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Altered Carbon |OT| Stacked to the Max

Kadayi

Kadayi

Banned




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2261227/

Latest Netflix original series based on Richard K. Morgans award-winning Sci-fi Novel of the same name. In a distant cyberpunk future in which human consciousness can be stored and moved between bodies, a former terrorist insurgent with an analytical skillset is brought back from perpetual prison storage to help solve the murder of an enigmatic and ludicrously wealthy patron.

Only a couple of episodes in, but I'm digging it.

Observations so far: -

No expense spared by Netflix...the budget must have been substantial even if a lot of it is CG

Joel Kinnaman - that dude is seriously ripped

Miguel Sapochnik - Decent first episode
 
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4 episodes in. The storyline does a good job exploring the idea of the tech, and how human form (referred to as sleeves) is regarded as a more disposable asset versus the memory record (the stack) and the implications of that in a multitude of different ways, both positive and negative. There are certain contrivances as play, but as with a lot of sci-fi the future is largely now, but somewhat shinier. Peoples mannerisms and mores are at times a tad too 20th century in familiarity for a show set 300 years from now but it's not too egregious, just a bit distracting.
 
first episode was garbage imo... don't mean to discourage, as i could see how this could be right up some's alley, especially on a gaming forum

but i'm going to have to nope my way around this one
 
Kadayi said:
4 episodes in. The storyline does a good job exploring the idea of the tech, and how human form (referred to as sleeves) is regarded as a more disposable asset versus the memory record (the stack) and the implications of that in a multitude of different ways, both positive and negative. There are certain contrivances as play, but as with a lot of sci-fi the future is largely now, but somewhat shinier. Peoples mannerisms and mores are at times a tad too 20th century in familiarity for a show set 300 years from now but it's not too egregious, just a bit distracting.
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Just finished it. Yeah, those are the same problems the book had, but I felt it was more egregious in the book (where, like, people don't even communicate except face to face, lol). They smoothed some things over in that regard for the show and threw in more modern/future tech and concepts. Whether book or show, you still have to treat it more like a classic noir procedural + the sleeving conceit rather than a proper far future cyberpunk universe, since the worldbuilding can be on the really thin side at times and clearly isn't the emphasis, but it's carried by an engaging narrative and memorable characters.

Anyway, thumbs up from me for the Netflix series. I prefer headier, crazier stuff in the genre, but Altered Carbon turned out to be a good fit for a Netflix adaptation and it's great to see more cyberpunk scifi in the mix and done well. They did good stuff with the narrative structure on the show and I recommend sticking with it if you're on the fence after the first ep or two. It goes places.
 
EviLore said:
Just finished it. Yeah, those are the same problems the book had, but I felt it was more egregious in the book (where, like, people don't even communicate except face to face, lol). They smoothed some things over in that regard for the show and threw in more modern/future tech and concepts. Whether book or show, you still have to treat it more like a classic noir procedural + the sleeving conceit rather than a proper far future cyberpunk universe, since the worldbuilding can be on the really thin side at times and clearly isn't the emphasis, but it's carried by an engaging narrative and memorable characters.
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Understandable given the book was written in 2003 from what I can tell. It's a commonality with a lot of sci-fi adaptations tbh, because authors aren't able to predict our future, just their future. For all the prophetic vision of Bill Gibson in Neuromancer and the sprawl trilogy regarding cyberspace, there's a blatant lack of cell phone tech in those early books (and some would say a tad too many in his later ones.....). Still, this one is more palatable than something like Surrogates (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0986263/) which was a neat idea (people driving/living through android bodies whilst they themselves stay at home) , just not one remotely thought through in terms of the profound impact such technology would have on society from the ground up with regards to the world building. Having your Android drive to work just seems like a case of: -

but-why.gif


Versus having inhabitable bodies already there you could just jack into.
 
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Watched 2 episodes so far. They really got the spirit of book nicely into it.

But i think i need to read it again since i don't remember that much Quell stuff in book 1.
 
I liked the setting and sleeve hook. Poe was well done and I enjoyed every scene he was in, also the guy who played Bancroft was good. I congratulate Kinnaman on his shoulders and he was good as Kovacs. The other characters were forgettable. Also, this needed to be like 5 less episodes than it was.

I wish it were more hardboiled the murder mystery aspect was flat. They needed to be more subtle with Quell.
I thought the sister plotline was contrived.

Overall I liked it but there is a feeling that they could have really nailed this and made something really spectacular but it just didn't materialize.
 
Four episodes in and I'm really liking it too. I read the books quite a long time ago so I don't remember all the details which is nice going into this.
 
Finished :)

Overall I really liked it though I do feel that despite the scope of the setting it was a tad confined at times. Definitely up for further seasons, though given how the season ended I would envisage that they're be looking at a complete recast with the occasional flashback. I thought the flashbacks to when they were rebels were pretty good, so more of that wouldn't go amiss.

Wasn't overly keen on the lengthy denouncement at the end, which felt overly dramatic. Also, I couldn't help but feel that the fights needed to be a less showy and a bit more John Wick (though that could just be down to having rewatched those films recently). The pacing was also a little languid at times and often came at the cost of a more thorough explanation as to what was going on. The whole sleeves thing and people dipping in and out of them got pretty confusing in places as well as the synthetic thing (I didn't get how or why the daughter was able to change the look of the synth at all).

I think I'd give it a solid 7/10 rating. Intriguing enough to watch through, though I'm not sure I'd necessarily watch it again save as a refresher for a second season. Be a bit weird to not see Joel Kinnaman reprise the role of Takeshi Kovacs and have another actor in the part, but the idea of having it be different people every season (save for the flashbacks, because flashback dudes were bad ass) would be pretty cool and tie in with the fiction.

Also, I remember her from Dollhouse, but it has to be said that Dichen Lachman has a mesmeric face
 
Seeing all the "expert reviewers" who fell all over themselves to 10/10 The Last Jedi slam this thing for insufficient Social Justice when that was the premise suggested to me that it might be good.

Watched the whole thing and it's great! If you like Cyberpunk at all you should find something to enjoy here.
 
Midway through episode 5, and I'm loving it - really impressed. I'm kind of surprised at the lukewarm reception by critics, though I admittedly haven't read through reviews as to not spoil anything. I suspect the issues that bothered them (and seem to bother many nowadays) wouldn't affect me in the same way.

Anything cyberpunk draws me in immediately, but I think this show does an exceptional job of capturing the atmosphere of that genre. Plus, I kind of needed something like this to cleanse my pallet after watching Cloverfield Paradox, so I started a binge last night right afterwards.

Also really liked Kinnaman in The Killing, and I think he does a great job in this as well.
 
Halfway through now and so far my partner and myself enjoy it. I'm a sucker for anything cyberpunk, so for me it is to be expected. But since my she didn't even know blade runner until last year (shocking, I know!) I was curious to see her response. So far she seems more into it than I am.

Neither of us know the book, we were just finding out after the first few episodes that it's based on one.

The series looks pretty slick, but I have to say some of the cgi could have been better. But now I'm starting to nitpick, let's see how many plot holes there will be by the end of the week when we finish it ;)
 
I wonder why nobody is mentioning the 'smoothing' going on. Is it filmed at a higher framerate? It's really jarring - like what Jackson tried with the Hobbit. Anyone? No, we don't have it enabled on our TV - we hate that stuff.
 
sparky2112 said:
I wonder why nobody is mentioning the 'smoothing' going on. Is it filmed at a higher framerate? It's really jarring - like what Jackson tried with the Hobbit. Anyone? No, we don't have it enabled on our TV - we hate that stuff.
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Smoothing? Didn't look like it was running HFR to my eyes. Some actions sequences definitely had sped up framerates to make things look faster (very common across all action choreography in film and tv), but not in the HFR sense where they're actually bumping up to 48 fps etc.. Checking imdb et al it looks like a standard 24 fps production. Nothing funky going on.
 
EviLore said:
Smoothing? Didn't look like it was running HFR to my eyes. Some actions sequences definitely had sped up framerates to make things look faster (very common across all action choreography in film and tv), but not in the HFR sense where they're actually bumping up to 48 fps etc.. Checking imdb et al it looks like a standard 24 fps production. Nothing funky going on.
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Quite a bit of it looked like video and not film, but it wasn't consistent - which was jarring, the flipping back and forth. Some of the CG would have looked fine at 24 and looked cheap as hell to us. Wish I knew what was going on...
 
So, I'm two episodes in and it's just ok. I'm having a really hard time tolerating, the Woman Cop character (Kristen). Her acting is incredibly bad (it hurts to watch). Does she get better as the story progresses?
 
MEsoJD said:
So, I'm two episodes in and it's just ok. I'm having a really hard time tolerating, the Woman Cop character (Kristen). Her acting is incredibly bad (it hurts to watch). Does she get better as the story progresses?
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yeah I kinda felt that way she felt like your stereotypical angry latino woman, I kinda hoping she dies but I don't think she will
 
MEsoJD said:
So, I'm two episodes in and it's just ok. I'm having a really hard time tolerating, the Woman Cop character (Kristen). Her acting is incredibly bad (it hurts to watch). Does she get better as the story progresses?
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I'll best honest if you're after decent acting, then I wouldn't say this is the show to find it in. It's a little broad-brush in that regard.

Night.Ninja said:
yeah I kinda felt that way she felt like your stereotypical angry latino woman, I kinda hoping she dies but I don't think she will
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That whole aspect (especially given we aren't even on Earth) did feel pretty jarring it has to be said. Still, there are some weird anachronistic aspects to the show, that are probably hangovers from the book that might have been re-imagined with better writers on board. As I understand it the author was directly involved in the adaptation and that isn't necessarily always a good thing as they're likely resistant to too much change, when it might have served the narrative better. Personally, I thought the themed AI Hotel based on Edgar Alan Poe a good 300+ years in the future seemed like a highly improbable thing (Edgar Alan who?) Let alone it being empty for 50 years and not having been demolished.
 
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Kadayi said:
I'll best honest if you're after decent acting, then I wouldn't say this is the show to find it in. It's a little broad-brush in that regard.
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I knew the acting and writing wasn't going to be it's biggest strengths, but christ there are some jarring moments. I think I've been spoiled recently on good sci-fi content like, Blade Runner 2049 and West World. I really like the main concept of this show so I'll hang in there.
 
Night.Ninja said:
yeah I kinda felt that way she felt like your stereotypical angry latino woman, I kinda hoping she dies but I don't think she will
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I feel you. It was like, "hey look, I'm an ethnicity" by emphasizing the Spanish abruptly than reverting to English.
Which brings up the issue of consistency/immersion in this show. We have a society that you can pretty much be immortal, yet you'd think their would be a universal language augment. Also jarring so far is how prominent religion seems in this world, when death doesn't always mean the end.
Though I'm only two episodes in so maybe some of these issues won't stand out too much.
 
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MEsoJD said:
I feel you. It was like, "hey look, I'm an ethnicity" by emphasizing the Spanish abruptly than reverting to English.
Which brings up the issue of consistency/immersion in this show. We have a society that you can pretty much be immortal, yet you'd think their would be a universal language augment. Also jarring so far is how prominent religion seems in this world, when death doesn't always mean the end.
Though I'm only two episodes in so maybe some of these issues won't stand out too much.
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I'm not gonna throw book spoilers around but her behaviour will be easier to understand later.
Also religion is important part of plot.
 
So, I've gotten passed episode 5 and it's still been quite the struggle. The GF and I can only do about 1 to 2 episodes per day. That said, the torture episode was by far the best, but the storyline with the latino chick and her family is rediculous. This tech has been around for hundreds of years and people still clingue to god? I just don't buy it at all. I feel it's probably sticking too close to it's source material (just a feeling) and they should have taken some creative liberties to freshen it up. Smoking cigarettes that arent electronic also feels out of place. The cop is still the worst character on the show. I also enjoy nudity, but they don't make it fun. Just flaunting it whenever they can... Sorry to rant and ramble.
Anyway, just some thoughts so far. Still trying, but god it's hard.
 
I like it. Around about 3 episode to the last now. The beginning half is suppose to somewhat generic it's all a red herring.
 
A little WTF I knew something was rubbing me wrong with amount of Quell stuff this early but
why have they completely replaced Virginia Viadura with Quell and they make it looks like Emissaries were trained to be revolutionaries by her ?
 
michaelius said:
A little WTF I knew something was rubbing me wrong with amount of Quell stuff this early but
why have they completely replaced Virginia Viadura with Quell and they make it looks like Emissaries were trained to be revolutionaries by her ?
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Not read the book, but at a guess, as with any adaptation, it was simply judicious to merge characters/simplify storylines.
 
michaelius said:
A little WTF I knew something was rubbing me wrong with amount of Quell stuff this early but
why have they completely replaced Virginia Viadura with Quell and they make it looks like Emissaries were trained to be revolutionaries by her ?
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Ya, I didn't like that either. He's a U.N Envoy!

Also, they didn't use the best Quellcrist Falconer quote

'When they ask how I died, tell them: still angry.'
 
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Not reading a single post in here due to avoiding spoilers but just wanted to say how much I love this show. Going to be depressed when I'm done with it.
 
Finished it early this morning.

Oh. My. God.

What a fantastic show.

Knew absolute zilch about the book until literally opening this thread lol I am in love with this show; I'm a futurist, and in love with anything cyberpunk, dystopian or far future. This was Blade Runner in show form for me. I am hoping that they come with a second season because once I started I couldn't stop watching. I know some people are complaining about the nudity, but I liked it :p. It seemed to me like they gave unknown actors an opportunity here and that speaks volumes. Loved every minute of the show.

DarkestHour DarkestHour yes, you will be depressed finishing it. I can't find anything comparable. Word of advice? DO NOT BINGE lol
 
People are complaining about the nudity? (of course people are complaining about the nudity...)

This is a hard R, heavy and violent show clearly labeled and intended for mature audiences, and more importantly it's cyberpunk with an emphasis on transhumanism and body swapping. It'd do legitimate disservice to the narrative and the concepts being explored here to actively avoid nudity, just like turning it sterile and bloodless in a PG-13 direction on the violence front would.
 
I haven't read the book and I'm about half way through the season. It's not bad but it feels like all the characters (except poe) are trying so hard to be tough and hard that they become unlikable and it becomes grating.
 
The nudity angle reminded me a lot of Westworld with the hosts. It's there but for the most part in service of the story because sleeves are kind of disposable and viewed as such.
 
Just got done with this show. Holy shit. More people need to watch it and it's our duty to get that word out. The world needs more shows like this.
 
Mattdaddy said:
Episode 7 and the voice for flashback Tak finally clicked. WEI SHEN MOTHER FUCKER.
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Hahaha that's literally what I said when it clicked for me! My wife was pretty confused. I was sad that Lee didn't get more screen time, but hopefully for a season 2, should we get one. Fantastic in the role.
 
BTW, my comments about the weird framerate issues and such seems to have been an issue that is no longer an issue. When we watched Ep. 1 on the first night, ALL the shots w/o dialog looked like they were 48 fps. Dialog was 24. I don't know what the hell was going on, but we rewatched Ep. 1 last night and it wasn't doing it anymore. Very weird.
 
sparky2112 said:
BTW, my comments about the weird framerate issues and such seems to have been an issue that is no longer an issue. When we watched Ep. 1 on the first night, ALL the shots w/o dialog looked like they were 48 fps. Dialog was 24. I don't know what the hell was going on, but we rewatched Ep. 1 last night and it wasn't doing it anymore. Very weird.
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If you have an HDR tv, check your picture modes. On my TV at least, I had to separately disable motion smoothing on non-HDR and HDR picture modes.
 
Finished it over the weekend, I liked it. Hoping they find a way to get a second season, we don't have enough Cyberpunk ;)
 
pj said:
If you have an HDR tv, check your picture modes. On my TV at least, I had to separately disable motion smoothing on non-HDR and HDR picture modes.
Click to expand...

I may have inadvertently done this between viewings, given that I rifled through the settings after the first weird viewing. Thx!
 
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