Wild landscapes and constrained behaviours: Westworld vs The Crown

As a librarian I am very accustomed to making recommendations, whether solicited or not, whether welcome or not. I love the conversation, the questioning. It’s not unlike choosing a restaurant meal. What do you feel like? What mood are you in? Would you like to be adventurous or safe? Books, movies, songs, cuisine, the same process applies. Do you go off piste or do you take the well travelled path, the familiar flavours or foreign food, the well-thumbed or freshly cracked spine?

Some viewing pairs are obvious: Fans of American Horror Story (it doesn’t matter which season) would probably recognise and enjoy the spices so delightfully matched in Penny Dreadful, Gothic lunacy bringing all the best loved and known characters of nineteenth century horror classics into one glorious mashup of blood, gore and exuberant acting chops.

Other pairings are a little more oblique. Westworld and The Crown have seemingly little in common save the incredible title sequences of Patrick Clair so, to continue the restaurant metaphor, you could say they are on the same menu. However, when you delve deeper, they are more alike then they seem and I would heartily recommend them to the same viewers. Both include fine actors portraying extraordinary characters, all dealing with the human condition in their own, unique ways. For the uninitiated, The Crown is a fictional dramatic series about the real British Royal family while Westworld is about a Western style theme park where real people interact with sophisticated humanoid androids, and when I say “interact”, sex and death feature prominently. A key point of Westworld? Much like Bladerunner (spoiler alert!), the viewers and the protagonists are often unaware who is human and who is not. At one point in The Crown, Queen Elizabeth II is accused of being cold and robotic and works hard to change that perception and, well, many of the characters in Westworld ARE actually unknowing robots trying to appear convincingly human, while growing ever increasingly sentient.

The settings of the two shows could not be more different: the barren landscape of Utah “wild west” country versus the majestic halls, palaces and misty country estates of England and Scotland, yet they are more alike than they seem. The stone walls of the British palaces, the luxury cars and heathery moors of The Crown are just as much a physical and moral prison as the boundaries of the Western theme park in Westworld. The respective landscapes are magnificent in their own ways, the juxtaposition of the greens and olives of the lush Scottish hills and brilliant pinks, oranges and blues of the Utah desert is striking and, to this Australian, each are equally foreign.

The “story” of The Crown is well known, or at least the public story is. Obviously the TV show is a dramatisation and reimagining of elements of truth and speculation, occasionally raising the ire of Royal purists while dragging the less pedantic viewer into the convoluted, complex and fascinating universe of the most famous family in the world. Some of the story has been all over the headlines, while other aspects have had to be invented. This allows the viewer a sense of familiarity while also indulging in the frisson of scandal and intrigue of what may and may not have happened.

To many, the story of Westworld will be less familiar. The TV series is based on a 1973 movie written and directed by Michael Crichton (of Jurassic Park fame - he wrote that too) and the plot is similar: fun family theme park where you get to play shoot ‘em up with pretend robot cowboys until it all goes to hell and someone gets hurt. The TV show is a reboot and a half: sure, the theme-park-gone-crazy trope is still there, but this theme park is strictly adults only, and 19th century attitudes to women prevail, as whoring, murder and rape are allowed and encouraged with the androids. I won’t spoil the rest - best to check it out for yourselves.

As unusual as it seems (and at one time we thought chilli and chocolate was a weird idea), these two shows are similar and different in good ways, ways that make you think about society and the world we live in, that make us consider our own places in that world and how our lives are, in many ways, so much better than the ones presents as priviledged and special. To Westworld fans I say, enjoy The Crown, and to fans of The Crown, I say give Westworld a crack.

I'll think you'll like it.