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A stellar cast and crew, but is Westworld lacking in originality?

 

It was hard to miss the the advertising campaign promoting the launch of Westworld. Giant billboards around Dublin depicted a huge letter ‘W’ along with a blue robot with outstretched arms. The ad appeared like a sequel to I, Robot and revealed little about the elaborate plot, aside from the fact that it was coming to Sky Atlantic this October. Ultimately, the advertising left viewers going into this series completely blind.

 

Westworld is a remake of a 1973 film of the same name, produced for HBO and created by married couple Johnathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Nolan is the brother of Christopher Nolan, while Lisa Joy is an established name in her own right, credited with screenwriting several episodes of Battlestar Galactica amongst other science fiction shows.

 

With J.J Abrams on board as an executive producer, the series was set to be huge. Predictably, the pilot episode had an impressive viewership of 1.96 million in the U.S alone. The premise of the show is basically a futuristic Jurassic Park, but with unruly robots instead of dinosaurs. The titular Westworld is a land open to tourists and inhibited by realistic, humanised laboratory androids. The setting of a sprawling desert landscape seemed to be a relic of the past with  towns reflecting those of the Old American West. The robots’ sole purpose as ‘hosts’ is to act out various storylines each day, allowing the human ‘guests’ to immerse themselves in the drama and action of the community.

 

The way in which the story is told, primarily from the perspective of the humanoid robots, is the most original aspect of the show. ‘Host’ Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the central character of the pilot episode. Each day, she re-enacts the same scenario with Teddy (James Marsden) in which they are reunited lovers that fall back into each other’s arms. Every morning, both robots forget the occurrences of previous day and proceed to carry out their business as usual. However, things begin to go askew with the arrival of a new update to the software of Westworld residents. Having obtained a degree of self-awareness, a freedom of thought and action, the robots begin to divert from their set storylines; a ‘malfunction’ according to their producers and creators.

 

Dolores’ father begins to question his existence. His new found ability to think freely causes his system to implode. He is returned to Doctor Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) and banished to a room filled with disregarded robots. Before he is cast aside, he vows to reap revenge upon Ford and the Westworld producers. All the while, the humans remain blissfully unaware of the mysterious guest (Ed Wood) who is brutally murdering their creations without any explanation.

 

Far too much occurs in the hectic pilot episode of Westworld. There are too many characters introduced, too many plot lines developed, and this doesn’t leave enough time to process what exactly is happening. From Frankenstein to Ex Machina, the trope of humans meddling with new technology only to lose control of their inventions seems overdone and outdated. A predictable narrative arc has already been established and I suspect that a robot mutiny is on the horizon.

 

Two radically different tones are established by the two settings of the show. Firstly, there is the fast-paced Western style of ‘Westworld’, and then the tense environment of the laboratory. The result was a pilot that felt like two very different shows  strewn together simply for the sake of it. My hope is that these contrasting worlds will merge as the plot progresses.

 

Before the first series comes to a close, I predict Dolores will have made an attempt to escape from Westworld. However, any diversions from my expectations will be welcomed. I’m willing to give Westworld a chance to redeem itself along the way.

 

Westworld is available on Sky Go with new episodes on Sky Atlantic every Tuesday at 9pm