'Westworld' Is Back And Fans Are Rejoicing
Spoiler alert: you’ve been warned. The following contains small details about Westworld’s previous seasons.
Derived from a remake of the 1973 Michael Chrichton film about robots in a western old-town world, Westworld‘s season 3 premiere, with all of its sleek and edgy glory, is leaving viewers practically begging for more. Only this season, the iconic Aaron Paul has joined in on the chaos. Or, if you’re anything like me, the man who will forever be known as Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman.
To get y’all caught up, Westworld tells the tale of life-like A.I. robots navigating a land created for them. But they don’t know the difference between their world (which is actually a twisted amusement park built solely for the profit and entertainment of humans) and the outside human world that’s been hidden from them.
Each and every day, people from all over the globe would visit Westworld to feel as if they were transported back into time and placed in the era of Wild West. Some would come with their children to visit the “family-friendly” part of the park, whereas others viewed Westworld as a real-life video game, one where they couldn’t be killed, but they could savagely murder as many A.I. robots they wanted without repercussions.
In a place where only the wealthiest can go to feel like they are back in the western-times, these robots, who feel the authentic emotions and pain of a real person, were subject to years of sometimes daily abuse, torture, rape, and murder in previous seasons, only to be fixed and spun back up again the following day with no recollection of these happenings.
But what happens when you can’t erase their memories anymore? What happens when they start to remember everything being done to not only them, but those they love?
When you build a robot as intrinsic and humanistic as those in the Westworld park, it shouldn’t come a surprise when they eventually outsmart their makers and, ultimately, retaliate against them and those who did them harm.
While we are a long way from creating A.I. robots as realistic as these, Westworld does an outstanding job of making you think about what makes one being superior over another. Though the hosts were created in a lab and were once living their every moment with the instruction of algorithms and social cues already written up for them, now they have the ability to think and feel for themselves without a human’s interruption.
And while I’m not drawing comparisons between humans and hypothetical robots in our future world, I think it’s fair to say that we already see people treating other people and living beings as if they are “less than” solely because of who they are and where they came from, much like in Westworld’s park. And let’s just say, Westworld viewers are here for the domination of these folks.
What I keep drawing from while watching Westworld is that there is enough space in this world for all of us to be exactly who we are without ill-treatment or persecution, only they portray it in an entertaining/sci-fi kind of way that’s sure to keep you on the edge of your seat.
It’s unclear what role Aaron Paul’s character will play in the return of this western-turned-modern drama, but knowing Westworld, it’s sure to keep us guessing until that big “aha” moment is revealed.
