‘Westworld’ is a gripping sci-fi brain-teaser

The update, developed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, and co-produced by J.J. Abrams, is set in a futuristic theme park where people can live out their darkest fantasies.

The scenario involves the man accompanying Dolores back home, where she finds her father shot to death.

Later, we see the image again; the roll starts to move, but another tune is played.

In stark contrast to the old-fashioned Western town, the operations for Westworld are housed in a dark, futuristic structure overseen by the creator of the theme park, Dr. Robert Ford (Anthony Hopkins).

The organization is a corporation, though, and the engineers are always wary of the people in charge of the narrative division.

[...] he can’t help seeing the emerging flaws in Dolores’ programming as a suggestion that she may be capable of evolving beyond being merely a mechanical creation.

Theresa Cullen (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is the no-nonsense operations chief, who is increasingly worried about her own position in the company.

Logan has sex with any available male or female host, and dispatches them at will when his trigger finger starts itching.

[...] eventually, the town’s pervasive atmosphere of wanton sex and brutality liberates him from his own moral code.

Presumably, the guests at Westworld lead what we would call ordinary lives in civilized society, whose rules they more or less follow.

Several major characters, from both the host and guest categories, display conflicts that reflect the series’ overall theme of exploring the dualism of human nature.

The new “Westworld” makes a different kind of sense within the context of 21st century life, when so much of our interaction with each other is carried out through machines — computers, smartphones and the like.

Have we, in our world today, become the “guests” transmitting our thoughts, feelings and secrets through little handheld “hosts”?

David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle and co-host of “The Do List” every Friday morning at 6:22 and 8:22 on KQED FM, 88.5 FM in San Francisco, 89.3 FM in Sacramento.