It’s been three months since the beginning of the fall TV season…and unfortunately the one Sci-Fi show I was excited about did not quite live up to the hype (I’m looking at you, Timeless). With overwhelmingly high number of reboots and “reuinion” TV shows, the number of new shows in my queue quickly dwindled down to…one.
Three-second premise: It’s Jurassic Park with robots.
Thirty-second premise:
Westworld is a themepark in the future, where people pay a fortune to be a Guest. Androids, or Hosts, “live” in Westworld. Guests can do whatever their hearts desire to the Hosts (often resulting in Hosts needing to be repaired). Guests can shoot/kill Hosts. Hosts can’t shoot/kill Guests. Everyone was happily living in their bubble, until someone messed with the Hosts’ codes and they started to mulfunction…
So for those of you who have been fighting the hype because you’re too cool, don’t know someone with HBO Go account, or too busy trying to find the center of the maze, here’s the spoiler-free explanation of why this show is awesome and you should watch it.
- It’s Sci-Fi, doh
- BAD ROBOT!!!!!
- Sir. Anthony. Hopkins. (aka scariest boss ever)
- Puzzles. Lots and lots of puzzles.
- BAD ROBOT!!!!!!!!!!
- Androids are so cool
- Comedy hour brought to you by Felix (aka the worst human ever, according to Maeve)
- Speaking of Maeve, she’s kind of badass
- It’s like LOST, minus all of the annoying stuff like smoke monster, polar bear, Kate, and THE BUTTON
- BAAAADDD ROOOOBOOOOOOTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Did you watch the first episode and wondered why you’re watching Groundhog Day: Wild Wild West?
You have to put up with that episode, and in episode 2, you get just enough information to feel like you’re not so confused anymore, but still confused enough to want to watch episode 3.
Westworld follows two androids – Delores and Maeve – and they are “special.” We find out more about what makes them special, and in doing so, poses some questions about the nature of Westworld. Are mulfunctioning androids really “broken”? Do humans get to “own” androids? Who are the bad guys? (psst humans…it’s always humans…)
Westworld is based on the 70’s Sci-Fi film of the same name. If you got excited about the TV series, you might want to brace yourself before hitting the play button for Westworld-the-movie. The movie is not good… I saw it quite some time ago, and it was of WTF quality. TV series took the concept from the movie, and turned the mystery-solving dial all the way to the right. While they were at it, they swapped the main android characters from male to female. Notice the absence of female actor on the poster? Fast forward 40 years and Evan Rachel Wood and Thandie Newton are the top two actors in the opening credit. This is what progress looks like: in the form of good Sci-Fi show with women.
In a good way, you probably will miss a lot of bread crumb clues the first time you watch this show. I only found out some of the clues because I obsessively read and analyze all sorts of fan theories (I know almost all Game of Thrones fan theories out there…including the crazy ones). Even then, I was pleasantly surprised at key episodes. Now that Season 1 is over, I get to rewatch all of the episodes and see what I missed. You know you’re watching a good show when you discover something new when you watch it the second time. At first, some things doesn’t look like anything to me. Then you see things you didn’t see before.
See you at the center of the maze…