I was a kid when I saw the original 1973 movie Westworld, directed by Michael Crichton and based on his novel.  I watched the movie when it finally debuted on network television, a big deal since the television commercials had left such an impression. I still remember them: a woman greeting the viewer to Westworld becoming caught in an audio glitch, repeating “where nothing can go wrong…go wrong…go wrong.”  Yup, I integrated that phrase into everything at school.

With a similar sense of anticipation, I watched the HBO debut of Westworld last night. This show had the added draw because I’m a fan of Sir Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris who both star in the series. After watching the first episode, I’m hooked and ready to see where the show will go.

On a strictly personal note, while I saw the original Westworldas a kid, that was so long ago I no longer am locked into comparing a new incarnation to the old, something that can prove to be a death knell for movies or shows based off of beloved classics. The original is a great memory, but I’m ready for a new take on the story.

The story of Westworld, both old and news, revolves around an Old West-themed fantasy park inhabited by lifelike robots. Visitors pay to live out their fantasies, even their most violent ones, with Westworld being only one of a variety of themes available. In the original movie, the robots malfunction, turning on the guests.

The challenge faced by the multi-part HBO series then is how to keep the story going throughout an entire season or beyond, since the main interest is watching the robots malfunctioning, not following their scripted protocols, regardless of how exciting the story line is that their programmers have crafted for them. Obviously you can’t have the androids (referred to as hosts in the series) going into full hunter mode in the first episode or the series comes to a close quickly. 

To navigate this, the Westworld series debut hints that more is happening than immediately seen. A sadistic cowboy expertly played by Ed Harris (who has got souless down cold) is seeking more than just vacation entertainment, although his motives are uncertain. The hosts begin to exhibit subtle but significant aberrations, implying a burgeoning self-awareness. You even get hints that the entire corporation running the theme park may have a darker intent other than entertainment, potentially being a cold, Resident Evil Umbrella-like machine. But maybe not.

Even more significant, the robotic inhabitants in the series are not simply threats to the humans, they are true characters. Evan Rachel Ward plays Dolores Abernathy, an android host assigned the role of a rancher’s daughter frequently scripted to play a brutalized victim. By design, the hosts should not be able to remember their past, so Dolores has existed in a world where she doesn’t know she has been doomed to repeat variations of tragedies over and over.

The show opens with a programmer asking Dolores if she has ever questioned her reality, letting us know that is the feared question, from the corporation's point of view. By the end of the first episode, I understood something was changing in Dolores, who was a sympathetic character, not a plot device. As a viewer, I wondered, and cared, if she may finally be asking herself that dreaded question.

On a completely random note, the use of an orchestral version of The Rolling Stone’s Song “Paint It Black” added a level of fun, but an even more interesting choice was a player piano in the Old West saloon playing Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun”. 

While the Stone’s song was for me and you the viewer, “Black Hole Sun” was for the park’s paying customers, yet I felt its choice made sense. A potential theme introduced in the show is the question of how real the experience should be  for guests. For example, should visitors believe they are killing a person or should there be some type of lifeline to help them remember it’s only a fantasy? Perhaps the song was one of those lifelines -- I could picture myself designing the fantasy scenario adding it in for fun and to serve as a subconscious reminder that none of it is actually real.

Adding rock songs, especially if they are from a different time period, can be tricky, and trying to be clever can backfire, although it did not in this case. Hearing "Black Hole Sun" reminded me of Elsa Mar’s singing David Bowie’s "Life on Mars" in American Horror Story’s "Freak Show," which worked for me, and of hearing David Bowie’s “Putting Out Fire” in Quentin Tarrantino’s Inglourious Basterds, which didn’t. I wonder if there were other songs featuring the word "black" in the debut of Westworld that I missed?

While I don’t want Westworld to develop into a soap-like plot or amble off into a convoluted mess of story fragments like Lost (I liked Lost, but you have to admit that show was all over the place by the end), I am counting on it tackling the big issues of reality, perception, morality, and choice. If Westworld can continue to do that like it did in the first episode and remain exciting and tense, this is going to be a good, good ride, where nothing can go wrong … go wrong … go wrong.

- By Mangus