Westworld

HBO’s ambitious series about an unusual theme park is dark, dense and deeply intriguing.

- Tim Goodman

EARLIER THIS YEAR, production on HBO’s ambitious Westworld was shut down. It was an unwelcome development, the type of “troubled” stigma that no series wants clinging to it right out of the gate. But the first four episodes of the show, created by married couple Jonathan Nolan (brother of Christopher) and Lisa Joy, are accomplished and compelling — nothing like the disaster one might have feared.

The story (loosely based on the 1973 Michael Crichton film), set in the near future, imagines what humans would do if they spent $40,000 a day to be let loose in a theme park that simulates the Wild West and allows them to indulge in fantasies via “artificial consciousness.” The catch, or one of them, is that the “hosts” — the wide range of characters populating the park and interacting with the “guests” — are incredibly lifelike androids who are starting to glitch out.