[TV Netflix] Altered Carbon

[Tiwack]

Nah, if the first episode sucks I'm out, the first and last episodes of a series should be the best ones

If the themes are of interest you generally watch more than first episode before you judge. Not every formular presents itself like you describe - so by gate-keeping like that you're not allowing the art equal footing if first episode merely sets up the series before it takes off and evolve characters and plot. What you describe sounds horrible to watch with 1 hour at each end being solid tv and around 8 hours drawn out nonsense in between.

[SirBeef]

You absolutely should not watch it with that attitude. You can immediately rate the pacing, acting, and you must, MUST immediately care for the characters, in the first episode of a SERIES.

Not sure if this is a criticism, an agreement, or sarcasm? But it is easily possible to determine if I like the pacing, the acting and whether or not the story has me hooked. It is definitely not an attitude as you said though. I went into this wanting to like it. This is the kind of stuff I like.

[Lane]

Honestly, I didn't find much of anything interesting about the 'present day' storylines. I was much more intrigued by the flashbacks with CTAC and the Envoys.

Spoilers: I thought Rei's actions were more befitting of a lover than a sister. I felt like Quell should've been the slain sister Takeshi kept searching for and Rei the obsessed/jealous lover who didn't want anyone else taking his attention from her.

[Jtbrig7390]

Never read the book so with that said.

The show was fucken amazing and may be the best show I have watched. It actually makes me really interested in reading the book now.

I think there will be a season 2 but even if there isn't I am happy with how it ended.

[RobertoCarlos]

series started off well, not enjoying the last few episodes though. Feels like im watching that crap arrow or something with the island flashbacks

[Milchshake]

series started off well, not enjoying the last few episodes though. Feels like im watching that crap arrow or something with the island flashbacks

Finished watching it, overall it was an entertaining piece of SciFi.

Firstly, fuck Hollywood for trying to make Joel Kinnaman happen. His elocution and diction are boring as fuck. I get he's a hottie, but he's not really a relatable or engaging lead. After Suicide Squad, Robocop, and that political series, I wish Hollywood casting would just move on. This is Jai Courtney levels of bad.

The extended flashbacks in episodes 7 and 8 were the hilight of the show. They would have been worth the price of admission as a stand alone movie. Leonard Nam as Tak Kovacs prime was great, more range and emotion. The story arc with him, his sister, and Quell was really engaging.

Then everyone gets throw under the bus for the last 2 episodes for the sake of plot filler to extend the series.

[RobertoCarlos]

Firstly, fuck Hollywood for trying to make Joel Kinnaman happen. His elocution and diction are boring as fuck. I get he's a hottie, but he's not really a relatable or engaging lead. After Suicide Squad, Robocop, and that political series, I wish Hollywood casting would just move on. This is Jai Courtney levels of bad.

Thankfully the Jai Courtney experiment seems to be over after suicide squad/terminator failed massively.

[Skizzit]

Finished watching it, overall it was an entertaining piece of SciFi.

Firstly, fuck Hollywood for trying to make Joel Kinnaman happen. His elocution and diction are boring as fuck. I get he's a hottie, but he's not really a relatable or engaging lead. After Suicide Squad, Robocop, and that political series, I wish Hollywood casting would just move on. This is Jai Courtney levels of bad.

The extended flashbacks in episodes 7 and 8 were the hilight of the show. They would have been worth the price of admission as a stand alone movie. Leonard Nam as Tak Kovacs prime was great, more range and emotion. The story arc with him, his sister, and Quell was really engaging.

Then everyone gets throw under the bus for the last 2 episodes for the sake of plot filler to extend the series.

I actually think Joel Kinnaman did a fine job and while his movie track record is garbage, he was amazing in The Killing. Also, that was Will Yun Lee as original Kovacs. I think at some point both Leonardo Nam and Byron Mann were both also rumored for the role (and even at some point with more that one person playing various sleeves of him at different points in life) it seems Lee eventually ended up with the role.

[hellhamster]

I liked it despite it dropping the ball at the end, pretty much became a Marvel movie with Marvel antagonists and Marvel plots to take them down. I also would have liked a lot more depth to it, it's a pity it became action centered Netflix popcorn-core.

I r8 8/10, britty gud.

[Daedius]

Just watched the first episode... was sold with the Hotel Scene. Going to binge watch it later.

[Milchshake]

I actually think Joel Kinnaman did a fine job and while his movie track record is garbage, he was amazing in The Killing. Also, that was Will Yun Lee as original Kovacs. I think at some point both Leonardo Nam and Byron Mann were both also rumored for the role (and even at some point with more that one person playing various sleeves of him at different points in life) it seems Lee eventually ended up with the role.

Ahh thanks, Will Yun Lee did play the best Kovacs. Google pointed to Leonard Nam for some reason.

Kinnaman is fine in The Killing. His character's dialog almost has a sing-song quality to it. Maybe he needs better directors to bring out more emotion.
Another analog is Charlie Hunnam, who was great in Sons of Anarchy. But totally miserable and flat in Pacific Rim and that King Arthur bullshit. Finally good again in Lost City of Z.

Both total hotties who do great work ass naked. But god awful monologues.

[eschatological]

I think the problem with Rei was her motivations. Her "heel turn" so to speak just didn't make much sense, and wasn't believable.

[hellhamster]

I think the problem with Rei was her motivations. Her "heel turn" so to speak just didn't make much sense, and wasn't believable.

Childhood trauma, coupled with violent sibling relation breakup and being abandoned as a child, as well as living for hundreds of years can do a lot of psychological damage.

[eschatological]

She's the one who violently broke up their relationship the second time though. Which Tak didn't even know, she did it basically to herself.

I think the main problem is, she had a problem with the decision he made in joining the Envoys...........and then let it fester for years, without giving even a hint that she wasn't okay with it. Nor did she offer any reasonable alternative, since they were so wanted they couldn't really take transport off the planet. That comes as kind of a blindside in the last couple episodes - that she's angry with Tak for him making (what she thinks are) unilateral decisions for the both of them. That struck me as not very believable if they were supposedly so close.

I also don't see how she can fault him for her being sold to the Yakuza. He had the option to go to jail, or join CTAC, and he did his best to ensure her well-being, and trusted the wrong dude in doing so.

[Fabinas]

She's the one who violently broke up their relationship the second time though. Which Tak didn't even know, she did it basically to herself.

I think the main problem is, she had a problem with the decision he made in joining the Envoys...........and then let it fester for years, without giving even a hint that she wasn't okay with it. Nor did she offer any reasonable alternative, since they were so wanted they couldn't really take transport off the planet. That comes as kind of a blindside in the last couple episodes - that she's angry with Tak for him making (what she thinks are) unilateral decisions for the both of them. That struck me as not very believable if they were supposedly so close.

I also don't see how she can fault him for her being sold to the Yakuza. He had the option to go to jail, or join CTAC, and he did his best to ensure her well-being, and trusted the wrong dude in doing so.

Well she didn't do that, exactly. She decided to END their relationship by blowing up the ship she was in. She probably couldn't stand to share Tak anymore with Kel, so it was Rei or none. And she chose none. She returned to life only by sheer luck when her stack wasn't destroyed (and finding her DNA, so she could clone her initial body).
It also seemed to me that she was angry at Tak for growing up as an independent person from her, for deciding things for himself and never counting her as a factor on those decisions. She dreamed of reunion as two, but she wasn't first priority for Tak, while he was for her.

[eschatological]

Well she didn't do that, exactly. She decided to END their relationship by blowing up the ship she was in. She probably couldn't stand to share Tak anymore with Kel, so it was Rei or none. And she chose none. She returned to life only by sheer luck when her stack wasn't destroyed (and finding her DNA, so she could clone her initial body).
It also seemed to me that she was angry at Tak for growing up as an independent person from her, for deciding things for himself and never counting her as a factor on those decisions. She dreamed of reunion as two, but she wasn't first priority for Tak, while he was for her.

That's not true at all, she was lying about the archaeology student luckily finding her stack. CTAC made a deal with her, and backed her stack up. Her plan from the beginning was to be alive again. It was a plan she made, and it didn't even involve saving Tak from being put on ice for 250 years.

[Svifnymr]

Just finished, lots of good stuff to the series, but you know every Netflix series, even ones I like, is long by a few episodes. Could have trimmed stuff up a bit and made it better. I know they love melee fights in these movies to make scenes longer and show strength/ injury, but it does get tedious at times.

I'm not sure why so much stuff is DNA locked when a sleeve is just a sleeve though. No "stack verification" for a huge Japanese deal? The ghost walker tech doesn't get a satisfactory answer for me, let alone why THAT guy had it and no one else did. His stupid little spikey tool was a little too dumb for me too. Saw an article remarking that the nudity was in reference to the expendable nature of sleeves making bodies a commodity, but it didn't seem to encompass cloning.

Feel wise, the product just felt a little too "dense" for me. Not sure if the rich people are "meth" or "met", or what that means other than immortal rich people. CTac sounded too much like SeaTac, and while I knew they were army guys, I'm still not sure what they served in a real sense. Interplanetary government sure, but how encompassing, no clue. Not sure how you can needlecast across the galaxy, but then I'm also not sure about any of their space-craft since they managed to reach all these different worlds. They just had a lot of stuff shoved into things, without time to explain it, and as I mentioned earlier some of the dialogue didn't seem clear enough, volume wise.

The tattooed guy that played a punk, a spanish grandmother and an assassin was good enough, but everyone playing someone else had a bad mix of the actors accent and the character/ persona. While tone should fit the body, speech patterns should fit the personality, I'd think.

I'll probably watch a season 2, but certainly won't subscribe for it.

[eschatological]

I think they explained it. THey're "Meths", short for "Methusalehs", a Biblical figure who lived a really long time in the Old Testament. It might have been in the very first episode.

[Svifnymr]

I think they explained it. THey're "Meths", short for "Methusalehs", a Biblical figure who lived a really long time in the Old Testament. It might have been in the very first episode.

Yeah, it's possible, as I said some of the dialogue just didn't stand out for me against background sound.

[Gallahadd]

Just finished it. Decent adaption, they changed some parts, but I think it was handled well, and the spirit of the book still remained.

Acting was strong, Takeshi in particular was excellent.

Action was solid, I liked the "super sense" stuff, wish they'd done a bit more of that, and the final battle in episode 10 was legit.

BOOBIES. SO MANY BOOBIES.

The ending was handled well, it's open enough that they can adapt books two and three, should they be picked up for it, but not SO open that if this is the final season, it's left feeling incomplete.

Tbh, my only real complaint was Dichen Lachman, who is... Just fucking awful. As I said above, the acting was generally solid, but then Dichen just absolutely STUNK UP every single fucking scene she was in. It wouldn't have been so bad, if she wasn't such an important fucking character... Yeash. I mean, you know it's bad when The best performance of Rei was the 5 minutes that Martha Higareda played her in episode 7...

I mean, I've seen her in other things, and she's never been THIS bad before. I can't tell if she got worse in this, or if it's just that the other things I've seen her in have been kinda trashy, so she never stood out as being particularly bad, but as the quality was pretty decent in this, she stuck out more.

But yeah, that one complaint aside, REALLY enjoyed this series, fingers crossed for Broken Angels some time next year!