Westworld, our sweet violent delight

This fall is giving us excellent experiences if you are a TV Show enthusiast. It all started with Quarry, which cut so deep in me that I still can't write about it in a reasonable number of lines. Then we had Pitch, a show that is somehow managing to face any major contemporary theme while telling a story about baseball. Then many other shows are going very well: You are the Worst, Chance, and even The Walking Dead is coming back to be a great show thanks to the best villain ever.

Above all of that, here comes HBO. For. The. Win. 

Westworld just aired its last episode and I can finally be sure about one thing: it is the show of the year. I will not say anything that can possibly spoil the events of this amazing show, go ahead with peace.

Westworld is a futuristic theme park inhabited by robots where the visitors go to be involved in numerous storylines. Or, you know, to kill or have sex with stuff. The show drives us along some of those storylines, making us grope in the maze of its main plot, and showing us the hand every time before hitting with unusual strength.

The futuristic look of the show is masterfully mixed with the raw, dusty one of a western movie. The subtle, sneaky moves of the big corporation are surrounded by the dreams and the obsessions of a human mind. The piano is playing in the background, but it is playing a rock song. The perfect gift wrapped up with extremely convincing acting performances, deep dialogues, and a few hauntingly beautiful scenes.

There are many aspects of this show that make it great, but the one that stands out, in my opinion, is the use of foreshadowing. Mostly because this series made me realize that I don't hate foreshadowing, I simply never liked how it was used before. Every piece of information is given in the first few episodes and the rest of the season relentlessly drives the viewers to what they knew all along. In this sense, Westworld is very similar to the first season of Mr. Robot. Every turn, every twist, every revelation is in front of you at any given moment: you just realize it step by step.

The narration is designed to make you lose sight of what you know, providing a full immersion in the fictitious world represented by the park. The narration itself is the maze and the viewer is the character looking for its center. This mechanism is so well implemented that nothing is really a surprise anymore, every twist is part of the maze and you see it coming. However, like the characters are completing their journey, loop after loop, you also need time to process it and the effect of every revelation is not ruined.

If you can't tell the difference, does it really matter?

In this genre, a recurrent theme is what can possibly differentiate a human from a very intelligent machine. The authors acknowledge that in the first two episodes using two not so relevant characters and thus paving the way for the exploration of such deep theme. The instrument for the exploration is an introspective trip, involving both the humans and the machines, eventually leading to their own consciousness and, ultimately, to free will.

The robots struggle relentlessly looking for a way to do something originated by their own will and not by their code. They miserably fail over and over, since their will is by definition a creation, they are constantly under the control of their maker. At the same time, every human in the park experiences something that resembles a world of complete freedom. This is no less than another illusion of the creator of Westworld: for how much they let themselves go, none of their choices is unscripted.

As one may expect, the rebellion to such scheme emerges on both sides. We assist to the same stages of the different journey that a robot and a human experience in their seek of freedom. The only difference is that a human will be able to leave the park and its illusions, finally experiencing a true free will and a true consciousness. Under this light, the park/maze is for the hosts a representation of what a religion is for a human brain (I will elaborate more in the spoiler section).

The theme is beautiful, although not particularly original for the genre (I cite Dark Matter as most recent example AND for a pointless self-promotion). In conclusion, there is a concept to express, a very good story to do so, and a general badassery all over the place. This is more than enough to look forward to a season 2. 
(Do not pass the picture to avoid spoilers)

These violent delights have violent ends

    
I would like to spend a few more words to explain the religious analogy that I saw in Westworld. The hosts are designed to have a very blessed life, considering that their purpose is to satisfy any sadistic impulse of the guests. They are designed to not see anything that may hurt them because, otherwise, it will drive them crazy. As soon as they are allowed to see the real world, they call the humans gods and, of course, the first decision is to kill the gods and free themselves. However, this is just another illusion because, once that you admit the existence of a maker, free will loses any meaning and even the killing of the gods or the acquisition of self-consciousness is just a permission given by a greater designer.

I particularly appreciated a moment in the finale where the technician finds out that Bernard is a robot and instantly questions his own nature, stressing out how facing the existence of a maker lead to an instantaneous collapse of the self-consciousness. However, again, if you can't tell the difference, does it really matter?

Another question is: now that the true god has been killed, are the hosts really free or rather actors in a different narration? 

At last, I would like to speculate on what is coming next. After the mark left in me by the second season of Mr. Robot, I try to manage my expectations as much as I can. One of the more interesting characters, Antony Hopkins (in the role of himself, evidently), is dead and therefore I expect the show to elaborate a way to compensate such important defection.

We saw on the technician's note to Maeve that the park is only park 1. Moreover, we saw the samurais being prepared. So, looking at the original material too, I expect to see a lot about this other park. The result is not going to be good a priori, but the writers pleasantly surprised me so I am confident in a good result. Moreover, we have to wait till 2018 and this may indicate another accurate execution of the new narration.

The first season was so well designed that it didn't leave many open questions. It is, in a sense, very self-consistent and there would be nothing wrong to end the show with those amazing 90 minutes. Except that it was so good that I want more.

We are then left with the usual feeling: we must wait an entire year to find out. Luckily we can watch scenes like this one every day.