The TV series Westworld had better be careful, lest it get too smart for its own good.
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The Showcase series is now in its second season and it’s still looking good.
The show is set in what could be tagged a wild west amusement park for adults.
Guests arrive, get all dressed up in cowboy duds and then walk around doing whatever they want to the hosts.
That’s because the hosts are robots programmed not to harm humans, no matter how many times they get shot, stabbed, beaten up, raped or whatever else the guests feel like dishing out.
Well, that is until the robot hosts decide they’ve had enough, figure out how to over-ride their programming and get square with the high-flying guests.
One feature of the show is that it jumps back and forward in time and leaves it up to the viewer to work out where they are.
In a move that was especially clever (SPOILER ALERT!) a storyline involving a character in season one looked to be happening now, but had actually happened decades earlier.
It wasn't an idea that was made up on the fly – as the vast majority of that early 2000s series Lost was – but had been clearly planned and mapped out.
However, being too clever can easily cause problems for Westworld.
Putting the focus on being smart by layering plot arcs and jumping into and out of the past risks putting the actual story itself in second place.
It also risks frustrating the viewer, who may well give up on the series because they’ve found it too hard to follow the story with all the time changes.
I really enjoyed the first series, but am starting to feel the second going too far down the "hey, aren’t we so clever” road.
It’s like the show is becoming as self-aware as the robot hosts, and I’m not sure that’s a good idea.