Netflix's newest original series, "Altered Carbon," seemed to have spent all of its resources on creating a novel idea without carving out time to create a stronger plot and characters.
The show largely takes place in a future world in which people's lives are tied to a small chip in the base of their brain stem, as opposed to their physical selves. If someone is killed but the chip is left undamaged, they can be brought back to life in a new body, or "sleeve." This has led to inequity in the immortality of different people; there are beautiful, strong and elegant sleeves for those who can afford them. Those who cannot get stuck with whatever body happens to be lying around.
Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman) was a super soldier in the year 2134, until he was murdered and put on ice by the government. Now it's 250 years later, and he is been brought back to life in a new, top-of-the-line body by an extravagant billionaire (James Purefoy). Together with police officer Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda), Kovacs must solve his employer's murder in exchange for a new life free from prosecution by the government.
All good heroes need an origin story, and Kovacs' is far from it. Hamfisted and cliche, an arch-nemesis is introduced, a family member is killed, and all of a sudden we are 250 years in the future. The pilot of any good TV series should ease viewers into the action, not throw them in and hope for the best.
Waking up after the world's longest power nap does not leave Kovacs with any clarity either. He stumbles through society, confused about how he got there and why he has been chosen to solve a murder. Worse yet, about a hundred different futuristic contraptions are thrown into the mix with every cutaway. Floating billboards dominate the city, advertisements appear as holograms, prostitutes and strippers can change their race and other physical characteristics, and for whatever reason hotels are equipped with artificial intelligence and machine guns. With the main character just as taken aback as the audience, your guess is as good as mine as to what anything that happens really means.
Mixed in with the myriad of new technology are two stalwarts of many a Netflix original: gratuitous violence and nudity. Within the first half hour, a man can be seen jamming his own fingers through a bullet hole in his chest, spurting blood everywhere with no real effect on the plot. Kovacs and Ortega also hold what should have been a routine meeting in a strip club, just to make sure that we get every possible camera angle of a fully naked woman doing the splits while straddling a metal pole.
You can often overlook plot holes and underdeveloped elements if the characters are likeable, but "Altered Carbon" struggles to put forth a commanding dynamic duo. Instead of the typical hardened-but-benevolent police figures, Kovacs and Ortega are dull, unlikeable and almost mechanical in the way that they make decisions and interact with one another. In this new society, people's lives are coded into computer chips. I guess robotic relationships and dialogue are just a side effect.
"Altered Carbon" goes the way of so many sci fi series before it. It is an awesome idea, but poorly executed. When I hear "futuristic society where consciousness can be transferred into any body," I expect that technology to be utilized to the fullest. Characters should be jumping in and out of bodies, killing each other without worrying about the moral consequences. I want Kovacs to be switching "sleeves" after every battle as he runs from the galactic police force. I certainly don't want to watch a she-cop he-cop mystery/romance set in the future.
1/4 stars