And while there’s plenty of male nudity in the n in this world appear naked while in positions of power.” She adds, “The nude women in this show are bruised prostitutes, naked corpses dumped in the sea, and femme fatales.” Eliana Dockterman writes for Time, “In typical noir style, spends much of his investigation questioning women in strip clubs. Where things move beyond “flawed” and into “bad” territory is the show’s gratuitous violence that disproportionately targets young, sexualized women. Meanwhile, Kovacs’ younger sister, Reileen Kawahara (played by Dichen Lachman in present-day scenes and Riley Lai Nelet in flashbacks) shows off unparalleled fighting skills, but she is relentlessly obsessed with her brother. She’s the perfect woman to the detriment of any complexity, that is. Kovacs’ lover Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry) comes through in flashbacks as the unflappable leader of a rebel organization. She isn’t hypersexualized, like so many Latinas in media are, and the show tries to give her some backstory (even though it’s just a romance with another man). Martha Higareda plays Detective Kristin Ortega, a strong-willed Latina with an unshakable set of morals and plenty of screen time. To be fair, it’s not all a wasteland of misogyny. More viscerally, the camera shines a technicolor male gaze on the bruised and mutilated bodies of young women. ![]() The end result is a show that feels solid, but never more than that.ĭoes it pass the Bechdel Test ? YES, but barelyĪltered Carbon tells us that women are equal to men, but it shows us the complete opposite by centering a male lead and tethering all the female characters’ narratives to him. In addition, it’s hard to reconcile him as the same man that Lee portrays, the latter of whom delivers a stronger and more emotional performance as the original Kovacs. But once you get the hang of the universe and its unique jargon, it’s smooth sailing.Įvents unfold at a quick clip, but perhaps due to Kinnaman’s broody, almost lethargic portrayal of Kovacs, the curiosity kindled throughout the show never builds into true suspense. Led by elite mercenary Takeshi Kovacs-played primarily by Swedish actor Joel Kinnaman, but seen in flashbacks as Korean American Will Yun Lee or briefly as Hong Kong-born Byron Mann- Altered Carbon follows the structure of a crime investigation, complete with multiple threads viewers need to keep track of. Granted, despite the well-worn welcome mat, it does takes a while to grapple precisely what’s at hand. Add in themes of corruptive power, rapacious capitalism, and the dystopian world all our fictional futures seem to wind up in, and that’s Altered Carbon in a nutshell. The stacks plug into “sleeves”-human bodies that can be cloned or discarded, or both. ![]() Its themes, too, should ring a bell: in Altered Carbon, human consciousness is explored as minds are downloaded onto glowing discs called “stacks”. ![]() Its largest draw, the cinematography, comfortingly builds on visuals seen in Blade Runner or The Matrix. Showrunner Laeta Kalogridis must have let out a sigh of relief, then, as sci-fi fans across the world delighted in the show’s lush aesthetics and cyberpunk sets when it debuted earlier this year. Morgan’s 2002 bestseller, Altered Carbon was groomed by Netflix to compete with other prestige shows-and backed the project with a chart-topping budget for the privilege. Reviewed by Anonymous □□□□ and Li □□□□ -SPOILERS AHEAD-Īdapted from Richard K. ![]() Writers: Original novel by Richard Morgan □□□□, TV scripts by Laeta Kalogridis □□□□ (10 eps), Nevin Densham □□□□ (10 eps), and various
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