HBO's multilayered update of 'Westworld' is TV's next big game-changer

That has been its brand since the days of "It's not television, it's HBO." Television eventually caught up, which meant HBO had to swing bigger; it is not built for, or on, a slate of solid but not spectacular shows. It is a premium cable channel, which means it needs to bring the premium. So when an HBO series fails -- "Vinyl," "Luck," "John From Cincinnati" -- it fails hard. But when it connects, well, hits like "Game of Thrones" and "Veep," "Last Week Tonight With John Oliver" and "Olive Kitteridge" don't just sweep up Emmys, they change the nature of television.