ALTERED CARBON: a takeshi kovacs netflix series adapting richard k. morgan's cyberpunk pulp novels

I can't remember the details of the novel especially well, it's been so long since i read it. but as far as the plot w/the sister and how it wound up for the Bancrofts, is that faithful to the story?

the difference in quality between the violent sci-fi noir vs the Quellcrist flashbacks is considerable and QF is such an enigmatic figure that i didn't care about her or TK's adoration for her, nor did i ever see a point where his character had any reason to adore her. and everything in the forest with the rebels reminded me of the worst bits of Battlestar somehow. idk. Plus the stuff with the sister felt like a very tidy and easy way to wrap up a complex plot, which is why I suspect it differs from the novel somehow. or at least in the novel comes off a bit better.

Joel Kinnaman i think is pretty excellent in the lead role. Purefoy, Martha Higareda, Chris Conner, and Hayley Law i think are all extremely good. Matt Frewer as well, holy shit. Some of the others less so. The worst acting feels extremely not-great in a very obvious TV way. Especially when characters are trying to convey their villainy not by their acts but by saying things in an *extreme douche voice*.

everything in the forest with the rebels reminded me of the worst bits of Battlestar somehow

I was looking for Ewoks.

xp the sister being in play is completely a creation of the show, Kovacs never ran into his family in the books

The Bancroft stuff is nearly identical to the book -- it was completely a situation with an amoral rich man visiting both seedy places and the brothel in the sky

Yeah, from memory a lot of the sister stuff happens the same in the book except it's not his sister but a former mentor/ Envoy from Kovacs' past. Think the Head In The Clouds finale/double sleeving scam plays out almost identically

the Quellcrist stuff is really confusing here, i think it's more foregrounded but there's nothing here to indicate exactly what her group's cause is, nor why Kovacs really becomes a believer, and again there's never a moment that signified any reason he'd come to fall in love with her. unlike Ortega, his relationship w/her is a bit complicated but you understand why he'd care about her. the Quellcrist relationship just seems to exist as a romantic MacGuffin device, someone for the narrative to focus on as a larger goal for him. but it doesn't feel like anything, per se.

i looked up a brief synopsis of the novel and it came back to me a bit, i recognized the story but not the characters who were moving the plot along, that's where the sister stuff threw me. i think her extreme evil just to get Takeshi back was a little OTT to say the least. they kind of kept piling it on, going from her making a decision about the rebels to her literally trafficking in the real death of women and children.

yeah i enjoyed it as pulp up through the "the case is solvèd!"... the third act was a disaster

the case wasn't solved until the last episode, though! that was a fake solution

i wouldn't have recognized KARL AGATHON from BSG if i hadn't read the cast credits.

in that last actual-solving scene i said aloud “i’ve brought you all here to the accusing parlour...” in a prof farnsworth voice

i would have bought the "accusing parlour" scene more if there weren't fifty other people just lounging around, i guess the Bancroft storyline was always very stagey and theatrical tho, accentuating their rich narcissism and sociopathy.

it went full Law and Order in that last ep.

the case wasn't solved until the last episode, though! that was a fake solution

― mh, Thursday, March 1, 2018

obv. but it slid off the rails real fast after that.

The scene w/ Peej's "This Wicked Tongue" is so cathartic.

i’m 3 eps in, havent read the books, completely hooked so far.

it pushes so many Chandler buttons, in a good way... and I am a total sucker for cyberpunk in general....aaaand i have a huge crush on Kinnaman though it is v weird to see him so ripped these days after all those years being scrawny in The Killing.

Hoping you like this as much as I did!

Thanks to vegemite’s post I am going to edit my goatee to match kinnaman’s facial hair from The Killing and also maybe even watch the show

The weird way he looks on ‘roids & ripped fuel is basically what happens to most lanky dudes when they decide to get swole later in life IMLE

good to know
*updates .xls*

it gives me similar enjoyment to Expanse, like i just think abt how i love living in a world where scifi like this exists

Breaking: Altered Carbon has been renewed at Netflix. Anthony Mackie is to replace Joel Kinnaman in the lead role of Takeshi Kovacs in season 2. pic.twitter.com/fsspxvl6n6

— Den Of Geek UK (@denofgeek) July 27, 2018

Was just going to post!!

Having read the first book after watching season 1, I prefer the show simply for how much it consolidated and focused the story.

Also curious for Veg's opinion of the show.

innarestin’

does kovacs change sleeves in between books or is this just a convenient way to cover an expedient recast?

this show is so bad but I’m trudging through it anyway. Enjoying looking for signifiers of the future and whenever visual reality turns cyber trippy

pretty sure Kovacs changed sleeves in each novel.

the best stuff here reminds me of Blade Runner, the worst still reminds me of BSG when people started screwing Cylons and getting New Age feels.

yah diff sleeve per book

i really like this show but I am way behind bcz I keep insisting on watching sport tournaments instead so i will hopefully catch up when tour de france is over

Season 2 coming next month!

Your re-sleeving is now complete. 2.27.20. #AlteredCarbon pic.twitter.com/h4VtaCp6Wh

— Altered Carbon (@AltCarb) January 21, 2020

Two episodes in, it's been kind of tepid so far, maybe the condensed narrative is also making it hard for me to follow the happenings.

Yeah. It seemed to get decent reviews but I'm also two episodes in and not warming to it yet.

The Wedge fight scene/massacre was ridiculous.

not half as ridiculous as the naked swordfight in s1.

Only watched the premiere so far. Mackie is a far better actor than Kinnaman, so I'm on board from that angle but the plot is not holding my interest so far.

in a way the problem with this -- i'm still only in s1 -- is that the chandler-noir is itself now a worn-out sleeve for the fuller form of story this wants to tell

Also, Poe should have been played by Paul F Tompkins

― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Tuesday, 6 February 2018 07:30 (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

poe i kind of like, it's like the AI-in-the-reality is programmed to manifest as fourth-rate steampunk, which seems p likely (it's a third-rate hotel)

Third episode is warming up a bit, particularly Poe's storyline which has a poignant scene, but also some troubling codependency.

ugh here is why chandleresque noir is the wrong frame: it's always just village politics and the scope of this needed to be bigger, i don't mind ppl in difft bodies living across centuries, that's part of the cap-I issue under examination, but they shouldn't all be running into one another and all doing all the stuff

otoh it does have real men not afraid to show emotion

https://i.imgur.com/YRtZLqc.jpg

tbh that is the best kovacs actor

Finished this, kind of a disjointed season not helped by how Mackie's Kovacs is mostly one-note (sour, grumpy). Finale is pretty good though.

the anime movie they've released is low on plot, high on action

i loved the first season, feel like s2 is just a Total Recall remix.

Huh, I didn't even realize Netflix had a spinoff. Will definitely check it out!