![]() The premise of living forever and how humanity would evolve (or devolve) under those conditions is explored at length in Altered Carbon, and it brings the series to some appropriately disturbing places Does Altered Carbon lose its footing and fall from Head in the Clouds to its demise? No, it carefully balances along the edge, does a backflip, and shows other cyberpunk stories how it’s done. When introducing such a rich and detailed world along with an intricate story woven throughout, there’s always a danger that a show may lose its footing and get bogged down with unnecessary distractions as it progresses. The threat lurking in the shadows throughout the season makes extensive use of all of these unsettling applications and make things deeply personal for both Kovacs and Ortega. If you need information extracted from someone, why not bring them to an illegal clinic that specializes in torturing and killing people over and over again in a virtual construct until they’re broken? The ramifications of using the stack technology are disquieting and its applications are endless. Or it’s taking a closer look at how families are impacted when a loved one is brought back in another sleeve. If the show isn’t exploring a disturbing application of human bodies being used as discardable vessels, it’s looking at the large divide between the super wealthy and everyone else. How does Altered Carbon balance the murder mystery, world building, its characters, and the larger story in the shadows? Aside from some disappointing developments in the murder mystery and how it’s resolved, it balances these elements extremely well. The characters themselves are equally complicated and are portrayed by a highly talented and diverse cast. While that might be disappointing for those going into the show expecting a murder mystery to be the focus, the real strength of the show comes from its exploration of the cortical stack technology, how it has impacted humanity, and how it impacts the main characters. Who is this “ghostwalker” working for? What is he trying to accomplish? RELATED | Altered Carbon Season 1: 4 Episode Challengeĭespite Altered Carbon introducing us to a murder mystery as a hook in the first episode, it serves more as a backdrop for exploring the characters, the cortical stack technology, and a larger story that’s connected to Kovacs’s complicated past. Leung ( Trieu Tran), a devoutly religious hitman who has the ability to erase himself in real-time from all forms of surveillance. The story becomes increasingly complicated as Kovacs and Ortega end up in the crosshairs of Mr. Throughout the season, Kovacs obtains help through memories of the long-dead Envoy leader, Quellcrist Falconer ( Renée Elise Goldsberry). With the help of Bay City Police Department detective Kristin Ortega ( Martha Higareda), artificial intelligence Poe ( Chris Conner), and former Tac Marine medic Vernon Elliot ( Ato Essandoh), Kovacs goes about solving the murder. ![]() Bancroft hires Kovacs to solve a murder: his own.įrom there, the story branches out in several directions. Kovacs violently wakes up 250 years later in 2384 in another sleeve ( Joel Kinnaman), discovers that he has been sentenced to prison for eternity, and is now the property of the wealthiest man on Earth, Laurens Bancroft ( James Purefoy). Within minutes, Kovacs’s sleeve is brutally killed by Colonial Tactical Assault Corps (CTAC) Praetorians and his stack is taken into custody. Takeshi Kovacs ( Byron Mann) is a former Envoy freedom fighter (or terrorist if you’re the U.N. Humanity, through the use of technology installed at the base of the neck, has developed the ability to encode and transfer the human mind into other bodies, or “sleeves.” This “cortical stack” technology has allowed humanity to spread far beyond Earth’s solar system into the stars. ![]() ![]() Altered Carbon doesn’t hold back when exploring its futuristic setting and, in the midst of that, delivers a smart, captivating cyberpunk story with equally engaging charactersĪltered Carbon is Netflix’s first serious, big-budget attempt at telling a cyberpunk story in live-action. ![]()
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