The Greatest Sci Fi TV Shows of All Time: Westworld (2016)

The Greatest Sci Fi/Fantasy TV Shows: Considering the case for the sci fi and fantasy television shows that should be counted among the greatest of all time.

What Is It?

This series is set in a futuristic Wild West–themed amusement park where wealthy guests can indulge in any desire, safe in the knowledge that the lifelike android “hosts” will play along. But when some of these hosts begin to retain memories and question their reality, the park’s carefully crafted illusions start to unravel.

Aired: HBO, 2016-22, 4 Seasons Totaling 36 Episodes

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Thandiwe Newton, Jeffrey Wright, James Marsden, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal, Luke Hemsworth, Ed Harris

Created By: Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy

Argument to Count It as One of the Greatest Sci Fi TV Shows:

This seemed like an odd property to reboot into a television series when HBO first announced the revival, and it also seemed unlikely that the concept could carry a show for more than a year or two. But then the first season of Westworld arrived in 2016 and blew audiences away. Jonathan Nolan had previously explored similar concepts involving AI and technology run amok in Person of Interest on CBS,  and with the HBO series, he got the chance to dive in with no restraints. The first season is full-on science fiction in the best way, exploring machines developing consciousness and all the implications of that. In addition, it delivered an intricate level of storytelling, with twists and turns that kept the audience guessing through its dense 10-episode run. Michael Crichton’s 1973 film served as inspiration, but the series is only loosely connected to that and amps the sophistication up several notches.

After the first season, your mileage may vary, but the show continued its exploration of a world where AI and humans come into conflict, raising questions of what it truly means to be alive as well as the nature of reality. It maintained its atmospheric and moody storytelling, intricately weaving multiple plot threads together. And while at times the show could get rather convoluted, it never lost track of the larger narrative and consistently moved the story forward. It seemed to reach a logical end with its fourth season, but in fact it was cut short and Nolan and Joy had one more season planned to fully wrap up the series (they still hope to do that at some point).

Westworld is basically everything you could ask a science fiction television series to be: slick production, an intelligent, well-thought-out story with plenty of genre elements, and excellent performances to top things off. While it may have been hard to follow at times, overall it stands out as a genre masterpiece and certainly must be considered one of the greats of sci-fi TV.

ALSO READ: 25 of the Greatest Sci Fi and Fantasy Shows of All Time

Argument Against:

The first season of Westworld delivered a very strong sci-fi story, though it required the viewer’s full attention. It was intricate, dense, and almost exhausting to watch, but ultimately rewarding. After that, however, the show went off the rails. The second season still had some interesting ideas, but seemed to lose focus, and that continued in subsequent seasons to the point where the fourth year was nearly incomprehensible. The creators started with a great concept but didn’t seem to know where to go from there.

The first season actually provided a good ending point, albeit somewhat ambiguous (similar to HBO’s one-season entry Watchmen). If the show had wrapped up there, perhaps Westworld could be considered an all-time great. But the three seasons that followed muddied its status and reputation, and because of that, it falls short of counting as one of the true greats of the genre.

Johnny Jay’s Take:

I have to confess that I never made it past the second season of this show, so any grade I give is incomplete. I absolutely loved the first season, and even though my head was spinning through much of the second, I thought they did a masterful job of wrapping it up. I had every intention of continuing to the third season, but Westworld is the kind of show that requires binge-watching in order to follow all of its intricacies, and I just never got around to doing that (though it’s still on my to-watch list).

I would highly recommend the first season, especially to those who enjoy sci-fi exploring AI and all the moral dilemmas that come with it. And I wouldn’t argue with anybody who considers this one of the greats of sci-fi TV. At some point, I’ll finish the series, and then I can make a more complete judgment on its merits.

Where Can You Watch It?

For those like me that got behind on this series and want to catch up, that presents some challenges. HBO booted the show from HBO Max so that they could take a write-down on it, and it is currently only running on the Warner Bros. live-streaming channel that is available on services like Tubi TV and The Roku Channel. So you can only watch episodes when they are live-streaming and there is no way (that I know of) to record them. The entire series has been released on DVD and Blu-ray, and you can also purchase it VOD, so if you are willing to shell out the money, you can watch it with one of those options.

Stream or Purchase VOD

Do you consider Westworld to be one of the greatest sci fi/fantasy shows, or is it too convoluted and incoherent? Chime in with your thoughts below or at our discussion thread at r/SciFiTV.

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