So I guess I’ve been busy. As a sad result of working two jobs all summer, I’m way behind on my entertainment news (and my blogging, I know) and I was completely unaware of the fact that HBO is going sci-fi with Westworld! I don’t know a thing about the source material for Westworld other than what a quick trip down the six degrees of Wikipedia taught me over the past hour. But you know what? I don’t care a bit! I’m in. And not just because I already pay a crap ton of money for a channel that I mostly just keep for John Oliver.
Like a lot of science fiction fans, I haven’t genuinely loved a sci-fi show since Battlestar Galactica. I’ve enjoyed Falling Skies, but the fact that the entire current (and final) season is sitting on my DVR awaiting a mythical rainy Saturday is probably an indicator of where it is on my list right now. In fact, last night, when I had enough time to watch one episode of something, I picked True Detective. I think we all know how sad that is based on how terrible it was this season. So, clearly I’m ready for a new show to love.
The unfortunate reality is I might hate it or think it might even be terrible. It probably won’t be since HBO has a pretty amazing track record, even taking into account the aforementioned season of True Detective. Still, if I don’t like it, or if the androids aren’t anywhere near as cool as Cylons, one thing we do know is that people will watch it anyways. HBO wields that kind of power now. People thought fantasy was ridiculous and childish until Game of Thrones made dragons and knights cool again. I’m hopeful this will do the same for science fiction.
Do I care if sci-fi becomes “cool” the way fantasy is now? Of course not. In fact, it will mostly just make the already massive lines at DragonCon even worse and bring in more screaming teenage girls. However, I do care that it keeps getting made, and the only way for high quality science fiction to get made and survive beyond one season (RIP Firefly) is to have networks start believing that these shows can bring in the money. That takes people watching and advertisers noticing.
So here’s the plan. We need to get our non-geek friends and familys to watch Westworld. Tell them there’s sex or something (I mean it is HBO, so that’s not exactly a stretch) or, heck, bribe them with snacks and beer. Future you will thank you when he or she is trying to figure out which of the tree awesome sci-fi shows to watch on a Thursday night.
