‘Westworld’ 1.01 “The Original” Review: Violent Delights, Violent Ends

  • Ed Harris is Satan

Back in Westworld, Groundhog Day is in full effect as the daily cycle begins again, this time with slight differences. Teddy Flood (James Marsden) skips a couple of his preordained moments and is stopped from reuniting with Dolores as per usual. Instead, she has another (decidedly less violent) encounter with the Man in Black. His goals, beyond wanton sadism, remain clouded throughout the episode, but as an RPG enthusiast, I got the strongest vibes of character creation from this guy (in the beginning, an unnamed guest refers to 2 weeks spent being “straight evil” in Westworld as the best of his life, reminding me of every friend I’ve had who told me the same about playing Skyrim or Knights of the Old Republic). This is reinforced by his stated desire to reach the “deeper game” of Westworld and essentially level-up.

Meanwhile, one of the storylines available to guests (one of whom is played by character actor Currie Graham) – to hunt the outlaw Hector Escaton (Rodrigo Santoro) – runs into trouble when the town sheriff leading the mission has what amounts to a robot stroke.

The malfunction goes to new heights when Dolores’ father stumbles across a modern photograph left accidentally by a visitor. She brushes it off but it starts a trend of the hosts actively questioning their reality and the five stages of grief that come with the burgeoning, awful truth. One problem the series faces is making this purposefully-repetitive slow-burn dramatically exciting. We’ll see if it meets the challenge.

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Sam Flynn

Sam is a writer and journalist whose passion for pop culture burns with the fire of a thousand suns and at least three LED lamps.

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