In the latest episode of HBO’s Westworld, viewers were introduced to Pariah, a new edgy town, with cross-cultural flavors — oh, and a massive orgy.
After one producer attempted to explain the influences for the new set, Twitter erupted in outrage at what they saw as an offensive characterization of various cultures.
Here’s producer Richard Lewis’ explanation of Pariah.
We wanted it to feel like a border town, so that there’s a Tex-Mex feel to it. We wanted it to land somewhere between an American culture and a Latino culture. We were inspired by Buenos Aires and the really beautiful grave sites there. There’s a lot of Spanish flavor to this. Credit to our great production designer Zack Grobler for that. We did a lot of research and felt there was a nice almost Haitian feeling as well. We played with various looks. We played with full body makeup, we played with an African flavor that felt more… there was an ideal of cannibalism we were messing with for a while. We landed in this border town Tex-Mex feeling.
It seemed that because the multicultural town was more hedonistic and lawless, than the original, predominately white town, this really offended people. Also the aside about cannibalism didn’t help cool things down.
A TV critic at the New Yorker seemed to agree.
Well, we’re only half way through the first season of Westworld and the problematic police are getting really desperate to tear this one down. After multiple accusations of sexism, it’s only understandable the show’s depiction of racist American history would get the racist label as well.