Westworld

[Julius Seeker]

Is anyone else watching this?

Without giving too much away, it's a little reminiscent of Caprica. It's a science fiction by Michael Crichton, think Jurassic Park, except with humanoid cylon types.

If the first episode is a bit off putting with the terrible way people treat the robots and the kind of sleepy/boring western theme, watch a bit further, and you'll find that it is more or less just the park theme, and that the show is about a whole lot more. The person who wrote this definitely did their homework on live service in the software market, particularly in the gaming industry.

The way I see it, each episode so far has been better than the last.

It's on HBO.

[Eric]

I watched the first episode, then decided I'll wait to it finishes and binge watch.

[Julius Seeker]

Haha, probably a good idea, it is kind of killing me waiting for episodes.

[Julius Seeker]

The season's over. Time to watch!

It's a fairly complete story, like the first film in a series. There's no reason to hold back any later than now. Also, season 2 isn't going to be around until fall 2018.

[Eric]

Indeed, time to indulge!

[Julius Seeker]

TMI

Anyway, while it could be coincidental, there appear to be a few nods to Aldous Huxley and Brave New World in Westworld.

Starting with the fact that they're both futuristic societies broken down into rigid classes, and with a populace engages in shameless hedonism. Westworld itself shares some striking resemblance to the Savage Land in Brave New World, and the attitudes of the people toward it, and while this isn't exactly a rare thing, it seems fairly strong throughout Westworld; although not nearly as blatant as Solaris in Xenogears. I haven't seen Crichton's film about it, so I don't know if the connection was made originally, but there is the possibility that Nolan saw the parallels. There's also the references to Shakespeare in both as well, although this could just be a coincidence as lots of movies share that.

The most obvious possible nods are probably the two heads of staff at Westworld, Bernard (Jeffry Wright) and Ford (Anthony Hopkins) - both names are pretty much non-existant in Science Fiction EXCEPT when referencing BNW. In Brave New World, Ford was the equivalent to the father and saviour of the world, he is considered the founder of the world; Ford in BNW was named for Henry Ford who began assembly line mass production. Bernard was the initial protagonist of the first 2/3rds of the story, in the Hatcheries he was the chief psychologist, which is similar to the chief programmer role in Westworld - where he also acts as a bit of a psychologist.

It could all be coincidence, but given the sorts of stories Nolan has worked on in the past, such as Memento and Interstellar, it would surprise me if he wasn't a fan of Aldous Huxley.


Speaking of Brave New World, Ridley Scott and Leonardo Dicaprio were going to do a film a few years ago. Steven Spielberg has since begun developing a TV series.

[Eric]

TMI

You love it.

[Julius Seeker]

Do you need a towel?

[Julius Seeker]

OK, fuck HBO. They just Netflixed the show before it finished. Four seasons in, cancelled.

Looks like Apple Plus (and to a lesser extent, Disney Plus) is the only service that won’t fuck over fans of their shows.

OK, obviously I don’t know the whole story here. I’m just venting
But either way, this show will always remain unfinished.