Travel Documents 108: Westworld

By: Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan

Genre: Weird West, near-future, psychological thriller

The Dust Cover Copy

Set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past, explore a world in which every human appetite can be indulged without consequence.

The Scene

Worldbuilding

Well, I guess I’ve watched enough of this show to weigh in on it now. So buckle up, we’re going into the Weird West.

Inspired by Michael Crichton's Westworld (1973) the eponymous show begins its first episodes at a Wild West theme park created by Dr. Robert Ford ( played to perfection by Sir Anthony Hopkins) where hyper-real androids known as Hosts both allow and encourage humans to indulge their fantasies. No matter how dark and disturbing. Guests are told that they can do anything in Westworld. And oh boy, don’t they.

Through the eyes of the characters, we explore the darker sides of human nature: agency and what happens when it’s taken away, what we become under the stresses of society, and what we become when our needs for belonging, choice, and dignity are denied. It’s a fascinating and disturbing exploration.

The Crowd

Characterization

From the disturbingly mercurial Robert Ford to the patient and devoted Bernard, from the Man In Black to Dolores, these characters are fascinating, deeply disturbing, and very human. With all that entails.

The Moves

Plot

Westworld repeatedly plays a great trick with its characters. It presents you with people and situations so cliche that you roll your eyes and grin, hearing the Bonanza music playing in your head. And then it pulls the story-telling rug out from under you. Again and again, it reveals that the entire situation is a cynical ploy. It feels so cliche because it’s a mask playing on your social and cultural assumptions. Don’t fall for it.
As the story goes on, it has one main issue: it gets so clever that it cuts itself again and again, muddling up events so incredibly that watchers start looking to each other saying ‘wait…what?’ Sometimes it feels profound, but sometimes it just feels like it’s tripping over its own feet trying to dance this clever dance.

An associated side issue is the playing with cultural assumptions and biases. Eeehhhh….it’s one thing to mock the old British Raj and Cowboys VS Indians tropes, but it walks a very fine line with reinforcing those racist and colonialist tropes. This is less of an issue in later seasons, so brace yourself for it, but yeah, it’s disturbing.

Overall Rating

A beautifully executed show that shakes up tropes, assumptions, and a lot of our sense of comfort. Saddle up, it’s a ride.