One thing that Brooker and the writers of HBO"s Westworld apparently share is a very low opinion of humanity as it is currently constructed.

Is there even one human on Westworld worth rooting for more than we root for the "Hosts?" I watched Season 1 of Westworld less concerned about the William/Man in Black twist and more about why anyone would ultimately root for anyone aside from the hosts.

Westworld has garnered a ton of critical praise and it is well acted, mostly well-written, and beautifully filmed. But, where Black Mirror tries very hard to point out and emphasize the pure horror show we are creating, Westworld seems to enjoy producing Soylent Green. I have a hard time watching Westworld (but do) because all of it's horrors have become normalized before we ever arrived at the dance.

I always feel a strong, almost a shouting, Brooker behind the Black Mirror episodes while when watching Westworld, I feel the violence reduced to sausage making. It seems mechanical, mundane, nearly beyond morality, and lazily accepted to the point that it is almost Nietzschean.

Where Black Mirror seems to be shaking its fists at an amoral world Westworld, to me, seems to accept it as banal (almost like saying "No Duh"). The sight of killing floors for hosts are such a normal part of the show that they almost seem inevitable.

By the end of Season One, I found myself wondering what it was all for? And wondering why I would I want to spend time with any of these people?

I couldn't remember seeing one human person enjoying the park in an ethical manner.

I couldn't remember one time I saw something good in Ford (even when he is revealed to be working to free the hosts).

Even the one human that seemed conflicted at the beginning ends up as a rapist butcher.

For some reason, at the conclusion, Ford reminds me a bit of an older and maybe wiser Kellyanne Conway or Sean Spicer, seeing the error of his ways but still having trouble finding a way out of the nightmare that he has created.

He finally has empathy for Frankenstein but knows that his lovable monster stands no chance in a world full of the villagers that he works for.

Meanwhile, I think Brooker is asking each of us to become more like Ford. He is asking us to find empathy and start finding ways to stop treating shunned outcasts as sub-human objects stripped of dignity and reduced to fighting, being used, or publically shamed for the entertainment of the masses.

Odd that I am writing this as many media sources are much more interested in calling for Dylan Roof's blood than they are in listening to the victim's pleas for forgiveness for him (one of the most amazing things I have seen in recent years was the victim's call to forgiveness after the unbelievable atrocity he committed in that Church).

Once again, we will all feel better and take comfort and even enjoyment from executing a clearly insane person for the crime of being totally insane (but not legally insane, of course not legally insane, because if he were legally insane, we wouldn't get to "Shut Up and Dance" on his grave).

Anyway, maybe somewhere between Shut Up and Dance's almost documentary feel and Westworld's truly bleak view of our future may lie San Junipero (Hope)?

So what did you think of SUAD?

Was Westworld Amoral?

Do you think we can change?

Let me know what you think, leave a comment!