[Review] Altered Carbon Season 1: Visually Stunning, Lacking Depth

Altered Carbon is set in 2384, an era where human consciousness and memories can be stored in cortical stacks behind the neck, allowing them to be freely inserted into new bodies (sleeves) for eternal life. The protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs (played by Joel Kinnaman), a former rebel, has just completed a 250-year prison sentence and is re-sleeved into a new synthetic body. A wealthy city mogul (James Purefoy) hires Kovacs to investigate the murder of his previous body. Throughout his investigation, the protagonist is tormented by past experiences and trauma, while being relentlessly pursued by both police and criminals, leading him step-by-step towards a dangerous and shocking truth.

I deeply admire the story's innovative and unique premise! When human consciousness is digitized, people can live indefinitely, creating an unprecedented world. The wealthy can constantly change bodies and live forever, while the poor sell their bodies, becoming toys for the rich to satisfy their desires for sex, violence, and gore. This dystopian setting is truly captivating, holding infinite possibilities and making the audience anticipate unique developments and surprises in such a different world.

Another major selling point of Altered Carbon is its exciting combat and gunfight scenes. The actors put in great effort practicing Taekwondo, Jujutsu, wrestling, and Filipino martial arts for their performances. Furthermore, the violent scenes are presented with striking realism, creating intense visual and sensory stimulation. Audiences who enjoy thrilling action sequences should definitely not miss this!

While the story's setting is unique, the plot is not significantly different from a typical police procedural or crime thriller, and the character development is equally formulaic. Neither the protagonist's emotional arc nor the betrayals and separations between characters are difficult to predict, leading to a lack of surprise in the plot. Even with the futuristic dystopian elements, they fail to mask the cliché storyline and overused character relationships.

In fairness, the series does attempt to explore themes that would deeply engage audiences in a dystopian world, such as the ugliness of human nature, and moral, religious, and philosophical questions stemming from new technologies like artificial intelligence and virtual reality, even extending to the very definition of "human." However, these are merely touched upon superficially or subtly introduced through supporting characters, bearing little relation to the main plot. Audiences are left feeling that the narrative isn't impactful enough and fails to leave a lasting impression.

The series' setting and action sequences certainly offer audiences a sense of novelty, but the actual plot is monotonous and predictable, lacking any real surprise. Moreover, it fails to adequately address the profound human and moral issues it raises. Altered Carbon remains a considerable distance from sci-fi masterpieces with similar themes, such as Westworld or Black Mirror.