'Altered Carbon' Season 1, Spoiler-Free Review: Blade Runner Meets Total Recall!
Altered Carbon, in short, is set in the future where your inner-self, your awareness, everything that makes you, you, is digitized, stored and given a new body for the right price.
Prisoner Takeshi Kovacs (a ripped Joel Kinnaman), is serving an indefinite sentence for a capital crime he claims he did not commit. Lying in a state of complete inertia for 250 years, he is awakened and purchased by wealthy businessman Laurens Bancroft (an awesomely creepy James Purefoy). Kovacs is promised a new lease on life, with a complete pardon for his crimes, if he can catch a killer. Bancroft's killer, in fact.
In this future, you never really die if you can afford to buy a new "sleeve" (body). Your consciousness, memories and all, can be stored in what is called a "stack" and moved to a new sleeve should they face an expected and/or premature death. So in this world, you could be sixty-seven years old and look like a teenager, or you can have your mindfulness put into a body of your own choosing - an enemy, perhaps, or even someone of a different gender or race. However, this "live, die, repeat" foolishness is under threat of being destroyed by a group who will undoubtedly surprise you.
Each episode is packed with valuable information that will slowly unravel the complex story. It's told through present tense and by Kovacs's flashbacks; it's as layered as an over-sized onion. There is mind-bending plot twists and mind-blowing CGI worthy of a $200 million blockbuster. It's well written, well acted, well directed and well shot. Netflix's first foray into an original Sci-Fi series will leave you craving more. I binged through this one in about 3 days because It's just so addictive.
The only problem I had with the show was the fact that there was so much to take in by the end of the 5th episode I started to struggle a little bit to keep track, otherwise I absolutely loved it and the best part of it was the fight choreography which was second-to-none.
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