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Westworld

Not everything is as it seems in HBO's artfully reinvented mix of sci-fi and action.

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In Westworld there is a narrative director whose job it is to create the storylines and characters for the artificial Westworld.

Think of Lee Sizemore (Simon Quarterman) as the puppeteer of this lifelike theme park where nothing is what it seems and where guests can let their wildest west dreams come true. Shoot-outs, injuns, damsels, horses, lawlessness and whisky -it’s all here for your entertainment. But despite his crucial role, he’s not one of the principal characters in HBO’s new drama.

Instead Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) is at the heart of our story. Intriguingly, she is one of Westworld’s many robots, acting out the pioneering life of a young ingenue on a lonesome ranch and interacting with the park’s guests.

Into Westworld rides gunslinger Teddy Flood (James Marsden) who takes a shining to Dolores, but has to face off in a shoot-out with a villainous murderer -what else would you expect in a storybook western?

In this fantasy land bullets rather neatly only wound the robots (robot horses are thankfully spared the blood, too) with park employees left to clean up the mess and reset everything for the next scenario.

Ominous Ed Harris plays the nameless Man in Black -literally- striding through town like a classic villain and upsetting its equilibrium like a bad-ass Yul Brynner clone. In this Westworld he is also endowed with a complex, longer arc…

Thandie Newton plays bordello madame Maeve Millay, beautiful and streetwise and ready to mix business with pleasure in accommodating her guests.

But there are also park staff pivotal to this series including Head of Programming Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) who detects aberrant behaviour amongst his lifelike robots, Operations Manager Theresa (Sidse Babett Knudsen) concerned that too many glitches would be bad for business and Head of Security Ashley (Luke Hemsworth) who confronts issues on the ground.

Sitting illustriously above them all is the park’s creative director Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins), a quietly-spoken, somewhat elusive leader who has created Westworld but appears to be divided over its sparkling success. To say that Hopkins brings gravitas to this role is an understatement. He breathes life into his pauses and introspection, deftly imbued into the brash moving parts by writers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy Nolan.

Visually Westworld is a striking clash of glorious Utah landscapes and dark science labs filled with glass and space. Like the curtain concealing the Great and Powerful Oz, machinations are revealed contrasting park staff manipulating gun-totin’ cowboys. Some outdoor scenes appear overly-lit, but perhaps it is part of the artificial nature of the setting.

Ed Harris slips into this genre with surprising ease, his wrinkly face and baritone voice perfectly pitching him as the opening episode’s villain. Evan Rachel Wood makes much of a role that presents as stereotypical before added textures.

There is violence against women that will raise eyebrows, dismissed as characteristic of its wild west days, and fashioned by storyliners following a script. Good luck with that.

Ingeniously, this mix of sci-fi and action has managed to re-work Westworld with surprises for those familiar Michael Crichton’s 1973 film and in ways that tick boxes for binge, cable viewers. This is much more than a Fantasy Island scenario with wayward robots, delving into questions of morality, sin, control and philosophy.

Throw in a shoot-out and that’s plenty to keep you entertained.

Westworld premieres 12pm Monday October 3rd on Showcase.

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