[Netflix] Altered Carbon (Series 2)
[Netflix] Altered Carbon (Series 2) is generic and broadcast TV quality Sci-Fi. Netflix has stripped out everything that made the books worthy of being made into a series.
[!Spoilers!]
“Bleh. Why am I watching this?” How many times during the eight episodes of this season did I think that? Four. Well, I didn’t count, but four seems like an accurate enough number.
The Plot-
The story picks up 30 years into Takeshi Kovacs search for his long-lost love, Quellcrist Falconer. -The once thought dead leader of the (what’s a better word than ‘raped’?)… shit on and stupid Netflix version of the Envoys.
Other than that, Series 2 is a bad mix of a continuation of S1 and the second and third Takeshi Kovacs books all mashed together.
Production-
Series 1 of Altered Carbon was miles beyond S2 in terms of production quality and writing. I have no idea, but I assume S1 had a much heftier budget and the writing staff took the project more seriously. This season really felt like something we’ve seen on the Sy-Fy network a dozen times. The contrast between S1 and S2 was jarring.
Writing-
The dialogue was stiff and lifeless, with wooden characters that seemed bored. Beyond the dull characters, there were Game of Thrones season 8 levels of mistakes/BS.
Everyone was Kung-Fu fighting-
AC S2 has the problem of too many fight scenes, and the all too common trope that everyone seems to have 20 years of Martial Arts training. Everyone’s doing ‘cool’ flips and other Matrix style fighting.
The reason they put in so many fight scenes is that if they have three 4-minute fights per 45-minute episode, that’s 12 fewer minutes of actual writing they have to do. The other benefit is that it grabs the attention of a certain percentage of the viewership ( read: the dummies in the audience).
Enter the Quellcrist-
Bro, how is Falconer doing all these moves that would leave Trinity in awe? She’s not in a Custom gene-spliced military grade sleeve, she’s just in her natural normal everyday human body. Another example of S2’s style over substance (read: bad writing) mindset.
Coil Girl in Takeshi’s sleeve scene-
A big deal in the AC universe is the idea of re-sleeving. The premise is that once a consciousness is placed in a new body, the mind takes time to adjust. One of the things that make Envoys so dangerous, is that they have specialized training that allows them to adjust to a new body in minutes (not months).
In this season, there is a scene where Trepp (not an Envoy) borrows Takeshi’s sleeve and goes off to kick butt. The problem is that she instantly has full control of the body, without even a minute of sleeve sickness. Takeshi himself even had to take a minute to adjust in episode 1.
Final Thoughts-
The great thing about Altered Carbon Series 2 is that it has given me a new-found appreciation for S1. Series 1, despite its flaws, is a far superior show. S2 is mediocre and forgettable.
2.5/5 = Mediocre (at best)
Originally published at http://terabullone.wordpress.com on March 1, 2020.