Cryptic, cool to the touch and adapted from an oddball Seventies movie about a follicly-challenged robot on a killing spree, Westworld was the television gamble of the year.
Yet it's a bet that has paid off for American network HBO and its UK partner Sky Atlantic, with critics and audiencesenraptured by this melancholic tale of men and machines gone rogue in a futuristic cowboy theme park.
But in addition to giving Anthony Hopkins arguably his best role since Hannibal Lecter in enigmatic Westworld creator Robert Ford and confirming that Ed Harris should play the villain more often - his Man-In-Black is a vengeful wraith with a six-shooter - Westworld has brought attention to a much-overlooked genre.
As the name suggests, "Weird West" is what results when gunslinger clichés are transposed to a fantastical setting.
In Westworld the backdrop is a sci-fi pleasure dome where megabucks sociopaths can decompress by bedding/torturing simulacrum prostitutes or wrestling with one of the elaborate mysteries Ford has knitted into the fabric of his universe.
However, Weird West can take many forms, from low pulp to
Westworld's
meditative inquiry into what it means to be human in a world of self-aware technology. For those whose appetites have been whetted by the
"Cowboys versus dinosaurs" sounds like a scenario concocted by a hyperactive eight-year-old after too many sugary drinks. Yet the pungent premise is spun into B-movie gold in this cult 1969 feature, with creature effects by stop-motion wizard Ray Harryhausen.
The Valley of Gwangi was supposed to cash in on the Sixties fad for monster flicks - a craze that had, alas, sputtered out by its release.
But, though an enormous flop at the time, it is worth rediscovering, with James Franciscus giving it the full John Wayne as Tuck Kirby, a mercurial cowboy whose pursuit of a tiny prehistoric horse leads to a hidden Mexican desert ruled by the eponymous T-Rex.
Gwangi is a romp with a heart of purest pulp and has a small but loyal fanbase.
Among its admirers was a young Steven Spielberg who would winkingly reference the movie with the shot-by-shot recreation in Jurassic Park of a scene in which Gwangi attacks a herd of smaller dinosaurs.
Admittedly, the Valley of Gwangi lacks Westworld's Oscar-grade acting and brooding cinematography. But it does feature men in Stetson hats shooting primordial lizards. Top that Anthony Hopkins.
The book: Dead Man's Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West
Beyond the glossy violence and smoking pistols, Westworld can be enjoyed as a philosophical treatise on the existential quandaries facing humanity as artificial intelligence becomes a reality.
Those who appreciate the show's meditative aspects will enjoy Dead Man's Hand, a thoughtful Weird West anthology curated by esteemed sci-fi editor John Joseph Adams.
The authors, many prominent within science fiction, tackle the Weird West premise with impressive seriousness in a collection that echoes Westworld's chilly introspection.
One story features a young preacher facing off against a vampire in a desert reminiscent of the wasteland surrounding the town of Sweetwater in Westworld; in another a Texas ranger tracks an outlaw with supernatural powers to a magic realist city in the sky.
As with the HBO series, there is no flinching from the savagery of the frontier or the moral compromises required to survive there.
The board game: Shadows of Brimstone
With board games suddenly in vogue, Shadows of Brimstone is recommended for anyone itching to spend time in their own private Westworld.
The good news is that, unlike the wealthy "guests" in the TV show, you won't have to pay a fortune for the privilege. And the tone is far less brooding, as players cooperate to purge a network of mines of nefarious monsters from an alternate dimension.
Influenced by role-playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons, Brimstone lets you play as a rifle-packing sheriff, a sharp-shooter with a ridiculous moustache or a saloon girl who never misses a shot (useful when you're about to be eaten by two-headed coyotes from the fifth circle of hell). Your inner nerd will adore it.
We're cheating slightly as this epic "first person shooter" from 2013 is set during the turn-of-the-century robber baron era, several decades after the taming of the Wild West.
But, as with Westworld, it pulls you into a strange new world (a floating city powered by "steampunk" technology) presided over by a cultish leader and was actually cited as an influence by show-runners Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy.
The depiction of visitors to Westworld as homicidal thrill seekers drew directly on the experiences of the creators of BioShock, they said.
"I was [with] Ken Levine, the designer of those games, talking about the non-player characters," Nolan reminisced in an interview with Vulture.
"In a scene, I think I had just run through and shot everyone and kept going. And he was talking about how much craft had gone into all the conversations that the non-player characters had, and all their dreams and aspirations. And I just thought, 'Oh, isn't that tragic? Isn't that sad? And the player just ignores it all.'"
The comic book: Jonah Hex
Don't be put off by the disastrous 2010 movie adaptation, starring Josh Brolin and his worst Clint Eastwood accent. In the original DC comic books, Hex is an engaging Old West anti-hero, with terrible scars and an unyielding sense of honour.
While his adventures can feel broad and cartoonish compared to Westworld's unnerving storylines, Hex shares both the Man in Black's obsessiveness and rudimentary conversational skills. Westwood fans will find much here to relish.
