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Westworld Episode 1 Review: Perplexing In The Best Way


Genre: Drama / Sci-Fi / Western

Directed and written by: Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan

Produced by: J.J Abrams, Jonathan Nolan and Jerry Weintraub

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Anthony Hopkins, James Marsden

Synopsis: Inspired by the 1973 film 'Westworld' the plot revolves around a futuristic theme park populated by artificial human beings.


Westworld has been greatly anticipated and this was more than evident as it became HBO's most popular debut since True Detective in 2014. It drew a total of 3.3 million viewers across both cable and digital platforms on the 2nd of October, tying with True Detective. 

From the trailer to my actual viewing of the episode I can safely say that this is one of the most intriguing and thought provoking series to bless our televisions to date. From the quirky characters to the mesmerizing cinematography you won't be disappointed from this hour long debut.  

Even though it is based on the 1973 Westworld film, the debut gives a whole new dynamic to the plot we thought we were familiar with; launching us into controversy, unpredictability and a high amount of brutality.

I'll start off by saying that I was highly curious to how a mix of sci-fi and the western genre would work together; the episode makes it clear that there are two worlds we are introduced to. We have the 'human' world where we see they are clearly unhappy with their lives and themselves in general. They explore any means to live vicariously through the artificial world, which brings us to Westworld. This man made 'Wild West' was built by the humans to play out their deepest (and darkest) fantasies. What follows is some invigorating events as we are introduced to a synthetic woman named Dolores Abernathy. 

Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) is the oldest artificial human in this faux world. She's been reset an infinite amount of times as all the creations are after every day, meaning that her memories of everything that takes place are wiped out and she lives out the same day over and over again. With this series we know that the main point will be that the 'robots' will revolt. This story line is popular within other mediums such as movies, TV shows and comics but it will never get old. Westworld gives a new twist as we see that even though the 'hosts' look and behave in a human manner the humans have no empathy towards them whatsoever which creates some disturbing scenarios.

Ed Harris gave a wonderful if not unsettling performance that has already set up his character as a villain to be wary of. He is a human who participates in the events of the other world and is on a mission of his own. He wants to find out more about the hosts and will do absolutely anything to achieve that. Some of his actions will leave you speechless and in turn make you think about the morality of human beings as a whole.

This episode also didn't hold back on violence and nudity but being a viewer of HBO's other TV series, Game Of Thrones, I didn't expect anything less and people will either love or hate that aspect. 

I've been waiting for this series for a long time and the pilot episode didn't disappoint with its unpredictable story line and strange but delightful variation of characters. Time will tell if Westworld stays at the top but for now I'm positive this will be a show to look out for.  










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