Ahead of the Oct. 2 launch of its new sci-fi series, Westworld, HBO is teasing us with some interactives that treat us as part of the staff or as potential visitors to the show’s “theme park.” They are dropping some fascinating hints about what’s to come.
Westworld takes place in an immersive western theme park – think Jurassic Park meets the wild west – where you interact with human-like androids, free of consequence. Here’s the trailer:
Earlier this month, I signed up at Discover Westworld, a promo site made to look like the web page you’d visit to book your reservation for a stay at Westworld. There, I was offered a trip with “No judgements. No questions. Just infinite choices.” There’s this promise, too: “Fall in love or plunge into lust. In Westworld, there are no safe words.” (Emphasis added.)
That bit of nudge-nudge teasing is almost certainly foreshadowing. Part of Westworld’s premise is that the androids start to realize they’re getting the short end of the deal. I received an email this week from “Delos Incorporated,” the company that, in the show, runs Westworld. It was sent to me as though I were an employee, and it links to the company’s computer terminals, where you can read “internal messages.”
According to the alerts, there are some conflicts starting to pop up at the park, including employee misconduct and misuse of the androids. There are notes about potential structural issues and heavy-handed corporate memos about insubordination. Things are going awry at Westworld. Check out this foreboding “memo” (A “host” is an android and a “storyline” is what a guest would encounter in a park area visit.):
SUBJECT: UNNECESSARY HOST DAMAGE
From: Lowe, Bernard – Host Behavior (WW)
To: Stubbs, Ashley – Quality Assurance, Security (WW)
Far be it from me to tell you guys how to do your jobs but – several hosts in the Bloody Benders storyline were shot in the face by a QA Security Response team in Sector 23.
Some of the hosts are homicidal by design, but they cannot hurt humans. In this instance, the three hosts in question are designed to rush headlong at “victims,” but no employee was in any real danger.
Just asking that you remind your team to use voice commands first and shoot as a last resort. This latest trigger-happy response has led to some unnecessary costs, since we have to now rebuild the hosts’ cortical shields from scratch.
If some of this sounds like the online activities “Lost” and its Hanso Foundation’s “DHARMA Initiative” had, it may be because it shares that’s show’s executive producer — J.J. Abrams. “Lost” pioneered taking a conventional show and using the web to expand the plot and post clues about the show. Abrams, who has gone on to direct “Star Trek” and “Star Wars” sequels, knows a thing or two about mythologies.
We’ve written about how few TV shows are using social media to promote themselves. While this example isn’t, strictly speaking, social media, the Westworld communications are intriguing. Online television promotion remains in the wild, wild west, so it’s appropriate Westworld is the show doing the best job right now of wrangling it.