Series: Cowboys and, er, androids

30 September 2016 - 10:13 By Andrew Donaldson

Micheal Crichton's debut film, Westworld, was a massive, though unlikely, hit 43 years ago. The story of a futuristic amusement park where an "android malfunction" results in the slaughter of the day-trippers who visit the place to act out their fantasies with characters from an idealised past, it was little more than a crude mash-up of science fiction and Western tropes. Which was Crichton's intention. As he later explained, "most of the situations in the film are clichés; they are incidents out of hundreds of old movies" and, as such, "should be shot as clichés".Thus the film's star, Yul Brynner, played a murderous robot called Gunslinger who was styled almost exactly on Chris Adams - the pistol-packing Cajun gunfighter Brynner portrayed in John Sturges's 1960 western, The Magnificent Seven.US cable network HBO now hopes Westworld, a 10-episode series reboot of the film, which starts on Monday (MNet Edge, DStv channel 102), will be the next giant hit - or at least fare better than Vinyl in filling the void left by Game of Thrones.It's still a two-genres-in-one production, with the wide-open vistas of Monument Valley - where John Ford made his classic '40s Westerns - a perfect foil to the subterranean claustrophobia of the generic mad scientist's underground laboratory.Westworld's producers describe the show as "a dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the future of sin. Set at the intersection of the near future and the re-imagined past, it explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged."Its cast is impressive, with Anthony Hopkins being the top drawcard. He plays Dr Robert Ford, the brilliant scientist who dreamed up Westworld - and its "hosts" who interact with tourists.Unlike the robots of the movie, the "hosts" in HBO's Westworld are humans who've been lobotomised (for want of a term) into androids who play out Western frontier scenarios for the entertainment of tourists who buy "narratives" from the park. These include wild gunfights, robberies, battles with native Americans and sex with saloon-based whores.Others stars include Ed Harris, who is Gunslinger, the Yul Brynner character; Evan Rachel Wood as a "host" who discovers her entire life is built on an elaborate lie; Thandie Newton as a Westworld brothel madam; Jeffrey Wright as Bernard Lowe, the head of Westworld's programming division and creator of "artificial people"; Jimmi Simpson as William, a reluctant first-time visitor to the park; Ben Barnes as Logan, a regular visitor seemingly addicted to Westworld's hedonistic pleasures; and Angela Sarafyan as Clementine Pennyfeather, an artificial being - and one of the park's most popular attractions.It's been reported that the cast has signed multi-year deals, so we can presume that Westworld won't be a one-off series.BOX POPS'OUTLANDER' and 'POLDARK'Heaving bosoms and sullen stares - and that's just the male leads - as two bodice rippers return for their second seasons. 'Outlander' (now on MNet Edge, DStv channel 102) sees Claire and Jamie infiltrating the Jacobite rebellion and trying to stop the battle of Culloden. In the historical drama 'Poldark' (starting Tuesday on ITV, DStv channel 123), Cornish laird Ross Poldark has problems with his family, his staff and the women in his life.'THE AMERICANS'Engaging spy drama set in the Cold War. Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are KGB operatives posing as a suburban couple in Reagan's America. Their arranged marriage grows more genuine and passionate, but the espionage is getting more dangerous. (Starts Tuesday, MNet Edge, DStv channel 102)'LONGMIRE'Fifth season of this crime series based on Craig Johnson's best-selling mystery novels. Robert Taylor is Walt Longmire, a Wyoming county sheriff who returned to work after his wife's death, but now finds himself facing a wrongful-death lawsuit. (Starts tonight, MNet Edge, DStv channel 102)..

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