Some call it the new Game of Thrones, some call it “The Most Anticipated Series of the Decade” after viewing the first four episodes that HBO sent to critics before premiering this Sunday, hardly anyone seems to have any doubts left.
This show is here to stay.
And there is a reason behind that, actually, there are 54 million reasons behind that. To put it into perspective that’s almost twice the budget than other highly successful shows like Mad Men for example, and almost three times more than The Wire.
Needless to say, HBO brought in the big bucks. And with big money comes an all-star cast.
It took some years but HBO has successfully gathered a wide ensemble of big screen stars such as Ed Harris (The Truman show), Thandie Newton (Crash), James Mardsen (X-men), Jeffrey Wright (The Manchurian Candidate) with the main protagonist Evan Rachel Wood (The Ides of March).
The cherry on the cake being no less than Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins.
On addition to that, HBO wanted to enlist some of the brightest modern storytellers. In this case, the creative duo formed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan.
To give some background, Lisa Joy previously wrote in shows like Burn Notice and Pushing Daisies while Jonathan Nolan collaborated and co-wrote mega block-busters such as The Dark Night Rises and Interstellar, a movie co-written and directed by Jonathan’s older brother, the man who needs no introduction and one of the best directors in the world, Christopher Nolan.
That being said, Jonathan Nolan is an accomplished writer in his own right having won an Oscar nomination in 2001 for writing the script of the memorable movie Memento.
For producers HBO went top-drawer as well, and in this case went with Bryan Burk (Star Trek) and J.J Abrams (Star Wars; Lost) although what's more impressive in this situation is not only the names that were brought in, but also those who were considered in the process. I’ll give you a hint, a cinematic Genius that goes by the name Quentin.
What to Look For?
First of all, this is a cruel dark show both visually and psychologically, not for the faint hearted. Expect a lot of twists, mysteries, violence, nudity, and very cool touch on the rebellion of the machines (A.I turning against humans and vice-versa) and probably even more twists.
So far, the entire first five seasons have been mapped out, including the series’s finale. This goes to show how far HBO are willing to go to catapult their new baby.
A Little Trip Down Memory Lane
For those of you who remember, West World is based on the 1973 movie by the same name, co-written and directed by Michael Crichton who also wrote the screenplay of the original Jurassic Park since he authored the novel the film was base upon.
West World as a movie was way ahead of its time, it’s credited as being the first ever movie to use CGI as well as presenting new subjects like computer viruses.
This 2016 version loosely follows a similar premise, it has the same theme-park touch that Crichton has accustomed his readers where one minute you're in an amazing experience in the park, but then all of the sudden things quickly start going south as the park begins to turn on its unsuspecting guests.
In this case the story revolves around an old west theme park that is stocked by A.I androids that operate on the sole purpose of entertaining human guests, whether in shootouts, in saloons, horse ride expeditions or even as some sort of android prostitutes.
The story opens with the artificial beings functioning and acting like humans who think they are actually living in the old west, as far as the androids are concerned, they think they’re just regular people leading normal lives.
But soon enough, they begin to become self-aware and that’s where Pandora’s box gets kicked wide open. And as you expect, things go horribly, horribly wrong.
Because whenever a person (or an A.I) realizes that their thoughts were not theirs, the game is about to change.
“I think there must be something wrong with this world” – Evan Rachel Wood; West World.
A Little Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
The show’s main premise revolves around the main protagonist, a young woman called Dolores whose journey towards freedom takes us in a mind-boggling emotional roller-coaster.
Her story is a constant search for truth, every peek behind the curtain is associated with some sort of pain, it’s like the archetypal Hero’s Journey stereotype, tragedy- struggle-catharsis infused with some mind stretching life-philosophies where our characters constantly find themselves having to face the dominant narrative of their entire existence and challenge it to a life-or-death duel, metaphorically speaking.
It all seems so brilliantly made that it’s almost makes you question your own reality.
Here’s where it gets interesting, without spoiling too much I can tell you that we’ll see some unique time-loops taking place in the series, combine that with the mystery genre the show is based upon and I guess that it's fair to say that this show will hardly leave anyone indifferent.
As whims of fate would have it, Ed Harris who played a major role in The Truman Show also landed a starring role in West World playing the character of The Man in Black.
“We accept the reality of the world with which we’re presented, it’s as simple as that.” – Ed Harris; The Truman Show.
Let me know your thoughts about the season one premiere this Sunday, meanwhile I leave you with one of the trailers, and an interesting question:
René Descartes famously said: I think therefore I exist, since we already live among computers that are far smarter than any single human being, and since it’s very likely that we see artificial intelligence operating within our lifetime, here's my question for you:
Can the A.I ever become self aware?
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