Stumbled on to Westworld

In case it is not clear, I have an innate need for series. My brothers are to blame as they had me binge-watching ‘Friends’ since the age of nine and I haven’t stopped; chances are I won’t. So it is hardly surprising that I stumble on to series like Westworld. The new ‘Game of Thrones’ some said! An adventurous breach of ethics with Sir Anthony Hopkins in a mysterious role of a genius! Who would resist? Who did? Seriously, who is not watching it? And why?!

There are actually a few reasons why. 

First of all, the statement ‘new Game of Thrones’ is very misleading; it was to me at least. Game of Thrones has a lot of things going on, so many main characters, so many plots which intertwine and separate for numerous developments that mean a different thing for each and every character. Have I mentioned that George R. R. Martin is a genius? Westworld is pretty much one thing; the robots will rebel and revenge their mismanagement. This is not a spoiler; this is just the very obvious prediction one makes before even watching a single episode. It is a single ethical shock/dilemma, which is promising in terms of action, therefore there is some anticipation, but nowhere near as much as the completely unpredictable Game of Thrones. Therefore, let’s just conclude that the comparison is misleading at best, irrelevant at worst.

This next one might just be me, but is anyone really rooting for the humans? They are being absolutely awful to the robots, taking advantage of them in every way and the makers have given them enough cognition to make this a painful experience. So, yeah, problem solved! Robots will rebel, justice will be restored and we will make sure to create our future theme parks more humane. There is no real dilemma, is there? There is no taking sides; plus there hasn’t yet been a character interesting or relatable or nice enough to perplex things a bit. Say a man that would attempt to murder a small boy but then nobly save his war captor from unavoidable rape (you got Game of Thrones from that? That can’t be, I stopped comparing the two). So yeah, robots good, people bad.

It is still an interesting ethical breach, even if at least to a vast majority the conclusions are unanimous. My real problem is, this particular ethical issue, Artificial Intelligence, robots having feelings, robot rebellion, it has been dealt with. Extensively. In the 90’s. The movie the series is based on was made in 1973! ‘I, Robot’ was twelve years ago and it was already outdated (it was also pretty bad and cheesy). So while this is a very interesting question and a careful insight on how we treat others when there are no consequences, I do not feel it adds that much more to the field. But who knows, maybe it is something waiting to happen! Maybe a shocking twist will come our way!

So I understand, I do, it might seem like less good a choice than what had been advertised but it is still such a good choice! It is beautifully made, there are some gorgeous details in the robots’ behaviour and this portrayal of western scenery as part of an otherwise futuristic society is always pleasant. And the cast is really good! The amazing Anthony Hopkins is just so impressive in anything he does! He could sneeze and if they’d let it in the final cut it would look like Shakespeare with mucus!

So there you go! A misleading blog post to match for the misleading comparison!

By the way, if you just read the bold bits it is a very positive review J