NEON-SPLASHED ALTERED REALITY
The new Netflix original series is a bewildering − but bewitching − look into a disturbing future where super-rich, immortal clones are king
Part Blade Runner, part samurai Western, Netflix’s Altered Carbon is one of its most interesting originals yet. With its 10-episode season released last Friday, the series is set in a futuristic, neonsplashed world, where death has been conquered thanks to a mysterious alien technology that allows people to digitally store their consciousness and personalities before downloading them into new bodies.
The rich and powerful are now functionally immortal, downloading their consciousness into their own clones again and again. Bodies — especially those of the poor — are treated as products, able to be used or abused in any possible way, as long as the data discs holding their DNA — buried in the nape — remain intact.
Viewers follow Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman), an ex rebel-soldier whose mind is downloaded into a new body 250 years after his death. Kovacs is brought back to investigate the murder of corporate aristocrat Laurens Bancroft (James Purefoy), an immensely wealthy “Meth” — super-rich elites named after the biblical figure Methuselah, who lived for 969 years — who was murdered before his memory was able to be backed up. Forced to return using the last backup of his memory, Bancroft is left with no memory of his death, and charges Kovacs to uncover the truth in exchange for freedom.
There’s definitely a lot to unpick in Altered Carbon, with every little scene so packed with small-but-significant details that contribute to its world-building and narrative. Like all good sci-fi worlds, there is a lot of complexity behind the universe of Altered Carbon, the central of which is the alien Cortical Stack (or simply “Stacks” for short) technology, which has allowed humans to store their minds in disc-shaped devices implanted behind their necks. Implanted in all humans at the age of one, the stacks allow humans to “re-sleeve” themselves in any body. People can become anyone they want, regardless of age, race or even gender. Some people can even choose to be implanted in a synthetic, cyborg body altogether. This turns bodies into a sort of commodity, and the twisted economy that surrounds them is perhaps one of the most intriguing aspects of Altered Car
bon’s universe.
Of course, this raises up interesting statements regarding identity, morality and death. It’s all very heady, though the show cleverly makes every metaphor very literal. Meths literally live atop ivory towers, building their houses high up over the clouds, looking down at the mere mortals below like gods. People literally “sell their bodies”, allowing others to hurt or even kill them for money, knowing they can just get resleeved. People born with enough means can literally become whoever they want. This allows the show to focus on crafting its narrative, allowing these literal statements to create a unique atmosphere for its setting.
The production value on show here is also impressive. Altered Carbon’s gritty neon-splashed world is beautifully realised, at least in terms of atmosphere. The Blade Runner inspiration is clear, with the subtle mix between modern locations and futuristic augmentations being the most apparent. While the settings themselves don’t always look or feel very sci-fi — such as The Raven, the hotel Kovacs uses as his headquarters, which looks and feels like a 1950s gothic-style hotel — there is always a heightened sense of style that always reminds us that yes, this is indeed a sci-fi world. The locations aren’t always varied, but I can’t say I noticed or particularly cared.
Much like Blade Runner, Altered Carbon begins as a noir detective drama, as Kovacs begins to pick at the show’s central mystery. However, much of the first half feels like one long prologue, as Kovacs — and by extension the audience — is slowly brought to terms with the world in which the series takes place. The investigation kind of takes a back seat at this point, mostly because of just how interesting it is to see how the world functions.
By the second half, however, Altered Carbon turns into something else entirely, as we learn more about Kovacs’ past and the show’s true villain is revealed. The pacing speeds up, as the stories transitions into a “masterless samurai” story, with Kovacs and his motley crew of misfits — including an AI, an ex-marine and a female hacker sleeved in a man’s body — working to destroy what is revealed to be a greater evil. By the end, Kovacs comes upon a revelation that points him on a new mission, leaving all his friends behind and riding into the sunset on his next mission.
While not always consistent, Altered Carbon is certainly one of the more unique shows to come from Netflix. It’s probably not as immediately gripping as Stranger Things, but as far as the streaming site’s original features go, this one is definitely among the most worthy of watching.
The Blade Runner inspiration is clear, with a subtle mix between modern locations and futuristic augmentations