Altered Carbon - Season 1 Spoiler Review
If you haven’t seen Altered Carbon yet you can read my spoiler-free review here, it’s a great show and this review will contain heavy spoilers so I recommend reading that first, or just watching it first before you read this. I loved this show, it was interesting, entertaining and it felt fairly original, Blade Runner and Dollhouse aside! It wasn’t perfect though, this review will be less a review and more just a list of specific aspects of the show that stood out to me, so without further ado, let’s begin.
The narrative is full of twists and turns and it’s definitely a little convoluted in moments but the main plot point that fell flat with me which is what I was referring to in my spoiler-free review was the idea of Kovacs sister being this terrible villain, I didn’t buy into it at all and it just doesn’t make sense for her character given what we’d seen of her in the flashbacks, it didn’t add up, her actions and her motivations were conflicted and none of it sat right with me.
I loved all the stuff questioning the morality of immortality, the religious protests, the corruption with it when it comes to the wealthy, the ‘’Meth’s’’ as they call them, it’s all interesting stuff but it did feel like their conclusion with it was disappointing, the message at the end seemed to be nothing more than, well if you live forever you’ll eventually become so bored that you’ll turn evil, and I disagree with that it’s kind of stupid in fact, it’s not a deal breaker or anything just a little disappointing.
The ending felt very ‘murder mystery’, it was like the 1985 film Clue, or the ending to a Scooby Doo episode, it wasn’t terrible but it felt a little animated, all the characters are in the room when Kovacs explains everything and it just felt a bit cartoony. Laurens shows himself to have some sort of a soul in there and pretty much every storyline is completely wrapped up, the only thing that didn’t work was that Rei storyline, she’s just pure evil and her ultimately being behind absolutely everything was a bit over the top.
I loved the storyline with Lizzie, there’s a lot of the weird and wonderful in Altered Carbon and that was definitely an example, it was delightfully strange and you’re wondering where it’s going and then, even though it’s kind of stupid, it totally pays off when she goes all Matrix on the perverts! You have to adapt! I’m interested to see more of her and I liked both of her parents too, especially just visually Vernon with Ava in this random man’s body, it’s an interesting visual and gives the scene arguably more impact.
At first I was put off by the idea of Edgar Poe and his hotel, visually it looked at bit silly and the whole scene with the Russians coming to collect Kovacs and being shot down by the Poe simply to retain a customer felt stupid but it really grew on me and after a few episodes I was fully on board with it, he’s one of my favourite characters now and I hope we see him return despite his tragic death, in a world like this it seems entirely possible!
Ortega was another character who took a few episodes to grow on me, I found her extremely irritating at first but after we find out that it’s her boyfriend’s body or ‘’sleeve’’ Bancroft decided to put Kovacs ‘’stack’’ in I felt a lot more sympathetic towards her and liked her a lot more. Her mother on the other hand was irritating without justification although I did enjoy the scenes with her Catholic family who were against the Stack/Sleeve process, it makes complete sense that people would be against it, especially the religious lot.
I’d have liked to have seen a little more about Poe and his group of poker-playing hologram buddies, that was an interesting idea and there’s something really sinister about it, but there wasn’t a whole lot done with it just a couple of scenes. I love the possibilities with the premise, any stack in any sleeve leads to some great scenes like Kovacs who’s in Ortega’s boyfriend’s sleeve pretending to be a grieving mother to a hooker, anyone could be anyone, it’s very unsettling, you wouldn’t be able to trust anyone!
I loved Bancroft’s dinner party in the third episode with the over the top fight to the death between the married couple, it was completely over the top but it worked, the only part that felt too over the top was when blood gets sprayed onto one of the wealthy ‘’Meth’’ women in the audience and she literally licks the blood off of herself, it was a shot too far, we get it there’s a disgusting blood lust in this glutinous crowd of sickeningly wealthy criminals, you didn’t need a shot of blood literally being licked!
I liked the fourth episode a lot with Kovacs being tortured and having flashbacks to Quell teaching him and the other Envoys how to get through it which results in him brutally murdering everyone in the building and taking a severed head with him when he left, it was great! I liked the relationship that developed between Kovacs and Ortega, I didn’t like that they had sex though given that Ortega was in love with her boyfriend it felt like an unnecessary betrayal but I liked the bond between Kovacs and Ortega, it’s handled well.
Quell having created Stacks and Sleeves and the whole process of being able to live forever was a bit farfetched, it just came out of nowhere as well, I liked the stuff with Quell until Kovacs fell in love with her, at that point it just felt a bit forced, it didn’t feel earned and didn’t have the impact it should have. I loved that contraption Rei’s ‘are you a believer’ goon uses to take star shaped chunks of flesh out of Ortega, what the fuck was that thing? I loved it!
James Purefoy was one of the highlights of Altered Carbon for me, his performances was great I’ve been a fan since he played Mark Anthony in Rome and there’s some great stuff with his character here, I just didn’t like the conclusion, it showed he had a heart and had more depth than just being evil I suppose but just handing himself over like that didn’t make sense, it was a little disappointing. I loved the scene when he smashes the copy of himself to pieces in front of his son, that was powerful.
One of my favourite scenes was when Ortega confronts the endless Rei’s, visually it was beautiful but narratively it made no sense, why would the guy who brought Ortega there lock her in and why would Rei attack her and lose all these copies of herself so frivolously, Rei just didn’t make sense as a character, as soon as it’s established that she’s evil and was behind everything the show lost me a bit, I don’t think it worked as it should have, it’s definitely the biggest problem with the show for me.
So those are my thoughts on Altered Carbon, despite anything negative I had to say it’s still a show I really enjoyed and I can’t wait to see the second season, if it gets renewed that is. I loved the show, it lost me a bit towards the end but it’s a great ride and I love the world it takes place in. It’s weird and wonderful with grit, character, lots of originality and it’s completely over the top, but it works! most of the time. Thanks for reading, until next time Steemians!
What did you think of Altered Carbon?