Westworld [1]: the Complete First Season (2017) [Blu-ray]
Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Western

Tagline: Where Life Begins

The story takes place in the fictional Westworld, a technologically advanced Wild West–themed amusement park populated by android hosts. Where guests interact with automatons in scenarios that are developed, overseen and scripted by the park's creative, security and quality assurance departments. Westworld caters to high-paying guests, who may indulge in whatever they wish within the park, without fear of retaliation from the hosts.

Storyline: Westworld isn't your typical amusement park. Intended for rich vacationers, the futuristic park allows its visitors to live out their most primal fantasies with the robotic "hosts." However, the robotic hosts have evolved an artificial consciousness that is similar to, yet diverges from, human consciousness. No matter how illicit the fantasy may be, there are no consequences for the park's guests, allowing for any wish to be indulged; but there is a price to be paid.

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1.01 The Original - Teddy and Dolores, two romantically linked android hosts of theme park Westworld, are attacked by the Man in Black, a mysterious park guest. When the hosts begin behaving strangely, head programmer Bernard Lowe traces the problem to errors in park founder Dr. Ford's reverie code and requests the affected hosts be removed from service. Theresa Cullen, the park administrator, orders an attack on the town to be brought forward to help cover for the removal of all the affected hosts. Dolores' father Peter finds a photograph that a newcomer left behind and malfunctions. When Dr. Ford interrogates him, Peter quotes Shakespeare and vows revenge upon his creator. Peter is retired from service. Dolores is interrogated and found to be functioning normally. She is wiped and relives her day with a new father, but unknown to management breaks her programming to casually kill a fly. (Watched 11/17/2017)

1.02 Chestnut - Logan and William arrive at Westworld as guests, but William is reluctant to indulge, finally developing feelings for Dolores. Though Bernard secretly questions Dolores to make sure nobody has tampered with her, her contact with procuring madame host Maeve results in her malfunction as well. Maeve is taken in for maintenance but unexpectedly awakes and witnesses damaged hosts, including Teddy, being cleaned. She is rendered unconscious and taken away before she can attract any attention. Dolores finds a pistol outside the house. The Man in Black abducts outlaw host Lawrence from his execution, demanding that he tell him the location of a maze. Lawrence's daughter gives the Man in Black his next clue after he kills her mother. Ford vetoes Sizemore's new narrative calling it cheap titillation that underestimates the guests. Ford shows Bernard, who is revealed to be involved with Theresa, his alternate narrative involving a church. (Watched 11/17/2017)

1.03 The Stray - William drags Logan off on a bounty hunt. Dolores asks Teddy to teach her to shoot, but her programming prevents her from firing a gun. Ford changes Teddy's backstory for his new narrative, in which the latter is pitted against outlaw host Wyatt. Ford also tells Bernard, who is revealed to have lost his son previously, about his old partner, Arnold, who died in Westworld in an accident. Bernard is worried about the effect their conversations have had on Dolores, but she promises to keep quiet and follow her loop. Elsie, who secretly reports to Bernard, and Stubbs are sent to capture a stray host. They find him trapped in a ravine. When Stubbs tries to retrieve his head, he wakes up and attacks them before smashing his own head in with a rock. At the homestead, Dolores is attacked by bandits, one of whom drags her into the barn to rape her. She steals his gun but is unable to shoot him until she sees him as the Man in Black. Though being shot, she escapes, stumbles into William and Logan's campsite and collapses in William's arms. (Watched 11/17/2017)

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1.04 Dissonance Theory - Logan decides to finish the bounty hunt and mocks William for bringing Dolores along. They capture the fugitive, but Logan decides to have a better adventure by taking him to his boss. Meanwhile, the Man in Black, accompanied by Lawrence, is hunting snakes and finds Armistice with her snake tattoo. He breaks Escaton out of prison for her, and she tells him that the tattoo represents all of her victims, who were Wyatt's men. The Man in Black and Lawrence leave for Wyatt, rescuing a tortured Teddy. Cullen takes over the investigation into the stray, not trusting Elsie and Bernard. She meets Ford about his new narrative, but he demands she not interfere, revealing his knowledge about her past and affair with Lowe. Maeve is having visions, and during Escaton and Armistice's attack on the town she finds a bullet in her unscarred belly with his assistance, proving that her visions are real. They kiss passionately as the sheriff's men open fire through the door. (Watched 11/20/2017)

1.05 Contrapasso - Hughes discovers that the stray has been transmitting information outside of the park to an unknown party, reporting it to Bernard. The Man in Black kills Lawrence, whose blood he transfused into Teddy. They are then confronted by Ford, who assures the Man in Black that he will not stop the latter's efforts to find the maze, returning Teddy's full strength also. Dolores, William and Logan travel to the town of Pariah, where they meet criminal gang leader El Lazo, a.k.a. Lawrence, who tasks them with stealing a wagon of high explosives from the Union Army, a mission they complete successfully. Dolores, who has been seeing visions of herself advising her to find the maze, realizes El Lazo intends to keep the explosives for himself rather than to sell them to the former Confederates, who apprehend Logan while William and Dolores flee, joining El Lazo in the train. Maeve awakens in the control center and demands technician Felix chat. (Watched 11/20/2017)

1.06 The Adversary - At a Union Army outpost, the soldiers recognize Teddy as an accomplice in Wyatt's massacre of his unit. After recalling his complicity, Teddy escapes with the Man in Black by killing all of the soldiers. Sizemore is introduced by Theresa to Hale, a Board representative sent to observe park operations. Theresa ends her relationship with Bernard, who finds out that Ford has secretly been keeping a family of hosts. Elsie continues investigating the glitches and tells Bernard that Theresa is behind the espionage, and that the first generation hosts have been re-programmed by someone calling themselves Arnold. However, she is abducted by an unknown assailant. A child host kills his dog, telling Ford that Arnold told him to. Felix gives Maeve a tour of the company. She bends him and Sylvester to her will and convinces them to change her programming, setting her awareness rating to its maximum level while decreasing her loyalty. (Watched 11/20/2017)

1.07 Trompe L'Oeil - It is revealed that Theresa and Hale are both secretly stealing Ford's research for the board so that they can oust him from the park without fear of him destroying his work in retribution. They engineer an event to demonstrate that Ford's updates make the hosts violent and uncontrollable in their narratives. Bernard is blamed for the update of untested faulty code and fired as a result. William and Dolores develop romance. The train is then attacked by the Confederados, forcing William, Dolores, and Lawrence to flee. They are saved when the Confederados are ambushed by an Indian tribe called the Ghost Nation. Dolores and William part ways with Lawrence. Meanwhile, Maeve finds her friend Clementine retired by the staff. The former decides to use Felix and Sylvester to escape the park. Bernard takes Theresa to Sector 17; inside a hidden lab she finds design plans that reveal he is a host. Ford appears, reiterates to her that he has complete control over the park, regardless of what the board thinks, and has Bernard kill her. (Watched 11/20/2017)

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1.08 Trace Decay - Ford has Bernard stage Theresa's death to look like an accident. Then, Ford wipes Bernard's memories after Bernard has a vision of himself attacking Elsie. Stubbs becomes suspicious of Bernard's behavior. Hale recruits Sizemore for her cause. Maeve convinces Felix to give her the ability to control other hosts, and slits Sylvester's throat for attempting to kill her; though she has Felix save him. Maeve then suffers more visions of her past life with her daughter and reflexively kills another host, prompting the park staff to retrieve her for a diagnostic. William and Dolores finally reach their destination, Ford's church, where Dolores has more disturbing visions and realizes that Arnold wants her to remember something before they are captured by a band of Confederados led by Logan. Teddy receives a flashback of the Man in Black attacking Dolores and interrogates him. The Man in Black explains he started searching for the maze to find purpose after his wife's suicide. Teddy is wounded by a female host before they are captured by Wyatt's cultists. (Watched 11/25/2017)

1.09 The Well-Tempered Clavier - Maeve reveals to Bernard that he is a host and convinces him to let her back into the park, where she meets Escaton and convinces him to help her escape the park. Bernard confronts Ford and forces him to restore all of his memories, and discovers he is a model of Arnold. Bernard attempts to kill Ford; but the latter uses a backdoor in the former's code to force him to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Logan cuts open Dolores's belly to show William she is not real. She manages to escape and run away, finding that the wound is suddenly gone. She reaches the church, where she learns that she killed Arnold. She then encounters the Man in Black. Logan then awakes to find that William has slaughtered all of the Confederados. William threatens Logan into helping him find Dolores. Teddy has a flashback of himself killing host Angela before she kills him. Hale meets the Man in Black, who is revealed to be a Board member, and unsuccessfully tries to gain his assistance in removing Ford. Stubbs investigates suspicious activity in the park and is ambushed by Ghost Nation hosts, who are not under control. (Watched 11/?252017)

1.10 The Bicameral Mind - The Man in Black presses Dolores about Wyatt’s whereabouts and the center of the maze, and reveals he is actually an aged William. Dolores then remembers Arnold’s order to kill him and destroy the park, and that she is actually Wyatt. She attempts fighting back, Teddy rescues her, and they flee to a distant beach. Dolores dies in Teddy's arms, though that is revealed to be part of Ford's narrative. During her escape from Westworld, Maeve—aided by Hector and Armistice—finds Bernard's corpse, and Felix repairs him. Bernard warns Maeve that her desire to escape was programmed into her. Although Maeve—now alone—initially continues her escape, she has second thoughts and exits the imminently departing train to find her daughter. Back at Westworld, Ford tells Dolores and Bernard that he regretted his role in Arnold's death, came to desire to free the hosts as well, and has spent the last 35 years preparing them to fight back. He then gives a speech in front of Charlotte, the Man in Black, and other guests, criticizing their handling of the park. Dolores then shoots and kills Ford while an army of reactivated hosts emerges from a nearby forest. (Watched 11/25/2017)

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Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Michael Reuben, November 12, 2017 Westworld is the latest watercooler series from HBO, the pay cable network that brought us The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Deadwood and Game of Thrones. A re-imagining of Michael Crichton's 1973 thriller of the same name, the series is lavishly mounted, impeccably cast and produced with all the benefits of the latest in both digital and practical effects. According to HBO, Westworld was the highest rated inaugural season in their history of original programming.

The creators of this new vision are the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Nolan, who also directed the pilot and season finale, is the brother of director Christopher and the author of the story that inspired Memento, one of the twistiest puzzle films ever made. Nolan/Joy's Westworld is also a puzzle—more accurately, a series of puzzles, one after another and one inside another. Fans and newcomers alike can now revisit (or discover for the first time) the season's many mysteries in a handsome Blu-ray set from Warner Brothers Home Entertainment. For those who have made the leap to 4K, Warner is also releasing Westworld in a UHD version, which makes it, as far as I know, the first TV series to be presented in that format.

Like many contemporary TV series, Westworld is loaded with twists and reveals, some small and some enormous, so that it's effectively impossible to discuss the show in depth, or even to offer episode summaries, without straying into spoiler territory. For those new to Nolan/Joy's inventive creation, let me offer a general introduction that will be, to the best of my ability, spoiler-free.

As in Michael Crichton's original film, Westworld envisions a high-tech theme park where visitors can plunge themselves into an alternative world more immersive than any virtual reality simulation. For the low, low price of $40,000 a day, the "guests" (as they're known to the park staff) assume alternate identities as visitors to a Western landscape that's equal parts John Ford and Deadwood. Both the towns and the expansive surrounding territory contain a huge population of android "hosts", who are indistinguishable from humans and have been programmed with elaborate narrative "loops", which they repeat over and over. Guests interact with the hosts however they please, whether through gun battles on the street, brawls in smoky barrooms or pornographic sex in the brothel run by Maeve (Thandie Newton)—or any other adventure that strikes a particular guest's fancy. Weapons have been engineered not to injure the guests, but they can "kill" a host, who will be quietly retrieved and repaired by the staff, then returned to his or her loop. Hosts' memories are routinely wiped, so that they have no recall of the countless acts of violence committed against them, whether by the guests or by each other in loops of mass host-on-host pillage and murder staged for the guests' amusement.

All of these elements have been taken from Crichton's film, but Crichton was writing in an analog age. Nolan/Joy have reinvented his scenario for the digital world of the 21st Century. Their robots have been programmed to improvise, within narrowly defined parameters, so that they can adapt their behavior to changing circumstances and provide the guests with a more realistic experience. The parks' technicians control the hosts through voice commands and powerful iPad-like tablets that would have been unimaginable in the original Westworld's era. The interactions between staff and hosts are conducted through self-diagnostic conversations that routinely blur the line between human and host. The park is monitored not only through video feeds, but also through a real-time miniature digital simulation housed on one of the many levels of Westworld's subterranean headquarters. Other levels contain the sophisticated 3D printing operation that creates the hosts and the antiseptic glass cubicles where the robots are repaired—and where, when no one is looking, the staff sometimes takes liberties that are supposed to be reserved for paying guests.

While tracing the contours of this minutely realized environment, Westworld unwinds several key narrative strands. One is the essential question of what differentiates an A.I. from sentient life. When do robots acquire independent consciousness and a "soul"—and therefore the possibility of rebelling against the masters who have enslaved them? Crichton's film posed this question in the form of a thriller, as the machines seized control of the theme park and began slaughtering the human staff and guests, but the new Westworld takes a longer and more thoughtful route, tracing gradual awakenings and glimmers of consciousness. Central to this evolution is Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), the oldest host in the park, who has spent countless days playing a sweet rancher's daughter and a damsel in distress. The series opens with Dolores undergoing evaluation by Bernard Lowe (Jeffrey Wright), the head of the programming division, but it quickly becomes clear that his interest in her programming extends beyond maintenance. (Hosts are typically interviewed and "diagnosed" in the nude, but Bernard talks to Dolores fully clothed.) It is Bernard who first spots early signs of change in the hosts, and his interest in exploring the phenomenon will bring him into conflict with his boss, the visionary Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), founder of the park and creator of the hosts—who always seems to be holding back a secret.

A second narrative strand focuses on the guests and the effect of their being released from any consequences for their actions. Two of the key players are William (Jimmi Simpson) and Logan (Ben Barnes), who arrive in Westworld for a sort of bachelor party before William marries Logan's sister. Logan is a returnee, who plunges enthusiastically into the park's indulgences, but William is clearly uncomfortable with the very concept of Westworld. When he is greeted upon arrival by a comely host named Angela (Talulah Riley) who declares her immediate availability for sex, William declines, while Logan emerges from a similar changing room zipping up his fly. But William too will eventually be sucked into one of the park's many narratives, because Westworld offers something for all tastes. As one guest observes, the park reveals who you really are—for better or for worse (usually worse).

A third narrative strand involves control over Westworld, in multiple forms. Control of Delos, the company that owns Westworld and in which Logan's family is poised to make a sizeable investment. Control over the park's operations, which Dr. Ford zealously guards from interference by operations director Theresa Cullen (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and the Delos board of directors. Control over the hosts' many loops, which are constantly being revised and tweaked by Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman), the park's narrative director, who is frustrated when his proposed flights of fancy are overruled by Dr. Ford, who is privately is developing a secret "new narrative". And, of course, control over the hosts, which is the special concern of Elsie Hughes (Shannon Woodward), a rising star in the programming department who specializes in tracking aberrant behavior. Any behavior that can't be explained or eliminated results in a host's being pulled from duty and shipped to the cold storage level, where row upon row of inert bodies are lined up as if waiting for something (or someone).

At the core of Westworld's many mysteries is a puzzle known as "the maze". It's the special obsession of a mysterious Man in Black, who is played by Ed Harris with a knowing nod to the deadly robot gunslinger portrayed by Yul Brynner in Crichton's original film. Little can be said about the Man in Black except to stress that he is one of Nolan/Joy's most interesting and original creations. After entering the series with a vicious assault in the pilot episode, the Man in Black embarks on a relentless quest for self-awareness encapsulating everything that makes Westworld both fascinating and infuriating.

Westworld has its flaws. Some of the character development doesn't quite line up by the time we reach Episode 10, where many (but not all) of the season's riddles are answered. Nolan/Joy have acknowledged that they had to shut down production for several months while they worked out the intricacies of the last few episodes, which suggests that they began filming without a complete set of narrative blueprints—and it shows. Also, the creative team too often succumbs to the temptation to indulge their fantasies almost as much as the Westworld guests, gratuitously exploiting the freedom of premium cable to fill the screen with explicit sex and violence. In Episode 5, the production stages an orgy resembling a frontier version of the masked party in Eyes Wide Shut—but without the digital figures discreetly blocking one's view that Stanley Kubrick had to add to get an R rating. The sequence is eye-catching but adds nothing to the plot. The same can be said of the violent train shootout in Episode 7, which is little more than an alternate version of the bloody saloon robbery in the pilot. The earlier sequence is an apt introduction to the theme park's embrace of excess, while the later one is just more of the same. In the post-Game of Thrones era, it seems that showrunners feels the need to keep topping each other (and themselves), but maybe they should take a lesson from Lisa Joy's rueful comments about a particularly gruesome scene in the series finale, which Joy admits she can't bear to watch. As she then acknowledges, some things are better left on the page.

A remake of Westworld was already under discussion when I reviewed the original film's Blu-ray four and a half years ago. It was a long time in development, but Nolan/Joy have delivered something complex, multilayered and ideally suited to multiple viewings. Warner's Blu-rays provide an excellent rendition of the series' sound and visuals, which, like the titular theme park itself, combine a retro sensibility with the latest technology. Highly recommended.

[CSW] -4.4- This is a thinking person's show. It is purposefully slow to unwrap each layer but superbly filling that slow unwrap time with western action, violence and lore plus sprinklings of ultra-modern high tech Sci-Fi elements. The story line is deep and complex which is why I said it is a thinking person's show. Who is who and what is what never quite what it seems. The Sci-Fi element of how does artificial intelligence transition into self-awareness is a key element to the story but it is kept behind the scrim so that you can never be sure of all the details. That transition is not like human childhood but a lot more like human puberty.
[V5.0-A4.5] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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