Westworld: The Assassin’s Creed of Television
Westworld and the present dilemma
The Premise of Assassin’s Creed
Assassin’s Creed the video game I think had a pretty spectacular premise. The original game took the player back to the Third Century, containing a standard evil versus good storyline. What was interesting was the way in which the game transported the player into the Third Century. The idea was that the protagonist, Desmond Miles, was living in some near futuristic society that had the technological ability to transport people to relive the lives of their descendants. Desmond’s descendants just so happened to be very interesting individuals living in interesting times, ranging from the Third Century to the American Revolution in subsequent games. Using the Animus, a machine that allowed him to experience his ancestral memories, he was able to go back to historical periods, kill the bad guys in order to save the future (or something like that) and was not able to die.
Unbalance in Worlds
What is interesting about Westworld so far, is that it feels unbalanced in the same way that Assassin’s Creed felt unbalanced. What I mean is the difference in atmospheric feelings you receive from each of the ‘worlds’. The show Westworld seems to create the Wild West atmosphere to perfection. The show immerses the viewer in the Wild West just as much as Westworld Theme Park immerses the wealthy characters into the fake world. You are drawn to the epic aerial shots, the deep character development, and the mystery that takes place in this virtual world. Assassin’s Creed did that same thing to its players; that is it immersed you so well into these different periods of time, whether the Renaissance or the French Revolution. If you listen to the developers talk about their process for Assassin’s Creed development, you will hear them talk about the research they put into recreating these old worlds. How they make them feel real, authentic, and believable.
The Present
Where Assassin’s Creed lost me, was when it brought Desmond back to the present. When Desmond left the Animus and came back to the present, it was uninteresting compared to the deep and thoughtful creation of the past worlds. I felt, like many others, that the present was simply plot development that needed to be taken care of before the fun started again in the deeply interesting past.
Westworld gives me this same feeling. It feels as though the present is starkly juxtaposed to the Wild West past. When we come out of the engaging Wild West, the future just seems to fall flat. This isn’t totally the fault of the writing while in the present. It is mostly the result of having such a deep and thoughtful Wild West atmosphere and when compared to the futuristic present, it leaves something to be desired. You want to go back to the Wild West, just as you wanted to go back in the Animus. The difference in world building is too stark. The Wild West is beautiful, while the futuristic present seems to do nothing more than fulfill the familiar evil technology trope. Just as the developers of Assassin’s Creed didn’t put time into the present world, the Westworld present is lacking in the same way.
Can they fix it?
To begin to fix the present, Westworld needs to build a convincing future that we haven’t seen before. So far, they have stuck to the evil technology trope, in that the present is filled will technology that will bring out the worst in humanity. It shows humanity in the era of God complex. This is something we have seen over and over again. I believe that in order to equalize the two worlds Westworld needs to add depth to its present. The first thing is to move away from the shallow technical talk that seems to plague the Pilot episode, with constant talks about software updates and rollbacks and begin to move away from technological semantics. Instead of wasting time on somewhat absurd technical talk, Westworld needs to talk about the why. This is something Assassin’s Creed missed and that Westworld is now missing; the why of the future.
The Why
So far the characters and conflicts present themselves primarily in the Wild West. Westworld’s present needs to forget about the tribulations of software updates and semantics, and give us the same intrigue that we find in the West. Deepen the world surrounding the amusement park corporation. Put some perspective on the role this company plays in a technological present. Show us where humanity stands in this present world. Tell us the reasons we should care as much as we care about Dolores and the West.
I think this is something that the film Ex Machina did very well. Ex Machina builds a future with reason and intrigue. From the beginning of the film we are immersed in a futuristic world that has reasons and shortcomings. We see a society that is technologically advanced and we see why the characters are pursuing their goals. Instead of talking about updates and software, the film builds the characters out and shows their reasoning for building the future that they are. This is what Westworld misses, the human inclination and desire that brought the characters to their technological dystopia.
Disclaimer
This article is based solely on the Pilot episode and my thoughts about where it will go from there. I will update this as I progress through the show. Thanks for reading! What are your thoughts?
