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HBO's "Westworld", starring Anthony Hopkins/produced by J.J. Abrams

My review of the premiere, cross-posted from another forum:
I really enjoyed the premiere. Conceptually, the show reminds me of the SyFy miniseries Ascension (but without 'hiding the spoon' just for the sake of 'shock value') mixed with a bit of The Matrix, The Dark Tower, iRobot, Terminator, and Tombstone.

I like the cast of characters the episode introduced us to, although I think the writers could've given us a bit of expository introduction and 'name-dropping', especially when it comes to the human members of the cast.

I'm also not sure what the point of the romance between Dolores and Teddy was, especially since they're both "hosts", but maybe this particular plot will end up going somewhere interesting in the weeks to come.

I understand that there was a bit of controversy in the lead-up to the show's premiere over the scene of Ed Harris' Man in Black dragging Dolores off to 'have his way with her', but, quite honestly, if you're going to set up a villain who's clearly got his own agenda and isn't there just to "play cowboy", as it were, you need a fast way to communicate that and set up how said character's agenda is juxtaposed with the normal "rules of the game", so I personally don't think the scene was in any way out of place, nor do I think it 'went too far'.

I'm definitely tuning in to the series in the weeks to come, and can't wait to see where they're headed and what their 'endgame' for the season ends up being, especially after that "in the weeks to come" preview.

I'm especially intrigued by Thandie Newton's character, Maeve, waking up in the "real world".
 
Man I just had a surreal experience. So I fell asleep during the troubleshooting with the father after
finds the photograph
. I then woke up while they were building the horse from another airing only I didn't realize that yet and thought it was the same episode. So I thought they were showing that it's a new same day for the WestWorld crew as well so it was like robots were running the show making and repairing the other robots.

I was like, "Damn, this show is a real mindfuck." and then I put it together. :lol:
 
I enjoyed it. The world building is solid so far, and the music was very good.
 
I'm lovin' it so far, for sure. Very intriguing. Loved the fake-out for us expecting Cyclops to be a visitor and Ed Harris being the Gunslinger, the switcheroo was cool, and I'm interested to see where Ed's role takes us.

And the 'ye olde modern music' thing can sometimes be obnoxious, but I quite liked the approach here.
 
I loved every minute of the first episode. It did a very good job of introducing all of the main characters, both human and AI, with lots of world building on both sides of the veil and clearly developed the immediate conflicts. We even got hints of the various other worlds out there, leaving us with the quest of will we see them this season, a future season, or not at all?

I was intrigued by "Peter Abernathy" AI's conversation with Robert Ford, particularly the moment when he malfunctions about his "final drive." He breaks at "and I wouldn't have it any other way." Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but perhaps he loses control because he reached partial sentience and realized their true nature, thus unable to rectify the idea of following his "final drive" to protect is daughter in the simulated sense and how to protect her in the real world with this knowledge.

The only confusing point for me is how the Gunslinger wasn't detected as malfunctioning host and the only answer I can come up with is the world technicians don't realize he's currently operating at all. Note: I haven't seen the original film yet, so don't anser this question if this was a point point in the film (which may or may not have any bearing to this question).

I love the entire cast, particularly Ed Harris, Anthony Hopkins, and Jeffrey Wright. Plus, it's great to see Shannon Woodward again who I haven't seen anything of her work since her great performance in The Riches.

DigificWriter said:
I'm also not sure what the point of the romance between Dolores and Teddy was, especially since they're both "hosts", but maybe this particular plot will end up going somewhere interesting in the weeks to come.
Click to expand...
That seemed odd to me at first until I realized how much the show is establishing Dolores as an "important" AI and how her continuing development may lead to sentience. This set-up may eventually lead to an AI romance or at least an immediate ally in the park, especially since her "original" father is gone.

DigificWriter said:
I understand that there was a bit of controversy in the lead-up to the show's premiere over the scene of Ed Harris' Man in Black dragging Dolores off to 'have his way with her', but, quite honestly, if you're going to set up a villain who's clearly got his own agenda and isn't there just to "play cowboy", as it were, you need a fast way to communicate that and set up how said character's agenda is juxtaposed with the normal "rules of the game", so I personally don't think the scene was in any way out of place, nor do I think it 'went too far'.
Click to expand...
I hadn't even realized that scene had caused any controversy. As someone who didn't have that insight, I didn't find that scene jarring. It established the nastiness of that character.
 
DigificWriter said:
I'm also not sure what the point of the romance between Dolores and Teddy was, especially since they're both "hosts", but maybe this particular plot will end up going somewhere interesting in the weeks to come.
Click to expand...

My initial take was every robot in play has their own storyline that plays out through the day and only changes when the audience interacts. Makes things more authentic if everything feels alive and lived in. But I'm sure it'll also lead to something more down the road.
 
I thought the premiere was great, I'm excited to see how the show evolves. Based on the way characters are built it feels like it's going to lead to the robots becoming self aware and rebelling but not sure how they could even do that as at this point the programmers have absolute killswitch capacity.
 
Aragorn said:
My initial take was every robot in play has their own storyline that plays out through the day and only changes when the audience interacts. Makes things more authentic if everything feels alive and lived in. But I'm sure it'll also lead to something more down the road.
Click to expand...
In one of the videos I they made it sound like the Hosts are pretty much in a Groundhog Day kind of situation, where they just replay the same day over and over. I haven't seen the premiere yet, so I can't say exactly that plays out here though.

Opening Credits:
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I love them. I'd say these give Game of Thrones a run for their money for great HBO credits.
EDIT:
The first episode, The Original, is up on the HBO site for free. I'll be watching it first thing tomorrow morning.
 
JirinPanthosa said:
I thought the premiere was great, I'm excited to see how the show evolves. Based on the way characters are built it feels like it's going to lead to the robots becoming self aware and rebelling but not sure how they could even do that as at this point the programmers have absolute killswitch capacity.
Click to expand...
Do they though? They have a verbal shutdown command, but that's software-based, not hardware. We haven't seen any kind of true kill switch yet.
 
Evil Headhunter said:
The only confusing point for me is how the Gunslinger wasn't detected as malfunctioning host and the only answer I can come up with is the world technicians don't realize he's currently operating at all. Note: I haven't seen the original film yet, so don't anser this question if this was a point point in the film (which may or may not have any bearing to this question).
Click to expand...
He wasn't a robot, he was a guest. I thought the show established that pretty well.
 
There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not Ed Harris' Man in Black/Gunslinger is a "guest" or a "host", which I don't understand because the show went out of its way to establish that he's human, something that was corroborated by promotional materials and by Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy.
 
It's not just that the MiB said several times that he'd been coming to the park for 30 years; it's also the fact that the guns didn't harm him. James Hibbard of Entertainment Weekly asked the creators about the guns used in the park, and the way they work is that they're built to 'read' an individual's bio-signature and fire different projectiles depending on whether that individual is a "guest" or a "host"; the projectiles fired at the "guests" are essentially blanks and sting when they hit (much like a paintball).

There was never any intent on the part of the creators for there to be any confusion as to what the Man in Black is. He's human, and essentially analogous to a "pro gamer" who's gotten bored with what's presented to him and is on a search to find "more".
 
Having just watched the pilot episode. More please??

Looking forward to next week. Top cast. I like the mystery with this show. Will be interesting to see where this show goes, as it's unlike anything on TV at the moment.
 
DigificWriter said:
There was never any intent on the part of the creators for there to be any confusion as to what the Man in Black is. He's human, and essentially analogous to a "pro gamer" who's gotten bored with what's presented to him and is on a search to find "more".
Click to expand...

Maybe people expect this Gunslinger to be a robot because the original one (Yul Brynner) was.
 
Actually Jewel Staite said:
He wasn't a robot, he was a guest. I thought the show established that pretty well.
Click to expand...

DigificWriter said:
There seems to be some confusion as to whether or not Ed Harris' Man in Black/Gunslinger is a "guest" or a "host", which I don't understand because the show went out of its way to establish that he's human, something that was corroborated by promotional materials and by Jonah Nolan and Lisa Joy.
Click to expand...

JWPlatt said:
Really? Maybe it is he who is going out of his way to claim he is a human.
Click to expand...

DigificWriter said:
It's not just that the MiB said several times that he'd been coming to the park for 30 years; it's also the fact that the guns didn't harm him. James Hibbard of Entertainment Weekly asked the creators about the guns used in the park, and the way they work is that they're built to 'read' an individual's bio-signature and fire different projectiles depending on whether that individual is a "guest" or a "host"; the projectiles fired at the "guests" are essentially blanks and sting when they hit (much like a paintball).

There was never any intent on the part of the creators for there to be any confusion as to what the Man in Black is. He's human, and essentially analogous to a "pro gamer" who's gotten bored with what's presented to him and is on a search to find "more".
Click to expand...
Heh, yeah, so I realized after reading A.V. Club's review of the episode. Having not read any of the press descriptions of the show, I assumed Ed Harris' character is analogous to Yul Brenner's character in every way. I was confused about how the guns didn't harm and I misheard the 30-year line. I wasn't entirely sure what he said, but I clearly missed he said he had been visiting the park for 30 years.

While that does clear up my confusion (and makes more sense than convoluted viewpoint), that does raise the questions what the hell he is doing and why.
 
DigificWriter said:
It's not just that the MiB said several times that he'd been coming to the park for 30 years; it's also the fact that the guns didn't harm him. James Hibbard of Entertainment Weekly asked the creators about the guns used in the park, and the way they work is that they're built to 'read' an individual's bio-signature and fire different projectiles depending on whether that individual is a "guest" or a "host"; the projectiles fired at the "guests" are essentially blanks and sting when they hit (much like a paintball).
Click to expand...

Boy, you'd have to have a lot of faith that system wasn't going to fail! I figured the robots had some kind of squib system.

And with a show like this, I wouldn't be completely sure that there isn't more to the Ed Harris character though to be fair I haven't followed all the promotional material.
 
I've seen a lot of people identify the opening V.O. interviewer being Jeffrey Wright's Bernard Lowe, but I was under the impression that we saw the direct continuation of that scene after the shootout and in that scene, she was being interviewed by Luke Hemsworth's character Stubbs, so I'm a little confused.
 
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