Welcome to WESTWORLD Park

Article first published as WESTWORLD Review on Seat42F.

HBO’s latest big-budget, high-concept series, mentioned by many as intended to hang onto the Game of Thrones audience at the conclusion of that show, is WESTWORLD. Set in a future time, scientists have created an amusement park full of highly realistic robots that live out stories in an old American West setting, and guests can pay to visit and interact within it. The adventure is completely safe, as while the guests can “kill” the robots (which are back to work the next day), the visitors themselves cannot be harmed. But will something go wrong?

My first thought after watching this was that this is Jurassic Park in the Old West, sans the dinosaurs. That’s funny because, while I didn’t realize at it at the time, HBO’s WESTWORLD is based on the first film written and directed by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton. And yes, they are essentially the same story, a fantastic theme park that is supposed to be very safe, but turns out not to be. I won’t say all hell breaks loose in the pilot, but the seeds are planted and it’s certain that’s exactly where this is going. Which I feel comfortable spoiling because not only is that the plot of the well-reviewed 1973 film of the same name, but that is the entire premise of the show.

Of course, this raises all sorts of questions. Does Chaos Theory mean that everything must go wrong? Or is there someone behind the problems? Is it right to keep robots as essentially unaware slaves, or once they reach a certain level of sophistication, should they be considered individuals with their own rights and freedoms? What kind of societal changes might you bring about if you allow people to murder and steal in a theme park? Have humans reached the end of their evolution?

Because this is HBO, and because this is a long-form television show, I expect many of those questions and more will be dealt with as we go forward. While the pilot is mainly focused on more immediate action, there is enough of that stuff present that one expects it to be a part of the foundation. That, and the first installment is just great storytelling, which a compelling, intense introduction to the world. Plus there’s nudity. If it’s on HBO, there will be lots of nudity, and WESTWORLD seems to have more than most programs on the network.

The cast is also terrific. It includes Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal) as the creator of Westworld, Ed Harris (Gravity) as a guest that seems to be testing the park’s limits, Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) as the manager of the attraction, Jeffrey Wright (Boardwalk Empire) and Shannon Woodward (Raising Hope) as scientists, James Marsden (X-Men) as a classic hero-type, and Evan Rachel Wood (True Blood), Thandie Newton (Rogue), Rodrigo Santoro (Lost), and Angela Sarafyan (Paranoia), among others, as robots. This is not a complete listing, by any means, but gives you a taste of the talent present, and most of those above get really neat moments early on that prove they deserve to be here.

The production is terrific. The town feels real, and while it’s revealed very early on that it is a construct, extended scenes in the park can leave you immersed in that world-within-a-world almost completely. The design, both in and out of Westworld, is spectacular, which lots of cool detail and a fully-realized setting. It is also clear that the writing is smart, a metaphor with a player piano being used perhaps a bit too often, but certainly apt in the situation.

I think WESTWORLD is just terrific, and immediately want to keep watching. I don’t know if it will satisfy Game of Thrones fans, with its lack of deaths (I assume, since they can build new robots at any time) and sci-fi, rather than fantasy bend, but I can’t imagine it won’t have a passionate audience. Let’s hope it’s a sizeable one.

WESTWORLD premieres October 2^nd at 9/8c.

Skip a Trip to ZOO

Article originally written for Seat42F.

CBS adds another freaky show to its summer lineup with ZOO. Like the network’s Under the Dome, ZOO is based on a novel by a best-selling author that has been expanded into a series that can run for multiple seasons. Taking place on a global scale, this program finds a small group of people investigating animal attacks as they become more and more frequent around the world, other creatures deciding it’s time to take man out of the food chain.

Our hero is Jackson Oz (James Wolk, Mad Men, The Crazy Ones), a scientist who seeks to protect animals. One might think that gives him a pass when the four-legged kind turn, but it does not. Jackson has a best friend, Abraham (Nonzo Anozie, Game of Thrones, Dracula), who is from the area of Africa they are currently in, and soon Jackson meets up with Chloe (Nora Arnezeder, Mozart in the Jungle), the French damsel in distress.

Obviously, being in Africa, the big-animal-to-human-ratio is a bit skewed, so it seems a good continent to start in. Lions feature prominently, and the setting is well-used to create tension. A sequence in high grass is particularly intense. I do look forward to seeing non-felines enter the fray, though, as in both major settings, cats rule the first hour.

The other principal ZOO cast members are in the United States (where else?). Jamie Campbell (Kristen Connolly, House of Cards, The Whispers) is a journalist, hot on the trail of a crooked company that may or may not be connected to what’s happening. She comes across Mitch Morgan (Billy Burke, Revolution, Twilight), who studies diseases in animals, so seems a good source to use. Whether or not they will come into Jackson’s orbit remains to be seen, but it’s a pretty safe assumption that they will.

There’s obviously a level of creepiness to the premise. It is sort of science fiction, but it takes place in the modern world of today, not in some far-off future. While the events do not seem very plausible, there’s always the chance that it could happen, all of the elements making up the scariness already existing in the world, and by the end of the first hour, you’ll never look at house cats the same way again.

But it lacks any real urgency or high stakes. The ensemble, while made up of some very good actors, is lame, the characters not deep or interesting or memorable enough to really make an audience invest much emotion in the story. Instead, as in Under the Dome, talented people are wasted on a plot that just doesn’t seem to translate well on screen, at least in this case. An attempt to show Jamie putting everything on the line for her integrity or Jackson’s daddy problems do not serve to deepen as they should, coming across as trite and been-done-to-death.

Much of the pilot of ZOO feels like a novel brought to life a bit too faithfully. While not everything in the show is in the book, which only contains two of the five main players, the way events unfold, talked about more than shown, more plot-driven than character-driven, it’s hard to care when the added element of peeking inside the characters’ heads is taken away. This structure may work in the written world, but not as well in the TV version, which lacks inner dialogue.

Honestly, the closest thing I can compare ZOO to is The Lost World: Jurassic Park. The lackluster sequel to a terrific motion picture concentrates more on action than it should, and while the effects are decent, the plot holes and characters doing stupid things makes it less than realistic. ZOO suffers from the same sort of issues, and with a fresh Jurassic Park in theaters already getting good reviews, this may not be the time for an inferior product, even among those who crave this kind of adventure, to attract a following.

ZOO premieres Tuesday, June 30th at 9 p.m. ET.

The battle for The Pacific has begun

      In 2001, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg created a very popular ten part mini-series called Band of Brothers for HBO, which told the story of a group of American soldiers during World War II in Europe.  Now they've teamed up again to tackle the Pacific theater of conflict in The Pacific.  The story centers on three real life marines, and is based on books by two of them, as well as other true source material.  The marines are Sgt. John Basilone (Jon Seda, Close to Home), Pfc. Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale, 24), and Pfc. Eugene Sledge (Joseph Mazzello, Jurassic Park, The Lost World).
     In the first part of a ten week saga, it was hard to keep track of exactly who the main characters were.  Quite a few soldiers were featured, and as most of them were in one group that the bulk of the episode followed, they all sort of blended together for me.  In fact, a second group was introduced early in the story, and I looked for them repeatedly until they finally showed up again at the end.  However, even without being able to accurately track all of the people, it was still an intriguing show.
     The realism, tone, and pacing make this mini-series.  Right from the start, the men are getting ready to go off to war, and in fact, much of the first part is set in the battlefield.  The look is spectacular, and the emotions feel real.  Some soldiers were torturing a Japanese soldier they caught, shooting him over and over so that he kept suffering.  When one brave man stood up and shot him through the heart, it certainly made the point that the enemy would not be a one-note , stereotypical villain, but treated as people, too.
     I can't exactly say why I enjoyed The Pacific so much.  It was more the overall feeling it gave than a few characteristics that I can easily pinpoint.  Suffice it to say, it appears there is something really great here, definitely worth watching.
     The Pacific will air for nine more Sundays on HBO at 9pm.