That would be odd considering that the image looks somewhat gritty, as one would expect this Super 35-sourced series to look on 4K, especially compared to the Blu-ray, where the grain is a little less upfront. The 2K source looked okay and filmic, but there were also some spots where I saw some clear softening of features in facial characteristics, almost like over-eager DNR going on. I expected to be blown away by this sci-fi series’ imagery in 4K, but I wasn’t really. This Ultra HD release arrives in a 2160p (4K) HEVC encodement with Dolby Vision HDR (High Dynamic Range) framed in its original 1.78:1 broadcast aspect ratio. Westworld Season 1 was shot on Arricam LT, Arricam ST, and Arriflex 235 cameras utilizing Cooke S4, Canon K35, Fujinon Premier and Angenieux Optimo lenses and various slow, mid, and fast speed Kodak Vision3 250D 5207, Vision3 500T 5219, and Eastman EXR 50D 5245 film stocks in Super 35 (3-perf) format. His journey always makes him cross paths with Dolores.
Playing the typical villain, he is now own a quest to find the center of a mythical maze he believes will unlock the hosts and give them free will and give him that meaning he has searched for. Then there’s The Man in Black (Ed Harris), a rich and powerful businessman in the real world who has been coming to the park for years seeking some meaning in his life. For instance, there’s a Wild West brothel run by the host Maeve Millay (Thandie Newton), or the seemingly innocent farmer’s daughter Dolores Abernathy (Evan Rachel Wood) – one host who, it seems, begins having memories of some of the past stories she’s been used in – who one visitor to the park or “newcomer”, Billy (Jimmi Simpson) is drawn to and believes to be sentient. A corporation named Delos operates the Westworld park that has as its selling point these hosts and its “narratives” where adults can indulge their fantasies way from the real world. Set in an unspecified near-future where much of the action takes place in a fantasy world set in an alternate reality version of the Wild West, Civil War era past, West World Season 1 tracks roughly three separate story arcs about a high-tech amusement park for adults populated by lifelike “hosts” – androids so human that it is hard to tell they aren’t living creatures.