Review: Altered Carbon
A series so marvelous that it transcends genre. Watch it for the experience.
It is easy to imagine the world a few years from now. But what Richard K. Morgan did with his cyberpunk noir graphic novel Altered Carbon was brilliant. And now Netflix takes us to the dystopian future in its latest eponymous series, set centuries from now. Humans have settled in other worlds, and have found a way to transfer and back up their consciousness from one body to another. This futuristic life of digitizing one’s ‘soul’ into something called a ‘stack’, is the premise where the pilot episode kicks off.
With human consciousness reduced to a walnut-sized stack, bodies are now called ‘sleeves’. You are born in your ‘birth sleeve’ and then you transfer to other sleeves after your ‘sleeve-death’. The setting is enthralling and imaginative, but what really grips you is the way Netflix — with a cast worthy of every appreciation that will come their way — has produced a series so marvelous that it transcends genre.
The central plot is a crime thriller, the setting a dystopian futuristic noir, the way it flows an action adventure, and what it teases a philosophical drama. Netflix, color me impressed.
Just ten episodes in this short series, Altered Carbon has enough fodder to spawn more adaptations and spin-offs. Yes, it has enough gore, nudity and blood to give Spartacus some competition, but the tasteful cinematography and the fast-paced story telling is guaranteed to hook you in.
The stellar cast includes James Purefoy as a filthy rich god-like man bringing back a former rebel combatant, envoy warrior Takeshi Kovacs, to investigate his murder (yes, his stack had a “backup”).
The wonderfully talented Will Yun Lee plays Kovacs in his birth-sleeve, and then he gets a Joel Kinnaman sleeve in his resurrection. The performance of both actors are a treat to watch.
The story follows Takeshi as he unwraps the mystery behind the murder. In a visual wonder with noteworthy performances from Martha Higareda, Dichen Lachman and Renee Elise Goldsberry, what truly stood out for me was Chris Conner as a highly evolved AI — a hotel manager who manifests in the form of Edgar Allan Poe.
As Altered Carbon premieres in Netflix on February 2, watch it for the experience. The ten-episode spectacle takes you to the future and gives you a sneak preview of what humans could do with god-like immortality, you might start seeing the world a little different.
It is a 5/5 for Netflix’s Altered Carbon from me.
This article first premiered in February on THE WEEK’s online platform: https://www.theweek.in/review/movies/2018/02/17/altered-carbon-series-review.html
