From IMDB:
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.
From Netflix you can stream currently one season but soon two seasons of this science fiction series. Season 1 consists of 10 episodes, each of which last about an hour.
Would you like to live forever? Be careful what you wish for. In a dank earthly atmosphere reminiscent of “Blade Runner”, this series presents a really gloomy future in which a “person” is digitally encapsulated into a small disk that is somehow inserted into the spinal column. By now it is unimportant into which body that disk is inserted, so that each person is now wearing their current “sleeve”. Real death can only occur if the disk is destroyed. Therefore, when you see a person, you don’t really know who that is. Your grandmother can look like a pot-bellied biker.
As you might guess from the last paragraph, the plot can get really complicated. In fact I must confess that most of the time I am fairly confused about what is happening. But I understand enough to continue watching this inhuman plot, somewhat to my shame.
Digital wizardry continually produces really bizarre scenes. Unfortunately the series is ultra violent and portrays a very decadent society that delights in cruelty. Ancient Rome anyone?
Of the many actors, two stand out:
- Joel Kinnaman plays Takeshi Kovacs who is the action [anti-]hero tof the story. “But wait”, you say, “that’s an Asian name and Joel Kinnaman is Swedish.” Ah yes, but that’s because the actor for much of the series is wearing his Swedish “sleeve.” See what I mean?
- James Purefoy , as is often the case, is the smooth arch villain Laurens Bancroft. He does dangerously evil to perfection.
There is an awful lot of Kung Fu fighting which could get boring. Possibly the story drags on too long. Sometimes the plot turns are too good to be true. Torture scenes are horribly explicit. So just begin to watch and judge for yourself whether the slog is worth the effort.
Possibly the only worthwhile effect this story had on me was that I more easily accept that it is fitting that our life has a beginning, middle, and END.