Looking to create something to fill the immeasurable void that “Game of Thrones” will leave behind when it concludes, HBO is pouring an almost unheard of amount of money into its newest drama “Westworld,” the story of a futuristic Western theme park where the highly advanced robots who cater to every sadistic whim of its rich guests are starting to become aware of the unreality of their world. While it may be too early to say the show has completely hit the jackpot for the network, it’s safe to say that “Westworld” is one of the most captivating and imaginative shows put to the screen this year.

Created by Jonathan Nolan (“Interstellar”), the brother and frequent collaborator of famous director Christopher Nolan, along with his wife Lisa Joy, “Westworld” is an adaptation of a 1970s cult film of the same name written and directed by the late, great author Michael Crichton (“Jurassic Park”). The show, like the film that inspired it, is a dark and violent look at the possible outcomes of the creation of artificial intelligence, except here it takes a unique perspective: its main characters are the robots themselves. Herein lies the brilliance of the show, which takes the already disarming theme of machine thinking gone wrong and turns it into something that sometimes feels more like a complex horror story than a simple drama.

Sure, there are some primary human characters with great depth and relatability: the always wonderful Jeffrey Wright (“Casino Royale”) plays the intelligent and charming second fiddle to the weird genius of the superb Anthony Hopkins’ (“The Silence of the Lambs”) man in charge who created the androids and the world they inhabit and Jimmi Sampson (“House of Cards”), usually known for playing slimier characters, relishes the role of playing a soft-spoken man who seems to reject the lawlessness of his vacation. However, the majority of the human characters are utterly and gleefully despicable, gluttons in the freedom to do what they please. No one is more symbolic of that than the mysterious Man in Black, played to perfection by the marvelous Ed Harris (“The Truman Show”), who kills and pillages at his pleasure and leaves terror in his wake.

The ugliness of these human characters is what makes the robot perspective so fascinating to watch. Despite the world they live in dictating almost every word they say, the actors in these roles often make us forget these characters are not flesh and bone. Evan Rachel Wood (“True Blood”) brings both startling emotional grace as well as dark uneasiness to her role as the park’s original machine, while James Marsden (“Enchanted”) and Thandie Newton (“Crash”) bring charm as well as convincing fear and doubt to their automated characters. By showing us the world through the eyes of the very robots we’ve come to admire, we see the true nightmare of their situation, which makes it all the more unsettling when they start to wake up from that nightmare.

“Westworld” is a masterfully acted, beautifully filmed and sharply written drama that boldly stakes its claim as the new shining jewel of HBO. Like “Game of Thrones” before it, it is an often shocking, hard-hitting show that seeks not only to grip its viewers with its dark splendor, but shake them into learning something about humanity while making a foreboding warning about its indulgences: these violent delights will have violent ends. We get the unique pleasure of watching it all fall apart.

“Westworld” airs on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. Each episode is available for streaming on HBO Now as well as HBO Go from the time of airing onward.