7 Reasons Westworld Is Your Next TV Addiction
3. It Is In Safe Hands
From gritty prison drama Oz, to the mean streets of prohibition Atlantic City with Boardwalk Empire - HBO's back-catalog is chocked full with some of the world's best television, and thankfully Westworld isn't new territory for anyone involved. HBO's first foray into the West came with the critically acclaimed Deadwood - although it may only have managed three seasons, fans still scream for more. A film script may have been green-lit by HBO, but in the meantime Westworld nicely fills those Deadwood/LOST shaped holes in our lives.
Westworld gathered an impressive 3.3 million viewers for its premiere - not as great as Game of Thrones's 4.2 million for last season's opener, but decidedly up on other shows like Vinyl, (which managed just 1.4 million), or True Detective Season 2 (let's leave that one there).
The network aside, writing on Westworld is down to husband and wife powerhouse Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy. Nolan joined with his brother Christopher to co-write the award-winning The Dark Knight, known as Heath Ledger's masterful Joker outing. Nolan's work also extends out of superheroes and into sci-fi. His short story Memento Mori was written for Esquire, but these days is probably better known as the 2000 film Momento- later adapted by Christopher. As for wife Lisa Joy, she began her writing career on the darkly comedic Pushing Daisies, before coming a co-director on Burn Notice, and now the two have written Westworld using Crichton's original for help.
Nolan is once again teaming up with sci-fi whizz J.J. Abrams. Something of a hot property in Hollywood, Abrams brought us six seasons of mystery with LOST, headed to space with three Star Trek films, and joined with Nolan on Person of Interest. Completing the Person of Interest reunion, the music for Westworld comes from the talented fingers of Ramin Djawadi. A haunting piano score makes up the background, whilst Djawadi has weaved in some rather familiar tunes. Opting for modern songs like Radiohead's "No Surprises", Westworld is a very clever metaphor of mixing the old and the new, and If anyone knows how to make a show properly it is this team