Season 2 of Altered Carbon is very good but it’s not as good as Season 1. I’ll give you some vague impressions instead. I’ll keep this review short and sweet rather than lambaste you with details. This is a show that should be watched and enjoyed before you read any recaps or spoilery reviews. Saying much more about the story would stumble into the realm of spoilers and I have no interest in doing that. Certainly his character will tug at your heartstrings even more in Season 2 somehow. Thankfully, Poe (Chris Conner) plays perhaps an even more vital role this time around. Familiar characters return as well, though not as many as you might like. So we have politics and mystery, an ancient alien species with its own fascinating mysteries, and plenty of new faces, including bounty hunter Trepp (Simone Missick) and AI Dig 301 (Dina Shihabi). The Protectorate’s representative in all of this is a special ops commander, Colonel Ivan Carrera (Torben Liebrecht), a darkly charismatic man and a true believer in the Protectorate’s mission. There’s a tense peace between the governor, Danica Harlan (Lela Loren) and the Protectorate and a simmering civil war between the world’s government and a group of Falconer revolutionaries. It’s also about the politics of Harlan’s World and the cabal of meths who control it. This is pretty standard fare with Netflix, but with how terrible the acting was it felt like they put identity over quality.Season 2 is all about Kovacs tracking down Falconer on Harlan’s World where she has apparently resurfaced after all these centuries. All of the leads are non-white, with one being a lesbian, while the badguys are mostly men and white with a few exceptions. It was also kind of odd how they really upped the wokeness quotient. She just wants to murder, murder, murder, and cause uprisings. They have her set up as this messianic figure but really she is just an angry child. She isn't an inspirational character and I just don't care about her character at all. The changes to Falconer that they made from the book just don't work. Anthony Mackie is wooden as the lead and the supporting cast isn't any better. The writing is terrible and the acting is atrocious. I started Season 2 since with Covid running rampant I have a lot of down time. I thought it was a worthwhile adaptation and a decent show to binge. I had the same thoughts for Season 1 of the show. I read the Altered Carbon novel and thought it was decent but not amazing. So not a great look, but still watchable. In contrast season 2 comes off like a WB show, as other reviewers have noted. Can confirm there is a definitive drop in the quality of the cinematography, and a slight one for the writing. So while it perhaps does not quite reach the heights of season 1, it also doesn't descend to the same depths.Įdit: just watched season 1 again. But I do remember the last episode being so dumb I stopped watching it - which didn't happen here. I do need to watch season 1 again for comparison to see if I agree with the consensus here about a drop in quality. ![]() And at moments it gets close to poignant. The writing, while rarely brilliant, was never stupid - something one cannot say about something like 99% of sci-fi shows. I found him watchable and was rooting for him - so he did his job. He's not terribly charismatic and the humor was definitely not there like the first season, but he was solid and toed the line between being convincingly tough and also capable of displaying emotion that conveys to the viewer. I definitely missed the actor from season 1, and was skeptical about Mackie - but he won me over. Altered Carbon is the rare show that accomplishes this - yes, including in this second season. I'm a **** for sci-fi, particularly sci-fi that explores issues in non-idiotic ways. Some character fates seamed too inconsequential in the end but over it felt like a less gritty but more polished season of altered carbon. The story was less of a space Noir and while the overall pacing is different it is still good - just in a different way. And while the sets were sized down their overall quality have been improved, which made them more realistic, which helped with the atmosphere in return. The image is sharp and the camera work, while at first a little jumpy improved a lot, which made the whole series look more cinematic. ![]() Instead the overall visual quality improved. No need for a few scenes of big CGI Cities which swallow the budget and already look outdated like in the first season. ![]() Overall I felt like the season improved on what was already good and fixed what might fell a little flat like the visuals. ![]() Speaking of empathy: Poe was my highlight of the season. He made Kovacs more empathetic, which was a necessary improvement in my opinion, which I appreciate. I do like Anthony Mackie as an actor and I think he did a good Kovacs.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |