Westworld on HBO

I was born in 1979.  I am a kid of the 80's.  I love almost everything from the 1980's as a 37 year old adult male today.  Except maybe the fashion side of things or the haircuts.  Being a child in the 80's I tend to watch a lot of films from the 1970's.  I love classics like Planet of the Apes, Omega Man and Soylent Green among others. One particular film I fell in love with was Westworld.  It was a film written and directed by Michael Chricton.  It starred Richard Benjamin and James Brolin as a couple of tourists visiting a fictional land/themepark where anything goes, Westworld.  Live in the old west.  Have a shoot out. Live out whatever fantasy you want in a park where your counterparts look real but are actually human.  Best of all is that can't hurt you, that is, until a bug in the system causes the robots to go on a rampage murdering the guests.  Then it becomes an adventure to escape from being hunted by the crazy robots.

Now here we are in 2016 and we have a "re-imagining" of the classic tale updated for our viewing pleasures.  Only one episode had aired so far.  With that being said I don't think i've been so excited about a new tv series as I am Westworld.  For me, i've been following the progress of this show for more than a year.  I've read all the rumors and looked at all the behind the scenes pictures and watched all of the many previews HBO has released in the past few months.  Bottom line is this: if you liked the original film you will love this new series!

I'm not going to get into the story of this show very much because honestly i've only seen one episode.  It is a lot like the movie as far as a theme park and visitors fulfilling whatever fantasy they want.  There is a gunslinger type character played by Ed Harris that was famously played by Yul Brenner in the 1973 film.  Without giving away too much of the story we see James Marsden, Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton and the great Anthony Hopkins.  Still very early but they all seem to fit their written roles perfectly so far.  I am guessing in this new series your going to feel more for the robots that are constantly being abused and reset over and over again every night to just go back out and be abused again.  Man is indeed the villain rather than the robots.  That's just my guess.  Who knows?  I do know that I was thoroughly happy after watching the first episode and tend to keep watching the next 9.  If you like science fiction you will love this.  If you like westerns you will also enjoy this.