Westworld
Foxtel, Mondays
THIS hugely exciting re-make – a series, not a movie – has breathed fresh life into a cracking idea.
And the execution is simply stunning.
The series takes the concept of the original – a theme park where jaded suburbanites can play cowboys and indians, with androids – flips it, twists it, shoots it beautifully and adds some awesome production values.
And while the desert vistas shine and the acting is great – led by Evan Rachel Wood – it’s really the story that’s the thing.
Because this is a much deeper, darker journey than the original.
Turns out most people who go to Westworld unleash their inner primitive – so ultraviolence and debauchery lead the way.
Last time he came by himself and “went straight evil. Best two weeks of my life,“ one “visitor“ proclaims on the way in.
The “hosts“, beautifully rendered androids, are the pawns in this game.
Every day they’re washed off, patched up, and fed back into the fray.
But are some of these traumas finally registering with what should be unfeeling metal … and are some very loose wires about to be exposed?
Plenty of questions are being asked here about the savage that lurks in each of us, and what we would do in a world of absolute freedom, with no consequences.
Westworld is being spoken of as the new Game of Thrones and, while it may not be all that, it’s still pretty darn good.
– Jason Beck
