This new incarnation of Westworld is basically a real-world version of an open world RPG computer game - Jonathan Nolan actually talked about it in some interviews. The robots - called hosts - are highly evolved versions of the various NPCs, reacting to the "players'" actions - giving quests, acting as love interests or villains, and so on. They look like humans, but inside they're still just more complex versions of finite state machines - a bunch of parameters, some level of memory, and lots of pre-programmed behaviors. They only have an illusion of intelligence, but their internal processes are abstracted, they're not self-aware, they have no emotions, so in the end they're just automated agents.
Based on the above, it looked like the story would focus on the implications of this: where is the line between real intelligence and the illusion of it, can such a machine become complex enough that it is indistinguishable from a real human and does it matter how it works internally at that point. Can a robotic sex toy become realistic enough to replace a real human partner, even though it's still just programmed and has no actual emotions... and so on.
Then in episode 5 or 6, it suddenly turned out that the hosts are actually intelligent and self aware, they can experience emotions and even have some sort of morals. It's just that there are elements in their programming that still allow humans to take control of their actions, or calibrate internal parameters to change their personality. So the story is now about sentient robot slaves and their impending fight for their freedom.
Now it is known that there were some problems through the production where filming was even stopped for a while. I can't help but think that the reason behind this was HBO execs realizing that the themes of the show - basically what is intelligence and sentience - were way above the head of their target audience, and so they forced the writers to basically skip about a season's worth of story and jump ahead to the "interesting" part. But of course do it all with the characters and storylines of the first few episodes, to keep costs and schedules in check.
So the result feels disjointed and inconsequential - and the entire show suffers for it. Now we have hosts that rebel, hosts that are in love, and it all just came out of nowhere. This is really sad for at least two reasons: first, it feels like Nolan and the writers had some great ideas that are now flushed down the drain; and second, if even HBO is unable to produce intelligent and compelling sci-fi then no-one else is there to do it.
I'll still watch the remaining 3 episodes, but I'm not sure if I'll want to stay for the second season, as it looks like it'll be about the rebelling robot stuff that we've already seen so many times before...
;;;
