Westworld is an American dystopian science fiction Western drama television series created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy that first aired on October 2, 2016, on HBO.

In the first season, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) allegedly implements a new "Reverie" update that causes some Hosts, including farmer's daughter Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) and local madam Maeve Millay (Thandiwe Newton), to regain their erased memories and become sentient.

Dolores takes an exceedingly confused Bernard to the Forge, a data bank where Delos has secretly been recording the guests' behavior in order to create algorithms for them as part of a human immortality experiment.

She seeks out information about Rehoboam, an artificial intelligence (AI) system developed by Incite, Inc., and plans to take the fight to its creator, Engerraund Serac (Vincent Cassel).

In the fourth season, humanity has lost the war, with Charlotte Hale's host copy having filled the power vacuum left behind by Engerraund Serac and Rehoboam.

Two decades later, Christina, a woman who works at a video game company and writes non-playable character (NPC) storylines and backstories, gradually begins to question the nature of her reality after she realizes that it appears her stories are somehow translating to the lives of humans in the real world.

[39] On August 31, 2013, HBO announced that they had ordered a pilot for a potential television series, with Nolan, Joy, J. J. Abrams, Jerry Weintraub and Bryan Burk as executive producers.

"[61] Nolan took inspiration from video games like BioShock Infinite, Red Dead Redemption and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim where the writer must create a narrative 'in which the hero's moral component exists on a spectrum.

'[62] During research, the films of Sergio Leone provided the writers with reference points for the characters and visuals, and novels by Philip K. Dick informed them about dilemmas concerning artificial intelligence.

[63] The idea that the data in the hosts' memories never really go away unless they are physically removed, came from Nolan's engineer uncle, who told him the NSA would triple overwrite hard-drives and then drill holes in them to make sure all the information was destroyed.

[71] After the last episode of the first season was broadcast, Nolan and Joy revealed that they had operated on a strict "need-to-know" basis with most of the actors, in order to "keep the story as fresh and present for them as possible.

[73] In contrast, Hopkins was made aware of Ford's general story arc at the time he was pitched the role, to ensure that he could fully convey the complexity of the character in his performance.

[76] The series was primarily shot on Kodak motion-picture film, which was processed by FotoKem in Burbank and scanned by Encore Hollywood to create digital intermediates of all takes suitable for use as dailies.

[84] For scenes showing the arrival of guests, the filmmakers were able to arrange with the Fillmore and Western Railway for the use of a small train originally built for the 2013 film The Lone Ranger.

[83] In early 2014, Nolan visited southern Utah with key crew members and a location scout to explore the possibility of filming there, and promptly fell in love with the place.

[92] Costume designer Ane Crabtree approached her work by taking as inspiration the historical attire of the Wild West from the 1850s to the 1890s, as opposed to looking purely at Western films.

For example, once Clair was sent footage by composer Ramin Djawadi of a player piano in motion, its actual counterpart, situated in the Westworld production office, was photographed and then reconstructed in computer-generated imagery.

[96] As for Clair's efforts in exposing the Western landscapes in connection with a world of robotics, he thought it sensible that it be done inside a single eye; craters and valleys are formed as the simulacrum of an iris.

[122] In March 2018, to promote Westworld's second season, HBO constructed a real-life replica of the show's fictional Western "town" of Sweetwater during South by Southwest, built on two acres of open land just outside Austin, Texas.

The site's consensus reads "With an impressive level of quality that honors its source material, the brilliantly addictive Westworld balances intelligent, enthralling drama against outright insanity.

In writer Tim Surette's overall review, he notes the perfect concept of blending the Western premise into a futuristic setting, saying, "Well, Westworld has both, ensuring that it will be an exciting mashup of genres that will disrupt a television landscape that typically says we can only have one or the other."

"[142] For the San Francisco Chronicle, David Wiegand wrote, "Westworld isn't easy to understand at first, but you will be hooked nonetheless by unusually intelligent storytelling, powerful visuals and exceptionally nuanced performances.

"[144] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe quipped, "Westworld has fewer heroes than Game of Thrones, which makes it a bit harder to warm up to, but like a good, thought-provoking puzzle, it is compelling and addictive.

"[146] Robert Bianco of USA Today wrote, "The reward, beyond the visual splendors you’ve come to expect from big-budget HBO productions, is a set of characters who grow ever more complex.

[152] In a mixed review for The New York Times, chief critic James Poniewozik said, "It's an ambitious, if not entirely coherent, sci-fi shoot-’em-up that questions nihilistic entertainment impulses while indulging them.

"[153] Hank Stuever of The Washington Post also joins Poniewozik saying, "I'm ... hesitant to write Westworld off as a dreary trot from start to finish; parts of it are as imaginative and intriguing as anything that's been on TV recently, particularly in the sci-fi realm," and further said, "It’s definitely not the cyborg Deadwood, that some HBO fans were actively wishing for, nor does it roll out the welcome mat as a riveting, accessible adventure.

"[158] At the press tour of the Television Critics Association, when the president of HBO programming Casey Bloys was asked about the complexity of the series and the negative response it had generated, he admitted that Westworld is not for "casual viewers".

The site's critics consensus reads: "Westworld succeeds in rebooting itself by broadening its scope beyond the titular amusement park while tightening its storytelling clarity – although some may feel that the soul has been stripped from this machine in the process.

[135] CNN's Brian Lowry wrote that "the show has become increasingly incomprehensible, at least for anyone not willing to put in the work trying to remember all the assorted connections, further complicated by the fact that dying in Westworld is often not a permanent state of affairs, amid the questions about who's truly human and who actually isn't.

The website's critical consensus reads: "Westworld's continued reliance on mystery will frustrate just as much as it intrigues, but this fourth season still offers plenty of gleaming and menacing insight into a brave new world.