‘Westworld’ advances towards the end of its second season. The series created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, based on Michael Crichton’s homonymous movie, has embraced its ‘Lost’ side more than ever. And it also has some references to ‘Game of Thrones’ that I’ll explain next.
After ‘The Sopranos’, ‘The Wire’ and ‘Sex and the City’ ended, HBO spent a few years with some notoriety crisis until ‘Game of Thrones’ came. A series that has been growing season by season disputing along with 'The Walking Dead' and 'The Big Bang Theory' the most-watched-tv series scepter. It has become one of the largest cultural and entertainment phenomena in the world.
Nolan and Joy did pretty well with ‘Person of Interest’, but with their adaptation of the 70’s science fiction film they promised to give what the audience loved about 'Game of Thrones’: high-concept plot, exotic locations, strong emotions (violence, sex ...), an ensemble cast in which anyone is likely to die (and return) at any time, shocking surprises, etc. The answer was overwhelming: the best premiere in the history of HBO.
In ‘Westworld’ there are no dragons or white walkers. The bloodthirsty savages of the Ghost Nation are as mysterious as the latter, though, and both received little attention at the beginning. However, we have a Dolores more and more similar to Khaleesi (with a much darker stance), Maeve as obsessed with her daughter as Cersei with her three children, and even a Bernard as disheveled and knowing so little as Jon Snow. It remains to be seen a Red Wedding or a character as despicable as Joffrey. But ‘Westworld’ has a long way to go yet. So, who knows?
That was a bit of the ‘Game of Thrones’ side of ‘Westworld’, but now let’s talk about its ‘Lost’ side. I find so many things in common between these two series that I don’t know where to begin. It feels like yesterday when ‘Lost’ was da bomb! And its shockwave still can be feel, even 14 years later. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were the minds behind ‘Lost’ throughout its six seasons. However, the series wouldn’t have been possible without its co-creator and producer J.J. Abrams.
Abrams was the executive producer of ‘Person of Interest’, and now is repeating with Nolan and Joy with ‘Westworld’. So, it’s not surprising that we find a lot of references of ‘Lost’ here. J.J. Abrams used similar tools and dynamics to build the narrative, start it up and create the hype.
At the beginning of 'Lost', the plane 815 of Oceanic Airlines crashed on a mysterious island. Then we knew some of the survivors that would end up becoming a family. The protagonists went into the forest and discovered some elements and facilities that helped to know more about The Island and increase its mystery. Even, as if it were a video game, this discovery “unlocked” new areas on the “map” that had to be investigated.
See, in ’Westworld’ is quite similar. The characters also discover new parks and facilities to develop the story and introduce new mysteries. For example. In the first season, episode 07, Bernard and Theresa found a secret facility which belonged to the late Robert Ford. This episode was really mind blowing because here’s where we discovered that Bernard is a robot (a host) and then we witnessed how he killed Theresa following the orders of Ford.
In the second season, after the Sweetwater massacre in the first episode, Bernard and Charlotte arrived at another secret facility in Delos where we found out that Peter Abernathy (Dolores’ father) is the key to everything. There’s another facility where William (the Man in Black) is carrying an ambitious project: to achieve immortality by installing real minds into the bodies of hosts. These are just some of the places we’ve been discovering in ‘Westworld’ throughout its two seasons.
Now, regarding the flashbacks. This is the main element In ‘Lost’ they helped us to know the characters better, to discover their previous interactions and unravel the whole plot. The fifth season is a good example with The Island's erratic jumps through time. In ‘Westworld’, we saw this at the end of the first season when we discovered that the story between William, Logan and Dolores was just a flashback of the first time that William visited the park and how the experience changed his life.
We could also talk about the taste of both Joy and Nolan for symbols and codes that can, not just make Carlton Cuse smile, but that can also make us speculate about the path that ‘Westworld’ will take in the coming seasons based on how ‘Lost’ evolved. But as I said, ‘Westworld’ has a long way to go yet. So, let’s see how all this goes.