Writing this blog completely sober, yet after my latest viewing, I feel as high as I’ve ever been. I had no idea what to expect with this show, but I was aware of the actors involved and the bizarre storyline, so I had to jump right into this one. I am talking about the Netflix original series, Altered Carbon, of course. What a fucking trip man. This is one of the most unique shows that I have ever come across and that doesn’t do it justice. This is an incredible world that was built by Laeta Kalogridis, who was actually behind the screenplay of “Shutter Island”. One of Scorsese’s less appreciated films, due to a mixed bag of reviews after it came out. But clearly, this woman has a hell of an imagination and deserves a lot of credit, because Altered Carbon is one of the trippiest, yet weirdly addicting shows that I have seen in a very long time. It tackles a number of alluring topics, such as the future of our society, and the obsession with feeling youthful and seeking eternal life.

Altered Carbon takes place damn-near 300 years in the future, when the human conscious is digitized and stored in the back of the neck/spine area, so that you can move them from body to body. Or as they refer to them in the series, sleeves. The root of the story revolves around a prisoner, Takeshi Kovacs, who is brought back to life to serve one purpose. That is to solve the murder of one of the wealthiest aristocrats to ever live, Laurens Bancroft.   Bancroft, now alive again but with no knowledge of the events leading up to his previous death, hires Kovacs to scourge the city and find out just how this shit went down. The ex-criminal, played by Joel Kinnaman, was once a soldier fighting for freedom years ago, but is now placed into a brand new body and thrown into this wild sequence of events.

I love the questions and philosophies that this show brings to light, and the way they envisioned this futuristic society. Eventually, we will be faced with some ethical decisions and be forced to ask ourselves whether or not it is morally correct to bring people back to life or live endlessly. Religion comes into the forefront of conversation and it will be so fucking fascinating to see how people handle that. In Altered Carbon, the people play God and make decisions that humans could never make in the past, so you can imagine how many roads this story can head down.

This is a series that may overwhelm some viewers, simply due to the artistic nature, or the amount of information that we are asked to process all at once. For me though, it was just enough to keep me interested throughout and kept me wanting more. I found that the actors/actresses involved really found their flow after the first few episodes and gave some phenomenal performances that elevated the series as a whole.  I highly suggest this to anyone who has shown interest in the Sci-Fi genre, as this show does a great job of taking risks and paying homage to other futuristic thrillers. I think this is a B+ show with a rating of 4 out of 5 stars.

I also just peeped the trailer for the new Netflix series, Lost in Space. So stay tuned for our thoughts on that and much, much more. Be nice to each other.

Nick