It’s no secret that HBO wanted “Westworld” to be their next “Game of Thrones, given their relentless work on hyping it up in the months leading up to its premiere. It could have been a hard sell. It’s a sci-fi/western mash-up loosely based on a little known but critically acclaimed Michael Crichton film (an original one at that and one of a handful of directorial credits for the bestselling novelist). Its heady premise – a futuristic, Wild West-styled theme park featuring lifelike synthetic “hosts” slowly becoming sentient – could have fallen flat. With an incredibly talented cast featuring the likes...