Reviewing "Westworld" Seasons 1 to 3: These violent delights have violent (and delightful) ends

Westworld is an HBO science-fiction drama series centered initially on the eponymous park, an amusement park based on the Wild West with android "hosts" who can be interacted with and "killed" at guests' leisure. When a host is killed, their memory is wiped and they are put back in the park to live out their loops, which are basically  It stars Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright, Ed Harris, and Anthony Hopkins, with Tessa Thompson joining later in Season 1, and Aaron Paul and Vincent Cassel joining in Season 3.

The series revolves around the emerging consciousness of several hosts. Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood), who plays the role of a farmer's mild-mannered daughter, and Maeve Milay (Thandie Newton), who plays the role of the madame at a brothel/bar. Beyond the hosts, Bernard (Jeffrey Wright) is a senior programmer with a chip on his shoulder from his young son's death, the mysterious Man in Black (Ed Harris) is a recurring and brutal guest at Westworld desperate to uncover all its secrets, and Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins) is the somewhat sinister park director with his own designs that may just impact hosts, guests, and park management.

The characters are compelling. We see Dolores grow from a meek young woman to a fierce fighter determined to find out the truth about the mysterious Maze, which is represented by an ever-present symbol seen around Westworld. Maeve is similarly on a quest that brings her out of her comfort zone, but her actions bring her out of the park and into the lives of a few junior park technicians, who gradually sympathize with her and how she lost her daughter in a previous "role" and is desperate to find her and help her remember her past life with Maeve. Bernard is a troubled technician having to deal with backstabbing colleagues and a controlling boss in the form of Ford, all while revelations unfold around him. The Man in Black, starting out as a thuggish host killer desperate to also look for the Maze to feel a sense of purpose, gradually transforms over time, becoming quite different and a much more complex figure than initially presented. Ford, played to perfection by Hopkins, is a seemingly untouchable puppet master overseeing all the goings-on in the park and is suitably menacing yet philosophical.

The performances are powerful and engaging. Wood and Newton, the undeniable stars of the show, give great performances, with little mannerisms that show their robotic nature while still maintaining a human-like warmth in their interactions with others. Wright also gives an intense performance as the troubled Bernard, showing his helplessness and highlighting his arc of attempting to find the agency to do the right thing inspire of constantly being at the mercy of other people's manipulations. Ed Harris and Anthony Hopkins also give definitive performances, chewing the scenery and becoming the viewer's focus whenever they're on screen, and Vincent Cassel's villainous character, while subdued and restrained, is also suitably wicked and delightful to watch.

The plot has more twists than I can count, and almost every one of them got a shocked reaction from me, and the characters' musings on human nature and the nature of free will and the afterlife give a philosophical core to this sci-fi story.

This series is simply science fiction at its finest though there is some uneven pacing here and there, it does not diminish the overall experience of watching Westworld.

Score: 10/10