1) Westworld
Creators Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s absorbingly complex re-imagining of Michael Crichton’s 1973 film excels in all facets of visual storytelling. With numerous spellbinding, interconnected storylines unfolded impeccably and rivetingly delivered by an impressive ensemble, in addition to stunning visuals and Ramin Djawadi’s crafty musical accompaniment, Westworld’s brilliance, at times, is overwhelming.
The show has its head near-bursting with new angles on old sci-fi themes, honoring the source material’s creator in the process, but it’s also a crowd-pleaser in the vein of HBO’s most pristine, top-shelf geek offerings that slowly eke out an existence in the mainstream. Nolan and Joy’s tricky concepts seem initially too intricate to gain ground, but we’d be downright shocked if the masterful, lively, tremendously disturbing outcome of one simple idea – what if robots ran amok at a theme park? – didn’t come to dominate the tube for years to come.
Sure, there’s inherent repetition to its set-up, but once you get past that, Westworld reveals itself as an intense, intellectual, and genuinely insane work of sci-fi that cleverly reworks a few old ideas into one terrifying new ride.
