Altered Carbon (Netflix)

Altered Carbon-became more of a carbon copy as I watched it.
They did keep it true to the novels hardcore content and that surprised me , but as I watched it I found all the graphic violence and sexual content more off putting and less interesting the more the series piled it on and I didn't like it that much toward the end. Whether its because it seemed so excessive and doled out continually each episode I'm not sure but I got fairly fed up with it.
Compared to the ocassional , sudden and realistically brutal short acts in BR 2049 which remain seared in my memory, the next episode of AC just seemed to overwrite the previous ones OTT gore fest. And I am utterly fed up with watching skinny or tiny women beating up and being terribly beatten up by massive blokes in long draw out and horribly over choreographed fights. It ain't like that in the real world.It doesn't matter what sex you are if the person you are up against is virtually double your weight and muscle mass, its usually going to end quickly. Height , strength, weight and reach have a real impact in the real world.
Yes I know its fantasy/sci fi. But just like many new series including Star Trek D there is this trend now to copy GOT and stuff in as much sex and violence as is possible. The difference is in GOT there is a measurable and believable cost to those actions on the characters. In the rest of them its just a cheap excuse to do something to hold viewers flagging attention.
Utimately I ended up not really caring for many of the characters in AC, because it seemed they could never be truely killed or rather I just was waiting for them to turn up to be killed AGAIN in more nasty ways.It was like a video game. And funnily enough it was the AI Poe who was actually the best thing in this.
Utimatley to anyone whose followed updated cyberpunk since the 1980's from Gibsons novels and short stories, the "Ghost in the Shell" series, the "Matrix" trilogy and of course the great granddaddy of them all "Bladerunner" this a less interesting and cruder attempt at a future that has been done better before.
I'll be interested to see how they handle the second book.
PS Yeah I did laugh when I saw Matt as Carnage. He was creepy as hell.

Was entertaining for sure, I really dig the concept of immortality through the stacks, and what it does to humans in the long run, even if I wish they spent more time on that.
My main gripe though is that while it had some very good moments, it also had a plethora of straight hollywood cliches as well, which frankly I'm starting to find very tiring.
Also, a bionical arm doesn't give you superhuman strength to punch a dude and send him through a wall, stop a blade yes, crush something in your hand yes, but punching or lifting something heavy requires muscles and strength for the whole body and overall body mass. Honestly I think it would be a glorified knuckle duster at best...
I understand this was from a book, so they probably followed the source material, but I kinda wish things would have been different between Tak and his sister, it might have been meatier for us to not have them fight each other like the usual "brother against brother" trope and resolution, and instead explore the conflict it creates for a man like Tak, and how his relation with his now Meth sister would develop. Just my opinion, but I think there would have been a lot of interesting stuff to tell if they went that way instead of the more banal "kill your evil brother" thing that's been done before.

teragon said:

Was entertaining for sure, I really dig the concept of immortality through the stacks, and what it does to humans in the long run, even if I wish they spent more time on that.
My main gripe though is that while it had some very good moments, it also had a plethora of straight hollywood cliches as well, which frankly I'm starting to find very tiring.
Also, a bionical arm doesn't give you superhuman strength to punch a dude and send him through a wall, stop a blade yes, crush something in your hand yes, but punching or lifting something heavy requires muscles and strength for the whole body and overall body mass. Honestly I think it would be a glorified knuckle duster at best...
I understand this was from a book, so they probably followed the source material, but I kinda wish things would have been different between Tak and his sister, it might have been meatier for us to not have them fight each other like the usual "brother against brother" trope and resolution, and instead explore the conflict it creates for a man like Tak, and how his relation with his now Meth sister would develop. Just my opinion, but I think there would have been a lot of interesting stuff to tell if they went that way instead of the more banal "kill your evil brother" thing that's been done before.

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It's the same thing with the Six Million Dollar Man. It won't let you lift a car, you'll just snap your spine. It won't let you run 60mph, your pelvis will shatter. Reality doesn't work anything like that.

I've been enjoying the hell out of the show so far. We had to stop watching halfway through Episode 8 so I could go to bed due to needing to be at work early. I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out later today.

really enjoyed it.

i see why some people don't like it, but the idea and the visuals were amazing, and i really liked some of the characters. And boy do i love that backpack.

It was... okay. Now I hate cyberpunk and dystopian futures, mostly because they are so asinine, but this did a decent job, with mostly good actors and at least some of the problems with it were budgetary, not story-driven. That said though, a society like this would never, ever survive, which makes the story a bit silly no matter how you look at it.

Just finished watching it...really excited for the direction season 2 would take. Especially with what happened in the finale...

I was really enjoying it up until like the last .. 2 episodes, I don't know if it was just Binge fatigue or if it just kind of fell off but i'm still looking forward to Season 2.

I was interested in the premise that the actual consciousness is transferred. That it's a precious or unique thing.

But turns out it's just copied memories which is pretty lame. You die as soon as you are copied onto that disc. That's easier to deal with story-wise but so much more boring.

MrSouthpaw said:

I was interested in the premise that the actual consciousness is transferred. That it's a precious or unique thing.

But turns out it's just copied memories which is pretty lame. You die as soon as you are copied onto that disc. That's easier to deal with story-wise but so much more boring.

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True, but the way they did it also destroys society. How do you know who commits what crime? How can you prove which stack is in which sleeve? So what, you go knock out a bum in an alley, put your stack into his body, go rob a bank, then come back, swap stacks and there's no way at all to know who actually committed the crime. The whole concept is idiotic.

The wife and I finished it last night. We enjoyed it a lot. I'm a big fan of cyberpunk and this series hit all the right notes for me. I'm really hoping for a season 2.

Overall, I enjoyed it. I expect if this does well they will turn the other two books into shows and hopefully explain some more of the backstory with the "Elders". I assume in the other two books he looks for Quell.

One phrase came to mind part way through the second episode that I have never used before: "gratuitous nudity". Most of it did not add to the story and if I want to see naked people who live at the gym I'll google it.

I've found a link to a site doing a run on the backpacks, I can't speak for how good they are going to turn out. But I figured I'd share with everyone:


https://hellounicorn-backpack.com/p...k&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=2Image+B+Text+A

NormanF said:

One phrase came to mind part way through the second episode that I have never used before: "gratuitous nudity". Most of it did not add to the story and if I want to see naked people who live at the gym I'll google it.

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Most nudity is gratuitous nudity these days. Game of Thrones is no different. It's intended to titillate the audience, not to be part of the story. It rarely has anything to do with the story being told. When it becomes excessive, I just turn the show off. If I wanted to watch porn, I'd watch porn. I want well-done television for mature adults.

NormanF said:

One phrase came to mind part way through the second episode that I have never used before: "gratuitous nudity". Most of it did not add to the story and if I want to see naked people who live at the gym I'll google it.

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Wait.... worse than HBO???

Cephus said:

Most nudity is gratuitous nudity these days. Game of Thrones is no different. It's intended to titillate the audience, not to be part of the story. It rarely has anything to do with the story being told. When it becomes excessive, I just turn the show off. If I wanted to watch porn, I'd watch porn. I want well-done television for mature adults.

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There was an extensive scene where I felt really weird watching it, where the same person is nude 9 different ways...but also an action scene at the same time so I thought to myself that the reason for the nudity felt a bit forced.

Yea, it was certainly gratuitous. But for me, the utter lack of respect that world seemed to give to covering the human form, certainly seemed to reinforce how little importance was placed on the specific nature of the human body, and a greater focus on a person being the sum of what was in their stack. And in general, the more a character's viewpoints were skewed by long life and wealth, the less they cared about being clothed, or about those around them being clothed; the body itself was as much a fashion statement to them at that point as a dress or a T-shirt.

That, and a lot of the show took place in the seedy underworld of virtual and real life sex dungeons... so...

Did they ever even show the transfer process? Aren't stored memories what make you you? If everything you are is in this disk, then if it transferred to a new body, wouldn't it be just like teleporting?

Clutch said:

Did they ever even show the transfer process? Aren't stored memories what make you you? If everything you are is in this disk, then if it transferred to a new body, wouldn't it be just like teleporting?

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Yes. The stack is the storage device, the information is the person. so there are numerous times and plots that require an individual do beam into a new body. They only show a person beam OUT a few times (usually you just see a new body waking up, as someone beams IN). getting out of a body usually consists of being in a type of full body pod (presumably to keep the body alive and well while you're gone) or once or twice a neck strap device being used to completely abandon a body and be beamed to a body someplace else.

I enjoyed the show as a whole.

However, both my wife and I were a bit annoyed with Ortega's character and her story line. I wanted to see more of our main character Kovacs, but his story and action felt constantly interrupted with Ortega. I am seeing this pattern in a few of Netflix's series of the side characters story dominating the screen. It feels more like commercial breaks, and I am just waiting to get back to our main story.

Apart from that, I liked it