My favorite (non-movie) pop culture of 2016!

Last updated on: December 20, 2016 at 10:13 pm by Chris Williams

My favorite (non-movie) pop culture of 2016! 2016-12-20T22:13:29-05:00 Chris Williams

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8.) Westworld

The first season of HBO’s science fiction thriller is one of the most technically ambitious and thematically audacious programs I’ve ever seen. It’s imperfect, too often moving in frustrating circles instead of pushing forward with motivation. And yet, when it works, few things on television are more arresting. Growing up around the time “Jurassic Park” hit theaters, I was a Michael Crichton fan. He was a writer fascinated by technology and loved to tackle the dilemmas it posed through pulp fiction. His 1970s film of “Westworld” was a prototypical “Jurassic Park,” probably best-known for inspiring the classic “Itchy and Scratchy Land” episode of “The Simpsons.”

Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy’s take elevates Crichton’s material, tackling not only questions of technology ethics but philosophical ruminations about what it means to be human. In its best moments (anything with Thandie Newton, Anthony Hopkins or Jeffrey Wright), it’s provocative, shocking and troubling. Even its more flawed elements (Evan Rachel Wood’s arc) found moments of poignancy and insight once the cards were revealed. The show is one of the most beautiful to look at and if its narrative is flawed, I’d rather have something ambitious that doesn’t always worked than something lazy that’s watchable. The first season righted itself in time for its finale, which revealed the preceding episodes to be a prologue for the actual series to come. It might not arrive until 2018, but I cannot wait.

“Westworld” is streaming on HBO.

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