HBO’s new hit show “Westworld” debuted on Sunday night, and apparently it’s not all that different from “Game of Thrones” — and not in a good way.
The new show, based on a 1973 Michael Crichton novel, tells the story of a futuristic amusement park that includes robot hosts who let visitors live out any of their wildest fantasies. There are absolutely no consequences. No laws to break, no rules to shatter or anything of the sort. It’s basically “Jurassic Park,” but with robots.
And apparently the show — aside from promoting violence and lawlessness — also perpetuates rape culture, much like “Game of Thrones,” experts say.
In the show’s first episode, “Westworld” references the idea of raping a dead corpse, broadcasts the use of brothels that include nudity and even shows a rape scene that offers viewers another instance of sexual assault.
The show also ended with a violent scene in said brothel, where characters were killed and one character laughed over dead bodies.
“HBO is building a legacy of rape culture entertainment,” Dawn Hawkins, executive director of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, said in a statement. “… Why does HBO insist on making sadistic themes of sexual violence against women the cornerstone of its entertainment formula? No corporation that so regularly promotes the degradation and abuse of the female body can respect women. I am calling on HBO to stop piping scenes of sexual objectification and violence into millions of American’s homes. HBO’s commitment to portraying sexual objectification and sexual violence against women is not only socially irresponsible, it is anti-woman, and more importantly anti-human.”
If this at all sounds familiar, it’s because it is. As I wrote for Deseret News back in April of this year, HBO’s other big hit, “Game of Thrones” faced criticism for its violence and perpetuation of unhealthy sexual content.
Specifically, the show looked to “normalize sexual content and depictions of rape, incest and sexual violence,” as I wrote.
“'Game of Thrones' has excelled in turning brutal sexual violence into mainstream entertainment,” Hawkins said in a press release last April. “Since 2011, HBO has relentlessly brought the ambiance of torture pornography into American living rooms through 'Game of Thrones’ explicit depictions of rape, incest, prostitution, and sexual violence. This cocktail of pornography and twisted plot lines must be denounced as socially irresponsible, especially in an age when American society is struggling to combat the crises of sexual assault and rape culture.”
Co-showrunner Jonathan Nolan tried to justify the violence in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying that he doesn’t approve of real world violence, but feels like it can play an interesting dynamic on screen.
“It points to this paradox,” Nolan said. “None of us like violence in the real world, but we're fascinated with it onscreen.”
This is not unlike how “Game of Thrones” creator George R.R. Martin once defended his show’s inclusion of rape scenes. As The Guardian reported, Martin said that rape was a powerful component of medieval wartime theatrics, and that excluding such material from his story wouldn’t be an accurate portrayal of war.
Martin said sexual and violent scenes should be uncomfortable for viewers, as they depict negative and heart-wrenching moments.
"That requires vivid sensory detail. I don't want distance, I want to put you there. When the scene in question is a sex scene, some readers find that intensely uncomfortable … and that's 10 times as true for scenes of sexual violence," he said, according to The Guardian. "But that is as it should be. Certain scenes are meant to be uncomfortable, disturbing, hard to read."
It doesn’t help “Westworld” that it’s been billed as HBO’s likely successor to “Game of Thrones.” As WIRED reported, the new show, like “Game of Thrones,” is a mature take on genre concepts, with the former focusing on science fiction ideas and the latter on fantasy stories.
Still, the show appears to have some differences, compared to “Game of Thrones,” WIRED reported. “Westworld” starts in a grim, dark world, one where violence and lawlessness reigns supreme. This idea, according to WIRED, offers a chance for the show to lift itself above “Game of Thrones” and shine a light on optimism.
“At its best, the show has a poetic splendor; its world is one of endless possibility, even optimism," WIRED wrote.
Herb Scribner is a writer for Deseret Digital Media.