Every once in a while, a show comes along that we're super psyched about — and not just like, "This is a cool series you should consider watching," but like, "Plan to park your butt in front of whatever screen you've got to take in the glory, or else."The latter is how we feel about Westworld , the new sci-fi Western dystopia serie s that debuts on HBO Sunday, October 2. Starring Evan Rachel Wood, Thandie Newton, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, James Marsden and a slew of other impressive actors, the show is about an Old West-style theme park, where visitors can fulfill whatever fantasy their heart desires by interacting with startlingly sentient robots who don't realize that they aren't real people. What follows is, well, what always seems to follow when humans are given free reign to do whatever they want with no limitations or consequences. Let's just say that shit gets dark, fast. And the question of who is lacking in humanity — the humans or the robots — begins to simmer and then boil.If that sounds a little complicated to you, you're not alone: It takes some time to really dig in and understand what's going on in Westworld. That's 100% intentional in the first couple of episodes, series writer and creator Lisa Joy explained to Refinery29 over the phone. She talked to us about why that is, as well as some other key facts that fans-to-be should know before diving into the series.The inspiration for Westworld comes from a 1973 Michael Crichton movie of the same title, about a futuristic Wild West theme park where visitors can get the gunslinging experience firsthand. In the film, the robots go haywire and the park guests have to figure out how to escape with their lives. Something similar begins to happen in the revamped narrative. But HBO's series turns the movie's concept on its head, by creating a world where the androids might be more relatable than the flesh-and-blood characters. For that reason, the show follows the perspective of the robots — and manages to put you in their shoes."Classic westerns are often the tale of a lone man trying to make it in a harsh and forbidding frontier land," Joy says, adding that while those can be enjoyable, inspiring stories, they tend to subvert other characters into supporting parts. She recalls watching Westerns and wanting to know more about the love interests, the "bad" girls, the girls who get kidnapped. With that in mind, Westworld looks at the story through the eyes of characters who often get sidelined in traditional Western narratives — making things a lot more interesting along the way.