Westworld is a sci-fi Western TV series that is based on the film, Westworld, which was written by Michael Crichton and released in 1975. The TV series is much more recent, first airing in October 2016.

The plot of the show is based on a theme park where all of the characters that entertain the public are very lifelike robots. Enjoying the fantasy world where they cannot be harmed or face legal consequences for their actions, many of the guests abuse their position and commit a range of atrocities against the androids. Although the “host” androids are supposed to get their memories wiped, a glitch has enabled a few to retain them and build independent personalities through AI machine learning. This leads to independent thought and unexpected decision-making. 

  • Westworld is an HBO series and so you can watch it online with HBO Go and HBO Now. 
  • If you have an HBO subscription in your home, you get access to the HBO Go service for free. 
  • HBO Now allows access to the HBO library online only without a home TV subscription. 
  • If you have an HBO subscription, you will find that you are only allowed to watch the service while you are inside the USA. 

The series is also available on HBO Canada and HBO Latin America. However, you cannot access the HBO Go service outside of your home country. So, HBO subscribers in the USA cannot stream Westworld while they are in Canada, even though HBO Go is available there for Canadians. There is a way to get around these location detection measures, which we will explain in the next section. 

Sky subscribers in the UK and Ireland can use Sky Go to watch Westworld in their own countries because it is shown on Sky Atlantic. Subscribers to Now TV in those countries can also watch Westworld online.  Westworld is also available online in Australia on Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now. In all of these cases, subscribers can only watch the streaming service in their home country. 

If you are away on vacation abroad, you won’t be able to watch any TV from home even though it is made available online. This is because TV stations only buy the right to broadcast a show in one specific country. That restriction also applies to their online video streaming services. 

With these regional restrictions, the decision over whether a service can show a video doesn’t go by where the video service is based, it works on the location of the viewer. Paying a subscription doesn’t get around this problem. However, you can still watch as long as it seems to the video server that you are still in your own country. 

A virtual private network, or VPN, performs the trick of making it look like your requests for videos have come from a different place to where you actually are. You pick the country when you turn on the VPN. This gets you access to your video subscription service even though you are abroad. 

  1. Subscribe to a VPN provider with a good choice of U.S. servers (such as ExpressVPN)

  2. Download and install the VPN client onto your chosen devices

  3. Connect to a server inside the USA.

  4. Go to the HBO Go or HBO Now website (depending on your subscription) and log in.

  5. Click in the search box in the video library screen to find the Westworld show.

  6. Browse through the episode to find the next one that you haven’t watched and click on it. The video should start playing.

For subscribers with access in Canada, the UK, Ireland, and Australia, make sure you choose a VPN that has servers in your country and make sure you connect to one of those servers before you access your Go or Now service. 

Not all VPNs can get into premium streaming services from outside the authorized location. Subscribers to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu also experience the problem of being blocked from watching videos when they travel abroad. A good VPN can get you into all of these. Unfortunately, the majority of VPNs get spotted and blocked by streaming services, so they are just a waste of money. 

Another problem with VPNs is that they slow down your connections. The VPN service achieves its relocation trick by diverting all of your traffic through one of its servers. The system also applies encryption on the path between your computer and the VPN server and it allocates a new IP address for communications between the VPN server and the ultimate destination of the link. All of this work takes time. 

With most VPNs, the system slows down connections so that they are too slow to comfortably watch streaming video. Very few VPNs are fast. Fortunately, there are some that are very fast and can also get you into your TV subscription to watch Westworld. 

ExpressVPN

Our top pick!
  • Always evades internet control in the PRC
  • Keeps ahead of the Netflix VPN detection algorithm
  • Benchmark tests show excellent speed

Surfshark

  • Smart DNS service, understands the technology
  • Comprehensive security add-on package.
  • No data throughput limits and has a no-logs policy

NordVPN

  • More US city locations than its rivals
  • Includes malware protection
  • No-logs policy

CyberGhost

  • Precise locations
  • Very large VPN server network
  • Offers a 45-day money-back guarantee

IPVanish

  • No limit on the number of devices you can connect at the same time
  • SOCKS5 proxy, which its main rivals don’t have
  • More VPN servers in more US cities to dodge blackouts