Altered Carbon has the makings of a great show: future technology, moral issues, complicated love stories, and other popular tropes. However, it really missed the mark for me. It definitely has some pros but the fact that it is missing so many things key to an awesome show is disappointing. It really didn’t have to be this way.
The best thing about Altered Carbon is the technology. It is so creative and cool! The lingo they use for some of it is a little “hacking the mainframe” style of trying too hard to be accurate and understandable while sounding fake. But the actual visuals and usage of the futuristic gadgets are entertaining. It made me wonder if downloading consciousness wasn’t so far off. Most of the characters can reload their consciousness in new bodies, which they call sleeves. Another thing I can give props to the show for is recognizing the moral problem of not truly dying. They wrote in the option to not have that code programmed into you due to religion and the main organization in the show has an issue with this regeneration.
My least favorite part of the show is tough to decide on. Some of the acting is awful, especially by the poor actress who plays Officer Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda), but that’s not the worst of it. The truth is that the gore and violence in the show are almost unbearable at times. Now, I don’t think of myself as a having a weak stomach, and this show made me close to vomiting. My biggest mistake was trying to eat while watching an episode—YIKES! I would describe it as a mixture of Saw, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones on how realistic it’s gore and battles are. Don’t get me wrong, some of the fight scenes are completely awesome! Most of the time, though, they just go too far. One particularly gut-wrenching scene is of a wealthy man, hopped up on a violent drug, assaulting and murdering a woman by bashing her head into the headboard. It was almost too terrible of imagery for me to handle. I do think the show illustrates it’s point of power becoming unmanageable through its use of violence, but it goes overboard with that illustration.
A pretty likable facet of the show is the love story and how that ties into the main character’s (Takeshi Kovacs) personality and choices. This is why Episode 6, “Man with My Face”, is my favorite episode. It exhibits the essence of Kovacs relationships with these two women, who he loves. We see that he has chosen these women for similar reasons, which reveals that he is not only a softer guy than can be assumed but also that he is much braver because he can fight against anyone for his love. Altered Carbon also gives a needed social commentary on how far wealth can get you. It beats this point into the ground, but it needs to be pushed into people’s minds. Being overtly rich can make awful people absolute monsters and can make everyone else silent.
The story has a slightly unpredictable ending and some dimensions of it are interesting, such as the motivation behind many of the characters. Although the plot is what really kept me entertained, it felt like the writers were struggling to add depth to the connections between all the roles and narratives. They tried to piece together what seemed like random experiences, but it just didn’t feel authentic. It felt like they thought about a group’s meaning at the last minute and added it in late. Some of the acting really does not aid in this problem. Like I mentioned earlier, Ortega’s acting is terrible, except for when she is pissed off. That’s the only time I could handle it. Other poor performances come from some of the other female characters, like Reileen Kawahara, the protagonist’s sister. Her acting is nowhere near as bad as Ortega’s but sometimes is very superficial. The same goes for Miriam Bancroft. Trying to analyze the reasons behind this, I’d say maybe it has to do with the females’ roles being far weaker than the males. None of these roles would pass the Bechdel test nor would their characters have any progress without men. For all of these reasons, but mostly the violence, I give this show a 5. If you can handle the gore, you may enjoy it more than I did.
