Altered Carbon (TV series)

Altered Carbon. Laeta Kalogridis, creator. USA: Mythology Entertainment, Skydance Television (production) / Netflix 2018, 2019.[1]

Television series, with episodes in 60-minute time blocks, called by Evan Kindley "a cyberpunk gorefest based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan" (p. 44), and summarized on IMDb Storyline (anonymously supplied) as follows:

ALTERED CARBON is set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored in cortical stacks implanted in the spine, allowing humans to survive physical death by having their memories and consciousness "re-sleeved" into new bodies. The story follows specially trained "Envoy" soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who is downloaded from an off-world prison and into a combat ready sleeve at the behest of Laurens Bancroft, a highly influential aristocrat. Bancroft was killed, and the last automatic backup of his stack was made hours before his death, leaving him with no memory of who killed him and why. While police ruled it a suicide, Bancroft is convinced he was murdered and wants Kovacs to find out the truth. (See note above and Wikipedia synopsis here.[2])

For differences between the novel(s) and the TV series, see "Adaptation of the novels" in Wikipedia entry.[3]

First season reviewed by Vlad B. Jecan, SFRA Review #327 (January-February [Winter] 2019): 78-80, making the point that "[...] Netflix’s Altered Carbon is a tour of things cyberpunk and, in doing so, it resurrects the literary 'movement.'” See for discussion of "a benevolent A.I. named Poe with love of humanity and fondness for Victorian attire" in the role of teacher, and, Jecan feels, a reminder "of [Isaac] Asimov’s optimism for the future of intelligent machines" (p. 79).

RDE, Initial Compiler, slightly expanded 15Sep20