Netflix Altered Carbon

[Tking22]

5 hours ago, sqidd said:

Maybe the cast the right actor for Kovacs. I don't think it was acted right though. That may be the directors fault. He just wasn't the dry, to the point, unemotional, "zero phucks" Kovacs from the first season. I even went back and watched the first two episodes of season 1 to confirm my suspicions. I think they're accurate.

You hit the nail on the head with it becoming the "Falconer show". I couldn't put my finger on what I wasn't thrilled with. And that's it right there. I signed up for the Kovacs show. Not the Falconer (and to a lesser degree the broad with the coils in her head) show. I also detected a little of the woke motivation that is so grating that wasn't in season 1. Kovacs has a lesser, softer, more emotional role. Straight white man is the bad guy. Falconer, broad with the coils and the Governor all powerful women with lots of screen time. And IMO they were not done in the genuine "girl power" way that you get with a Ripley, Sarah Connor or Lizzie (Ms Elisabeth from season 1) , etc. It had that forced feel to it. 

I went poking around for reviews last night to check if I was just over-reacting. I'm not. A lot of people do not like season 2. It's shame. Season 1 blew me out of the water. I've watched it straight though at least three times. Altered Carbon lost that feel in season 2.

On a high note The Expanse season 4 was excellent. As expected. Can't wait for season 5 when things get bonkers.

 

 

I remember season 1 caught some flack from critics for Takeshi being a bit too dry and emotionless, but I just took that as being his character, that's just how he is. I definitely feel everyone involved with this season over-reacted to those criticisms and tried to make Takeshi more emotional this season, but to me, it read as over-acted and disingenuous. At no point in season 1 did I think Takeshi would get this worked up over his search for, and apparent love for, Falconer, they went 0-60, and they did it far too fast IMO. 

I too saw the reviews for this season and they weren't as hot as season 1, I enjoyed it but it wasn't nearly as good as season 1, the AI stuff was still fantastic, but it seems Takeshi took a bit of a back seat to his own story. As mentioned, I expected some Falconer, not the Falconer Show though. I also saw some critics praising this season for dropping apparently problematic themes from season 1, to me, that's also disingenuous, in a world where bodies are literally just flesh and have little meaning, I found it very poignant in season 1 when we saw the facility where you could just buy a 21 year old super model to put your wife in, that's honestly exactly what I'd expect if this tech were real. That's not problematic, that's just being genuine with how this world and it's people would be, bodies are nothing, male or female, it's just meat. 

[Bolt]

Ya so, season 1 was based on book 1. And , for the most part remained somewhat faithful to that. In other words strong background material for the writers. They didn't have to work as hard tweeking the story to suit the tv format or their mood. Though they did make some strong fundamental changes in "the world" of Takeshi Kovacs, it remained mostly intact. 

Season 2 was based on...um taking parts of book 2 and parts of book 3 and mashing them together badly. The story and main focus was way off from both sources. I could go on (and on) how and why these elements diverge badly from the books, but you get the idea. No need for the gory details. The writers failed.

Also, a major point, Kovacs is several hundred subjective years old. He's pretty much seen and done and died everything. And he's a bit jaded. There's no way something like "love" is gonna turn him into such a touchy feely envoy. He's who he is regardless of what's ( or who's ) in front of him. That's not to say he's heartless and unfeeling. He is the good guy after all. But his character was written to intentionally break "good guy" tropes. And season2 falls head first into those good guy tropes. Also , he was never in love with anyone mentioned .Except Ortega from book 1. And even that is well tempered down to cold steel. This whole find your lost love deal , is all on the bad writing. Maybe it could've been done better. Bit it wasn't.

Having ranted too long about that (thankfully i left a lot out) , i will say that for what it was , I enjoyed watching it. Believe it or not. I hope they can pull their head out and do a proper season 3.. a gritty war drama with destroids

[sqidd]

19 hours ago, Tking22 said:

I also saw some critics praising this season for dropping apparently problematic themes from season 1, to me, that's also disingenuous, in a world where bodies are literally just flesh and have little meaning, I found it very poignant in season 1 when we saw the facility where you could just buy a 21 year old super model to put your wife in, that's honestly exactly what I'd expect if this tech were real. That's not problematic, that's just being genuine with how this world and it's people would be, bodies are nothing, male or female, it's just meat. 

Good point. There was some, but nearly as much "Black Mirror" on the subject of how being able to switch bodies would play out in real society like season 1. Season 1 was borderline upsetting (because it was so accurate), and it was great because of it. Season 2 really glossed over how much the ability to change bodies would fundamentally change society. The world can't handle Twitter now. Being able to switch bodies would transform society into something almost unrecognizable. And most likely dystopian in feel (like season 1).

[glane21]

I just have a hard time seeing him as anything but the Falcon from the MCU at this point.

[Bolt]

Looks awesome..

[Tking22]

When was this announced? Or is this a surprise release? That's really soon, and I hadn't read anything about this, it does look pretty good though.

[Bolt]

I just caught wind of it today. Received an email from Netflix..

[ErikElvis]

I don’t even want to watch season 2 as I think the new guy just won’t be near as good as the first guy. 

[peter]

7 hours ago, ErikElvis said:

I don’t even want to watch season 2 as I think the new guy just won’t be near as good as the first guy. 

I really enjoyed the first season, but I haven't found the motivation to watch the second season either.    

[sqidd]

8 hours ago, ErikElvis said:

I don’t even want to watch season 2 as I think the new guy just won’t be near as good as the first guy. 

 

8 minutes ago, peter said:

I really enjoyed the first season, but I haven't found the motivation to watch the second season either.    

I would not have watched season 2 if I knew that was what I was going to get.

[Atheonyirh]

I thought it was perfectly fine. Not the same guy as season 1, but that's the nature of the setting. 

[sqidd]

11 hours ago, Atheonyirh said:

I thought it was perfectly fine. Not the same guy as season 1, but that's the nature of the setting. 

Not really. The sleeve changes, the guy doesn't. I think I and a lot of others agree that then guy changed.

[Atheonyirh]

12 hours ago, sqidd said:

Not really. The sleeve changes, the guy doesn't. I think I and a lot of others agree that then guy changed.

Maybe I should have rewatched season 1 before hand but, eh. Seemed fine to me, still. Dude had hope, had a fixation, and had clearly been at it a little while. 

[sqidd]

12 hours ago, Atheonyirh said:

Maybe I should have rewatched season 1 before hand but, eh. Seemed fine to me, still. Dude had hope, had a fixation, and had clearly been at it a little while. 

I re-watched season 1. They're two very different characters.

 

 

[Bolt]

Haven't had a chance to check out RESLEEVED. I see it's on Netflix now. Anyone see it?

[sqidd]

2 hours ago, Bolt said:

Haven't had a chance to check out RESLEEVED. I see it's on Netflix now. Anyone see it?

If I can tear myself away from working on my stupid web site tonight I'm going to try and watch it.

[Bolt]

It was a fun ride. Obviously takes place before season 1. Great visuals and appropriately violent. The final fight at the end had a Ninja Scroll homage. 

Edited March 22, 2020 by Bolt

[technoblue]

Sad news. I thought we would get at least one more season out of this like Dark.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/altered-carbon-canceled-by-netflix/

[Kanedas Bike]

9 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Sad news. I thought we would get at least one more season out of this like Dark.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/altered-carbon-canceled-by-netflix/

For sure kind of a bummer, but I contributed by not yet having watched Season 2. 

Sorry y'all.

-b.

[sqidd]

11 minutes ago, technoblue said:

Sad news. I thought we would get at least one more season out of this like Dark.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/altered-carbon-canceled-by-netflix/

After the season 2 dumpster fire I'm not surprised.

I actually started to re-watch season 1 last night and all I could think the entire time was how much better than season 2 it was.

Just now, Kanedas Bike said:

For sure kind of a bummer, but I contributed by not yet having watched Season 2. 

Sorry y'all.

-b.

You didn't miss anything. I wish I had never watched it. It tainted season 1 in my mind it's so bad.

[Kanedas Bike]

6 minutes ago, sqidd said:

After the season 2 dumpster fire I'm not surprised.

I actually started to re-watch season 1 last night and all I could think the entire time was how much better than season 2 it was.

You didn't miss anything. I wish I had never watched it. It tainted season 1 in my mind it's so bad.

You're not the only one that expressed sentiments like that, for sure that's why I wasn't in a rush to watch S2.

I've got some time off of work coming up and it wasn't even on my list of shows to catch up on (in no particular order, Locke and Key, Dark (all episodes), Clone Wars, Jack Ryan S2 all come to mind).

-b.

[sqidd]

2 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

You're not the only one that expressed sentiments like that, for sure that's why I wasn't in a rush to watch S2.

I've got some time off of work coming up and it wasn't even on my list of shows to catch up on (in no particular order, Locke and Key, Dark (all episodes), Clone Wars, Jack Ryan S2 all come to mind).

-b.

Add The Expanse to that list.

And The Good Place. Preferably watched with your significant other.

[Kanedas Bike]

19 minutes ago, sqidd said:

Add The Expanse to that list.

And The Good Place. Preferably watched with your significant other.

Yes to The Expanse. The Good Place...ehhhhh, maybe, probably not, but maybe-ish.

-b.

[sqidd]

59 minutes ago, Kanedas Bike said:

Yes to The Expanse. The Good Place...ehhhhh, maybe, probably not, but maybe-ish.

-b.

I am 100% not into funny shows. My wife hounded me to watch The Good Place for ever. I finally relented.....................and I'm so glad I did. It's not what you think it is. It's funny. Really funny. And it's a lot more heady than you would think almost any show let alone something that is funny.

[Bolt]

Would've liked to have seen a better season 3 than 2. But they really blew their wad trying to tie so many elements of the 3rd book into season 2. And they completely passed over book2. And they really shot themselves in the foot by eliminating all the envoys..

They should stick with the anime shorts. As there's a wealth of possibilities with that venue in the Altered Carbon world. Remember, Takeshi Kovacs is hundreds of years old..

[Big s]

I’m actually sad about this one. I’m getting a bit tired of liking a Netflix show, just to have it cancelled 

[Golden Arms]

Good score!  Baroness still hasn't shown up in my neck of the woods.  

[Big s]

At least someone heard some good news 

[Firefox]

Season one was great. Joel was great in Kovacs shoe. Season two is kind of meh.

[technoblue]

12 hours ago, Bolt said:

Would've liked to have seen a better season 3 than 2. But they really blew their wad trying to tie so many elements of the 3rd book into season 2. And they completely passed over book2. And they really shot themselves in the foot by eliminating all the envoys..

They should stick with the anime shorts. As there's a wealth of possibilities with that venue in the Altered Carbon world. Remember, Takeshi Kovacs is hundreds of years old..

Yeah. The animated series was more refined than the second live action series. Kovacs’ sister had a better part to play in it too; it felt like a spiritual successor to the first season.

I enjoyed the second season for what it was, but in the end felt it did suffer from a lack of direction. I mean it started okay with a good dose of action and a new mission, and I was okay seeing a couple familiar faces being used to forward plot elements but then it went off the rails. It was like the writers forgot that people in this universe use sleeves and with each new episode it quickly became less about Kovacs and his pursuits and more about those around him like Poe his AI companion, his sister, and Quellcrist.

Edited August 27, 2020 by technoblue

[Kanedas Bike]

9 hours ago, Golden Arms said:

Good score!  Baroness still hasn't shown up in my neck of the woods.  

 

4 hours ago, Big s said:

At least someone heard some good news 

 

I still may check out S2 and the Anime short at some point in time, I really enjoyed S1 so I'll be sure to temper my expectations accordingly. 

-b.