Westworld is a show I have had an interest in for a while, however I only recently got around to seriously watching it. I tried to watch it back when it released in late 2016, when it's first season was being shown on Sky Atlantic. Although, just starting University didn't help with trying to focus on of the most subtle shows on TV, providing a unique blend of the visual's two most distance genres; the western and the science fiction. Being a huge fan of both genres, the blend of them made me excited to watch it. However, for Westworld, the concept of difference doesn't just stop at genre.
The first episode establishes itself through the perspective of Dolores - a host at Westworld and the show's leading lady. She wakes up, walks through her house and says hello to her Father, Peter, as she looks out across the beautiful landscape outside her house. All while she answers a set of questions, asked by her creators at Delos Incorporated, the company behind Westworld. It sets up a strange juxtaposition, Dolores describes her world as a "place to be free", despite the fact she's restricted to a pre-ordained 'narrative loop', where "her life could change with one chance encounter" with a newcomer (a Westworld visitor), despite that encounter being erased from her memory hours after it happens.
These restrictions and the host's optimism despite their restriction makes the setting of Westworld feel like a place rigorous organisation and attention to detail. The Juxtaposition here comes in the form of a character named The Man In Black. He's been coming to the park for thirty years so as a result knows that the hosts can't hurt newcomers, but the newcomers can hurt hosts. So it comes as no surprise when he menacingly grins as Teddy, Dolores' love interest, tries to kill him and The Man In Black doesn't even flinch. We understand Teddy's character as a good man, unlike the bandit we see being killed later in the episode, so it's most likely not in his narrative to be killed. Although, The Man In Black is tired of the same looping narrative, disrupting it for his own gain. He'll do anything for his own gain, even if it means getting higher powers involved.
It's at this point where we're introduced to Westworld's bleaker other setting, the world of Delos Incorporated. Where Westworld is tinted with bright shades of sepia across its environments and towns, Delos is filled with a dark, devoid, blue almost all around. Where Westworld thrives with visitors and hosts alike, the majority of scenes that take place in Delos have no more than a few people at a time in one shot. We see another opposite here in that most hosts we see in Delos (in the first episode) are those that aren't fit to live in Westworld. Shown by the loss of hosts' humanity, in Delos they're reduced to their basic programming - obeying the vocal command of their programmers.
The obvious difference between each world, however, is that Delos is reality and Westworld is fiction. Although, this line begins to blur as the robots are continually updated to be more human, ironically leading to more crashes and distance away from reality. One of the scientists at Delos even brings up the idea of downgrading the hosts so guests are aware that there is an uncanny valley. He hopes this'll bring guests the reassurance that the hosts are just robots and will not do any harm to them. However, just minutes after this exchange, we see that exact scenario play out. One bandit is shut down after presumably massacring a bar's worth of hosts, sinisterly walking up to guests shivering against the back wall, looking at the host in terror. We see these two worlds collide in this S.O.S situation as the Delos cast is seen in the Westworld setting - bringing their colour palette with them, clearing the mess from the incident described as a "****ing sh**storm" by another Delos worker.
One of the last, and most terrifying, juxtapositions in Westworld's pilot comes from a malfunctioning Peter, hidden in the fine detail of the show's dialogue. This detail begins earlier on in the episode, when Ford is talking to Bernard, a programmer for Delos, about the recent malfunctions. Ford's dialogue in this particular sequence makes him sound omnibenevolent. He tells Bernard how his company is able to "ressurect the dead", "cure any disease" and that Bernard should "indulge me in the occasional mistake". This tone alongside the nature of Anthony Hopkins' Ford as a wise, elderly man (and having played a God for Marvel three times) makes Ford feel God-like. So, knowing Ford has this Godly persona and, then moments later, hearing a malfunctioning Peter tell Delores "Hell is empty and all the devils are here", feels just as shocking as it does full circle. If Peter's rambling is right, then the devil isn't simply a puppeteer of evil, but is the puppet that breaks the strings.
On the whole Westworld uses duality and juxtaposition to create a unique narrative that, more than anything, is exciting. It goes beyond the 'double-life' narrative that shows like it may portray to shape the multi-narrative structure we know and love from television to it's own will. Exactly the sort of thing we'd expect from J.J Abrams and Jonathan Nolan.