down. Naturally, it soon becomes clear that people – even cybernetic ones - can’t ever be fully controlled. Rather than focus on robotics and the theme park angle, the modern Westworld also skewers the story to focus more on the cutting-edge technology of today – specifically, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The core element is still there, but this switch in focus allows for a deeper discussion of philosophy, morals and existentialism rather than the sci-fi thriller angle of the original movie. 8) An Intelligent Take On Artificial Intelligence There's no denying that we've had a glut of TV and movies about artificial intelligence over the past few years, from indie sci-fi flick Ex Machina to superhero blockbuster Avengers: Age of Ultron. You might presume, then, that yet another show dabbling in that arena wouldn’t have anything new to add. Well, think again, because Westworld might have similar themes to those aforementioned films, but it's one of the fullest and most intelligent explorations of the idea we've seen in a while. One thing that's refreshing about it is that it's mostly told from the androids’ perspective. As well as being a nifty narrative device to keep the audience on their toes – which ones are real and which are robots? – it also allows us to view the horror that the so-called Hosts go through each day only to be wiped clean and left with no memory by the next morning. As such, another important theme concerns the extent to which our identities are tied to our memories. Are the Hosts not truly people because they live each day afresh like goldfish in a bowl? We'll have to decide the answer to that as the series goes on. 7) It Looks Gorgeous HBO invested a whopping $100 million budget into Westworld and, putting aside the actual content for the moment, that investment has really paid off in how absolutely beautiful the show looks. The expansive western plains of the park make for terrific setting - it's a stunning landscape, to be sure, but it's also eerie and desolate. In many ways, it reflects the nature of Westworld itself – it's attractive in one way, but fundamentally empty and lacking in life in another. This is enhanced by some clever direction (the first episode is helmed by series creator Jonathan Nolan). When we see a shot of the charming folk of Sweet Water looking out across the plains, everything looks normal at first. Until we realize that a fly is crawling over their face and they're still smiling. Even when the action moves out of the park and into the laboratories of Westworld's creators, there are lots of great visuals. The androids under construction looking like a Da Vinci sketch. The old warehouse full of naked bodies standing around in the dark like discarded mannequins. The list goes on. With gorgeous locations, evocative sets and striking imagery, Westworld is undoubtedly one of the most visually arresting shows on TV at the moment. 6) It’s An Intoxicating Blend of Influences We tend to like our viewing to easily slip into nicely labelled boxes, but from the off Westworld sets itself up as something different – a show that unashamedly throws various genres and influences into the melting pot. On the surface, of course, it's clearly a blend of science fiction and westerns. In the first episode alone, for instance, we get all the intellectual thrills of the danger of technology going wrong as well as the visual excitement of shoot outs at dawn and a darkly-dressed stranger riding in from the desert. There's also a third element added in, too – the conspiracy thriller, coincidentally most popular in the 1970s from which the story originally hails. In Westworld, we don’t really know what anyone is up to and who can be trusted. In terms of specific influences, Jonathan Nolan’s hand is clear and there's a touch of the work of his brother Christopher to the proceedings as well. If you can imagine Groundhog Day rebooted as an Inception style sci-fi thriller, then you have something approximating Westworld. 5) It’s Unpredictable It would be fair to say that Westworld is keeping its cards close to its chest, at least in its first couple of episodes. Thanks to the very different track it's going on compared to the movie and some tight writing, it's hard to tell just what's going to happen next. In a show where the characters basically live the same day ad infinitum, that's quite some trick. Watching the first episode, for instance, it's hard to tell just who's a Host and who's a Newcomer (the paying guests who come to Westworld to play cowboy). Several times the rug is pulled from beneath us as our expectations are subverted. In future installments, we assume the thrill will come from trying to guess which Hosts have gained sentience. We have so many burning questions after the first episode and we've no idea how they will be answered. The Man in Black, for instance, seemed to revel in the fantasy of Westworld, but later schemes to get to the ‘next level’ of the game. What is that and why does he want to find it? Beats us, but we’re interested to find out. 4) The Behind The Scenes Talent Alongside breathtaking visuals and a storyline that’s hard to predict, Westworld also has some big names behind the scenes who always produce must-watch movies and TV. As has been mentioned previously, the showrunner is Jonathan Nolan, the screenwriter of many of his brother's movies (The Dark Knight films, The Prestige, Interstellar) and creator of cult TV show Person of Interest. Meanwhile, Lisa Joy (Pushing Daisies, Burn Notice) serves as co-creator and showrunner. Joy is also linked to the touted Battlestar Galactica movie that's set to be directed by Francis Lawrence of The Hunger Games. Other writers for the show include Marvel comics writer Ed Brubaker in his TV debut and Dominic Mitchell, a British writer who created acclaimed zombie drama In The Flesh. On the exec producing side of things, none other than J.J. Abrams is involved. He who brought Star Trek and Star Wars back from the dead is now rebooting another (if lesser-known) sci-fi franchise for the 21st century. 3) The Star-Studded Cast Along with the top-flight behind the scenes talent, the show has also raided Hollywood for an ensemble cast that would usually be found starring in some big blockbuster movie rather than a TV miniseries. In the park, the Hosts are played by the likes of X-Men’s James Marsden, Thor: Ragnarok’s Tessa Thompson and Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible II). As androids who can be reprogrammed with any personality that the storyline of the park requires, the cast will no doubt have lots to dig their acting chops into throughout the rest of the series. Louis Hertham, for instance, begins the pilot as Dolores' dutiful father and ends it as a broken man convinced that his reality is a lie. On the human side of things, the Westworld staff include Jeffrey Wright, Luke Hemsworth (the eldest of the Hemsworth brothers) and, last but not least, the one and only Sir Anthony Hopkins. Hopkins, in particular, is definitely one to watch. Not only does he bring his natural gravitas to the important role of the park’s creator Dr. Robert Ford, but he also adds an unseemly quality to the character. Perhaps Ford is a little too attached to his puppets? 2) The Man In Black Is Chilling One of the standout performances of the show so far is Ed Harris’ enigmatic villain The Man in Black. Whereas most of the guests come and go, Harris’ character has garnered an obsession with the park and has apparently been visiting it for thirty years. Through Westworld, The Man in Black lets out his barely-contained unsavoury vices like rape and murder – shooting down James Marsden’s Teddy in cold blood (or whatever the android equivalent is) and then brutally dragging away a helpless Dolores to rape her. The next day, of course, none of the Hosts will remember him so he can do it all over again. His character sums up the park’s darker undertones – how letting the guests act out their innermost desires unleashes a darker side of their personality, and can permanently warp their psyches if they lose themselves in this virtual reality for too long. You can imagine that The Man in Black has been lost in Westworld for so long that this persona is probably all that’s left of him. Casting Harris in the role is also a nice in-joke. He previously starred in The Truman Show, another work of sci-fi about virtual reality, as the similarly sinister Christof, the architect of the fake world that Truman lives in. 1) Evan Rachel Wood Is Amazing The closest thing that Westworld has to a clear single protagonist is Dolores Abernathy as played by Evan Rachel Wood - who gives a tremendous performance in episode one that we suspect will carry through the rest of the series. What's impressive about Wood in the pilot is how she conveys a sense of a character ill at ease and slowly breaking out of her programming, without actually doing anything overtly emotional or rebellious. She shines as the naïve and optimistic Dolores, who always sees the best in people, and then she's eerily unblinking and serene when that personality is removed during maintenance. As the first Host the park ever had, Dolores has played a variety of roles in Westworld and never deviated off script. Yet now it looks like something has changed within her artificial mind and she has finally had enough of being a puppet. The final moments of the pilot – when Dolores casually swats a fly that has landed on her, something the androids never do – is a small yet hugely significant moment. As well as being brilliantly underplayed, it leaves us excited to see where Wood takes her character next.