The Two "Westworlds" - TV show vs. Amusement Park

In AJ’s recent post, he calls attention to the show’s message and its ability to give audiences “our first real sense of how this show acts in relation to our sense of reality.” By discussing class and social status, AJ makes a point about the view of people of status “being distanced from reality enough to find pleasure in the things that we find repulsive.” I think his blog post is an interesting one, and is one that describes the potential audience relationship with Westworld (the TV show). I would like to use his post as a jumping point to discuss how the characters within Westworld (the amusement park) seem to be forming their own conclusions about their own personal reality at the same time as the audience does itself.

Episode 4 is appropriately titled “Dissonance Theory”, which suggests that it can be related to cognitive dissonance theory, a theory is used to describe a person’s level of discomfort associated with acting against his or her values, beliefs, and opinions. The characters within Westworld, specifically the hosts, are beginning to show signs of this discomfort, and that says a lot about what they are learning about their reality. There are two specific instances that can be describes in the context of this episode.

The first occurs when Dolores says “I used to think there was a path for everyone. Now I think I never asked where the path was taking me.” She says this in her conversation with William, and she also states that she can sense something calling her. Dolores is acting as she is programmed to act, yet she is also experiencing some sense of inner conflict about herself that she can’t quite seem to understand. She wants to be free, she says this to Ford, yet she also feels as though she is destined to some path that has been set for her. The fact that she is just now questioning this shows that exact sense of dissonance. In addition to this, a similar experience also occurs when Logan and William are arguing in the park; Logan has just killed a host and claims that it does not matter, since the man he killed is just a robot; as is Dolores, he states, and as are other hosts around them. Dolores is visibly upset by this, and she questions William about the truth and meaning behind Logan’s claims. This is an even that will obviously affect Dolores and the ways in which she thinks about her existence and her troubling view of reality.

These two events occur to show how the characters within Westworld are beginning to question their realities; Maeve also has an important plotline in this episode as her visions and memories of being shot and repair become more and more aware to her. Their realizations about their reality can be viewed in tandem with the audiences’ realizations about their own reality and society – which AJ discusses in his post. It is interesting to look at these two things as they are occurring simultaneously as the series progresses. 

Greetings everyone.  I have noticed that many of you have in some way voiced your disdain of how the show is structured around the “rape and pillage” mentality of the patrons of the park.  What I believe may be a hidden theme within the show’s narrative is that these are not supposed to be naturalistic depictions of the “average” person, but rather an exaggeration of higher society.

Our most recent episode in our voyage, “The Stray,” gives us our first real sense of how this show acts in relation to our sense of reality.  One of the guests and his soon-to-be brother-in-law are sitting around a campfire when he spouts the line “40k a day to jerk off alone in the woods playing white hat.”  Now we as the audience can assume that this is close to the second or third day the duo has remained in the park, so we’re nearing the one hundred thousand dollar mark of their excursion.  We can also deduce that this is large quantity of money in this world considering everyone blathers on about how “rich” the guests are.  The soon-to-be brother-in-law, let’s call him “Good One,” is clearly disinterested in the event and is not entirely sold on taking advantage of every opportunity at first.  We are clearly dealing with people who come from a sizable amount of money, upper class to the one percent, as our West World patrons.  The show as whole is essentially feeding into our preconceived notions about people of status being distanced from reality enough to find pleasure in things that we find repulsive.  We’ve been focusing our attention on what this show says of us as a people instead of how we view individual facets of society, especially people with more power than us.  We as a society find it fascinating how the rich live in such a bubble and West World is literally a sphere in which they can follow whatever synthetic desire they like without impunity.

However in equal measure we can see how this episode is trying to showcase how this seclusion from reality is dangerous to both the patrons and the guests.  The man in black is very much a force of nature in West World.  He’s an anomaly; an unstoppable force that isn’t abiding by the rules of the illusion.  With what we know about the man in black so far, we can safely assume that he has found a new meaning in West World in such a way that he has completely bought into the reality of the park.  We never see him interact with other guests and he goes out of his way to treat the park as an ultimate game, hidden levels and all.  Ultimately he is looking for something sustainable for him that is beyond the simple storylines, but his pursuit of “the maze” caused flashbacks in Delores and Mauve, with a surprising lack of other patrons present in these episodes.  With this simple rejection of the core concept of West World, we see that it opens the door for a wide variety of different reactions and interactions between characters.

Issues, Issues, Issues

As the title suggests, I have issues with this show. Firstly I have come to despise most of the humans in WestWorld solely based on their sadistic natures. Secondly I have despised the roles of the human hosts in WestWorld. These two points interconnect with one main character; Dolores. Thirdly, the newfound self awareness of some hosts has come to fascinate me.

My first point was about the humans, mostly the males. The men on this show are mostly seen to be the ones who let out their fantasies and inner anger out on the hosts and demonstrate their sadistic nature. Such as in the last episode when a male human shot and 'killed' a hosts seemingly for fun because that's what a good vacation calls for. Or rather when Dolores' configuration is revealed, which brings me to my next point.

Dolores is apparently programmed to be Teddy's 'girl' and is to be a prize for the taking. In fact she is the thing that Teddy's rivals win if he gets killed protecting her. Yet she cannot fight back in any way which is why this type of sadism really bothers me. In fact when she tries to shoot the gun Teddy gives her, she cannot pull the trigger due to her programming. Which brings me to my next point.

Self awareness seems to be evolving. Dolores was asked if she would ever harm a living thing, and she replies no, yet she kills a fly in the first episode. In the third, while not being able to shoot the gun, she does defy her programming in the sense that she asks Teddy why they can't run away that day instead of some day. This pick up of language suggests that her language capabilities in detecting certain words will trigger her to try and escape her intended configuration; or be taken by Teddy's rivals.

Anthony Hopkins' character also refers to the Turing test, or the test that is intended to see if an android is able to 'trick' a human into thinking that the android either has consciousness or has human capabilities. Arnold and Bernard are compared in the sense that they treat the androids as if they were human. This becomes apparent when Bernard keeps Dolores in her clothing while having secret conversations with her, which is a big no no. Arnold's pyramid is essentially a guideline to create artificial consciousness, which is dangerous to the park. It is important to mention though that Ford has intentionally programmed the hosts to reset their narrative as a means to make the hosts 'forget' the atrocities the humans have committed against them, something he did either as an act of pity, or as a means to ensure the consciousness is never achieved even by accident. Something that is not working all too well for Dolores and the madam of the brothel, who remember events in their so-called dreams and are getting ideas, like Dolores, the bandit who talks to Arnold, and apparently the stray.

Frankenstein and Westworld

Television shows are often influenced by outside sources. I believe that one of the sources that Westworld is influenced by is Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. This is because Westworld and Frankenstein share some common elements.

There are many examples of common elements between Westworld and Frankenstein. One example is that Frankenstein’s monster learns about the world around him by reading books. In episode 3 of Westworld Dolores, who was created just like Frankenstein, also learns by reading books.

Another similarity is the creators’ inability to control their creations. Frankenstein was unable to control his monster. In Westworld, the creators are unable to fully control the hosts. Dolores and Mauve are having memories, some hosts are going off script, and some hosts are having thoughts that they were not programmed to have.

A third similarity is that the creations seek revenge. Frankenstein’s monster mainly sought revenge on Frankenstein who did him a major injustice. In episode 3 of Westworld Walter kills the hosts who have previously killed him. Also, in episode 3 Dolores kills a man who killed her father and boyfriend, as well as tried to rape her.

There are two other noticeable similarities. Both Frankenstein’s monster and the hosts were made in laboratories. Also, in episode 3 we learn that one of the original creators of the hosts was a man named Arnold. Arnold wanted to create consciousness in the hosts which was the goal of Frankenstein with his monster.

It is important to notice outside influences such as these because they help give us a greater insight into what we are watching. This, in turn, helps us to better understand the show. Next time you watch a show see if you can determine what outside sources influenced it. 

Westworld's Assumptions about People and Violence

Okay, so I think one of the main things that bothers me about Westworld isn’t necessarily the gratuitous amount of violence, nudity, and sex, or the lack of interesting characters and storylines (I’ll put “in my opinion” here so no one yells at me); but that it's just one of the many pieces of contemporary media that assumes most people, if given the chance, would want to be violent and to hurt others. Not only is this concept frankly unoriginal (and boring, overdone, Euro-centric, masculine), but it’s an idea that’s, at least, more suspect than people give it credit for.

What makes so many writers, philosophers, and people on my Facebook feed think that humans are naturally predisposed to violence? That we really want to hurt other people, and are looking for any excuse to do so? If Westworld really did exist, would it get much business? Would people really pay to kill and (sexually) assault others? Would they not fear those acts having any affect on their mental health?

Why do the creators of Westworld and of Westworld make the theme park violent? Both being businesses and money-driven entities should provide an obvious answer (and one of the most common excuses given for violent media): “they’re giving the people what they want”! Here, and in medias like Westworld, presents a conflict between Miller’s concepts of Television Studies 1.0 and 2.0: are these forms of entertainment giving us violence because we want it, or are they making us want it by giving it to us?

Westworld allows us to ask why media depicts violence as enjoyable so often, and why media assumes that its audience agrees that humans are naturally bad, naturally violent. It also allows us to investigate social issues: why are so many of the parks attendees white men? Are they more likely to be interested in committing violence? Why is that? This then allows us to ask about the creators and the audience: who made it, and who watches it? Why are they interested in violence? Why do they assume people are interested in committing it? By presenting these questions, Westworld allows us to investigate the many aspects of our relationship to violence, and to what extent our media perpetuates or creates it.

Welcome to Westworld

This is a place where the patrons pay to "rape and pillage". Where humans become the monsters that we like to pretend we're not. At first glance this tv show seems nothing more than some sick piece of trash that simply shows a time in American history where women were taken advantage of and men did nothing more than kill each other. But plot twist we are actually in a fucked up future that were only see glimpses of in the labratories that run Westworld.

Now it was hard to believe that this show had any real merit in the first episode where senseless violence runs amuck. But thankfully in Episode 2 Chestnut, the viewet begins to see some actual hints at plot after Dolores kills a living creature and where we see Maeve becoming more than a woman who sells off her girls.

Before Maeve's dream, or as the techs say nightmares, I had little idea of what this show was offering. Then I realized that while the creators showed viewers a world where women are little more than punching bags, damsels in distress or the next thing to be fucked, they were actually revealing something interesting.

That the women AI's of Westworld are the ones who defy their programming. Dolorus kills a living creature and Maeve remembers the Indian attack which we see through a dream. The female technician makes the remark that "Imagine how fucked we be if these assholes ever remembered what the guests do to them?" Another chunk of wisdom from a woman. Because my thoughts, exspecially in the first episode was that if the AI's know what is actually happpening they'll slaughter everyone of you assholes. I can only hope that Maeve will get another chance in Westworld and I can't wait to see what Dolores has up her sleeve.

Oh and to the twat writer who designed Oddessey on Red River, from one writer to a fake one, listen to your boss. Because he's right, the audience already knows who they are and they're here for a glimspe of who they could be. Which I think is the reasoning behind all storytelling and how the American viewer has changed their demands for entertainment. Cheep parlor tricks only work for so long, time to give the audience what they really want.

Westworld as a Commentary on Modern Day Society

One of the most intriguing things about HBO's Westworld is its ability to communicate with modern day audiences in the form of a societal commentary and its ability to elicit a strong emotional audience response.

After reading John Hartley's "Television as a Transmodern Teaching", it is easier to identify the ways in which television shows attempt to teach their audiences subtle lesson about reality, life, and society/ societal norms. It is not uncommon to find that a true captivating show is able to make some sort of implicit statement about the modern day lives of the audience members watching it. Westworld is one of these shows.

Perhaps one of the most unique qualities of Westworld is that the audience never sees life outside of the amusement park; the players are only seen arriving at Westworld and they rarely make many significant references to their outside, everyday lives. Despite the audience's inability to get this kind of background exposure into the lives of the players, the audience is still able to make a connection to the players and their desire to divulge into the alternate-reality of Westworld. How is this possible? How can the audience relate to the players and their way of life if they never really get to see what exactly that means?

That is where television as a teaching, and as a means of providing societal commentary comes into play. Westworld is able to make many subtle connections between the society in which the players reside, and the modern-day society in which audience members reside. Westworld's Episode 2 "Chestnut" is just one of the many episodes that is able to make these subtle connections, and it comes through with the use of dialogue.

" You know why this beats the real world, Lawrence? The world is chaos. It's an accident. But in here, every detail adds up to something. Even you, Lawrence."

Here the man in black is speaking, and although it is only the second episode of the series the audience can already use their own personal views of society and relate it to the hypothetical society of the players. If audience members view modern day society as one filled with chaos and disorder, then they can assume the man in black comes from a very similar background. Even though Westworld gives off some sense of a futuristic feel, since the amusement park would never exist in today's realm of technology and our world today is not capable of accomplishing what Westworld is capable of in the television show, it still gives off the idea that the idea that the audiences of modern day society and the players of the fictional Westworld are not so different at all. I can assume that the Westworld will only continue to expand upon this societal commentary in episodes to come. And if we as an audience are able to view the television as Hartley does (as a teacher) we will have to piece together exactly what this commentary is trying to imply about modern day society.

Moving outside the text

Hello All. I enjoyed these first blog posts about Westworld and think they thoughtfully called attention to a variety of things going on in Westworld. I think it would be interesting to think about how those very same points might help move us outside the text as well. What does Westworld, both the "amusement" park and the HBO television show, tell us about the media? about television? about what might be going on outside Westworld--both outside the theme park and outside the context of HBO where we are watching it. I think one of our challenges over the course of the semester as we watch and comment on Westworld is going to be moving beyond commenting on what's happening on the screen and thinking more deeply about what this might have to say (or maybe not say) about television. As you continue to watch and think about and comment on Westworld, think about how we might use some of the resources from our class readings and discussions to dissect the show. How might we bring in the televisual sublime? TV Studies 1.0 or 2.0? The role of visual style?

I find Uricchio's comments on television's intermedia character interesting in this regard. Uricchio suggests that television ought to be positioned along side the telegraph, telephone, and telescope as emphasizing liveness and simultaneity. I wonder to what extent we might think of Westworld as the logical extension of the historical development of media--ever more immersive, ever more live, ever more simultaneous. Entering Westworld might be something like entering Pleasantville.

In this regard, is Westworld serving to comment on the nature of television? In entering Westworld, are we entering the wild west, or at least our televisual mythic wild west? After all, hasn't television played an inordinately large role in shaping our myth of the wild frontier? And isn't Westworld (both the theme park as well as the TV show) just the epitome of that myth? The gamification and glorification of Gunsmoke and Bonanza--some of the longest running TV shows in the history of TV. Here too there might be an interesting connection to Uricchio's emphasis on temporality as a dimension of analyzing television. Westworld both nods backwards in the direction of TV's past (Bonanza) and forward to its eventual immersive live experience (Bonanza with Little Joe making out with robots).

I think we might also deepen our reflections on Westworld by pursuing suggestive connections in our post. For instance, how might we draw on AJ's recognition that the player piano is playing the Stones' "Paint it Black" as commentary on the misogyny that Leo notes? The nice thing about a blog is that it allows an asynchronous conversation to take place. So think about how your own posts might link up to and extend conversations that are happening in other posts.

Westworld Episode 1 blog: Sinful Delights

This first episode consists mainly of worldbuilding, setting up the atmosphere, environment, characters, etc. before launching us into the conflicts that come from such an attraction as Westworld. The first critical thing we learn about the Hosts (the advanced AI androids that inhabit the park) is that the builders of the park find it necessary to question them about their awareness of the world and their place in it. Security officers talk about the potential danger of hosts, which is most likely why administrative personnel try to track any changes in the hosts’ self awareness; when something becomes self-aware, self preservation becomes of the highest priority. So it makes sense to be afraid of the hosts being self-aware when they are put through hell by their creators (we are given insight into this conundrum by the conclusion of this pilot).

This is quite contrary to the way the hosts do behave, which is as utterly submissive creatures that almost seem to accept that they are subservient (it would seem more like that if they appeared to have any clue of what is going on). An administrative employee (Bernard) mentions that this submission and general pacificity  is part of their core programming. One early scene shows a guest (commonly called “newcomers”) slaughtering the father and love interest of the host we will follow closely, during which the guest was shot but totally unaffected. So not only are the hosts programmed to be more passive towards newcomers, but they are also unable to hurt them with the conventional weaponry they have.

Further, the AIs in question (Delores, whose father and love interest [Teddy] were slaughtered) all wake up repaired and don’t remember any of what happened the day before. In fact, we are meant to know from this first episode that the park is “reset” every day, after which most of the hosts rewind to the same point in their storylines at the start of the day. It seems that this world is on a set path, recycled every day, unless acted upon by a guest. Delores and Teddy don’t even interact on our second cycle in the park, as they are both beset by guests seeking entertainment. The hosts must say yes to any request of any guest, regardless of the intensity of their storylines.

"Westworld" and the Misogynist Male Gaze (or "Leo Complains but in a Vaguely Academic Way")

I tried very hard to remain unbiased while watching this show and to “give it a chance”. From the description, it sounded like it could likely be one of those shows that are predominantly for straight white men, rampant with racism and sexism and with no queer characters. Unfortunately, my notion so far seems correct. Among the many concerns I have is the very sexist nature of the show (and the fact that I had to see an unnecessary amount of naked people in a very short time, but that’s a blog post for another day).

To focus my critique on the misogyny in this first episode of Westworld, I’ll only be discussing the apparent purposes of the show’s female characters, which appear only so far to be beaten up by the male characters and ogled at by the male audience.

Firstly, disregarding the two warehouse scenes in which there are more than a dozen nude androids on screen at once, the nude female androids outnumber the nude males by more than 4 to 1. There are only two nude men shown in this episode, whereas there are at least 8 nude females. All of these female androids are young, thin, conventionally attractive, and white or white-passing. Meanwhile, the two men are older, larger, and not what an audience would consider conventionally attractive. And this is true in general—all of the female androids are thin and “pretty”, whereas the male androids are more diverse in regards to their appearance (size and age). Why did the casting directors and writers decide to have only pretty female androids, and to predominantly feature so many of them naked? There was no plot related reason for them to be nude, besides for that’s their usual state when being examined by the Westworld staff. In fact, the two nude men were being examined as part of the plot, where as the multitudes of naked women were usually just in the background—they easily could have been replaced with some cute male androids! Since there’s no plot-related reason for this, it seems clear to me that this is a form of “drawing in” the audience that the show is for—straight white men.

The second point I’d like to briefly mention is the terrible amount of violence that the women face in the show. Besides for getting smacked around constantly, there were three implied sexual assaults or threats of sexual assault towards women in this 1-hour-long story. One is ridiculous enough. But three is honestly disgusting. There was no plot-related reason for these rapes. If one were desperate enough to protect the writers, I guess they could try to argue it was to show that the bad guys were bad. But honestly, you can definitely do that without pointing out that they’re rapists. And you especially can’t do that if you’re glorifying the bad guys—this is the wild west, where bad cowboys are sexy and cool. The show wasn’t trying to get the audience to hate the bad guys. So, there really was just three instances of implied sexual assault represented in a morally neutral way in a show that already treats women like sex objects.

Tune in next time to hear me complain about how that lesbian kiss will probably not turn into any form of respectful queer representation!

Gone are the days of “Leave It To Beaver” and “I Dream of Jeannie”. Today's television shows are becoming more and more explicit. "Westworld" is one of the shows that pushes the definition of decency in television. Episode 1 of “Westworld” comes out with guns blazing when it comes to explicit language and situations. Within six minutes of the episode a sheriff uses the words "murderous son of a bitch" and every few minutes after that there is more explicit language and situations. Explicit language and situations that are alluded to, talked about, or shown within this episode include but are not limited to: use of profanities, rape, prostitution, murder, nudity, physical violence toward women, necrophilia, disrespecting a corpse, sex, and scalping.Two reasons why this language and these situations are included in “Westworld” may be for shock or possibly because our society has grown insensitive to it. If it's intended purpose is to shock the audience that may be because our society does not find this acceptable in real life but instead may enjoy the unpredictability of these types of situations and language as an escape from their regular lives. On the other hand, if these are included because our society has grown insensitive to previously taboo topics, this could lead to big problems. For example, if our society has grown insensitive towards indecency, they may feel that they cannot change these things in real life because that is just the way things are, whereas, if they were sensitive to these issues, they may decide to work toward changing things. Also, if society is too insensitive towards these indecencies, people may feel that it is okay to do these things themselves. Either way, this kind of mentality hinders the betterment of society and could eventually halt improvement altogether.

While watching “The Original,” I noticed that there were particular elements about the audio choices used in the episode.  The one that captured my interest the most was the use of a rendition of “Paint It Black” by The Rolling Stones as Hector Escaton’s entrance music.  To us the viewer, the song in this specific instance has a unique subversion of common tropes in a Western-style program and captures the overall tone of the show.  The Rolling Stones’ rock anthem draws upon an image of rebellion that was primarily associated to late 20^th century teens and rock stars.  This parallels Escaton’s intro due to gunslinger’s being some of the closest in association with the concept of rebellion in American popular culture.  But song takes this concept a step further with how the piece is created.

Ramin Djawadi’s “Paint It Black” differs from The Rolling Stones’ version in that attempts to use no vocals at all and instead be an instrumental piece.  The instrumentation of said piece gives the song a uniquely dated feel that makes it fit in with the scene and the era being presented.  However, this song could have been a completely original piece and it would not have drawn attention to the instrumentation in this way.  The reasoning behind this usage could be argued to help emulate the show’s overall theme: current innovation masquerading as old.  Escaton and many of the beings he interacts with are the latest in robotics used to create a simulation of the Wild West.  Every tuff of rugged beard on his face was meticulous placed there to hide something more akin to the Terminator than John Wayne.  “Paint It Black” is also used in this way.  All the instrumentation is present cover up the fact that the song is nothing more than a cover.