Altered Carbon

:

Season 1
  • Network: Netflix
  • Series Premiere Date: Feb 2, 2018
Season #: 2, 1
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 696 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 555 out of 696
  2. Mixed: 83 out of 696
  3. Negative: 58 out of 696
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User Reviews

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  1. GunnerMcDagget
    Feb 19, 2018
    10
    Absolutely loved it from start to finish. They created a perfectly messed up world, much like the world of Blade Runner but this one driven primarily by sexual desire and fetish rather than Capitalism. The story was intriguing and the finale was epic.
  2. Chrisgui
    Feb 4, 2018
    10
    Amazing visuals. Great action. Faithful adaptation (especially in spirit) of one the best cyberpunk novels of the last 20 years. What more could you want?
  3. Ther0
    Feb 4, 2018
    9
    Such an excellent piece of cyberpunk. Beautifully acted and wrote. Kudos for Netflix for being up to the task of portraying Cyberpunk as it should.
  4. ifritforce
    Feb 4, 2018
    10
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Tratama prrsonajes efectos especiales usica ambientaciom fotografía bien, cada parte de forma independiente es normal para buena, pero en su conjunto hacen una gram serie. En este caso la suma de las partes es mejor, recomendable pero no lo mejor sin duda… Expand
  5. tuwalua
    Feb 4, 2018
    10
    The perfect combination of politics, philosophy, action and awkwardness. The real story of the show is the world not the main plot. The political and ethical implication which comes with immortality. But its still a future i want to live in, not even but because its dirty!
  6. Zilla
    Feb 3, 2018
    10
    I have been reading and watching Sci-Fi in all its Glory , all its Shame, all its Styles and Genres since i was 10 years old. That is 50 years of of searching for answers that Religion refuses to allow me to ask. because it has no intention of answering. I have searched these Stories that have given so many Questions, and give us so many possibilities. That is what Faith is, the neverI have been reading and watching Sci-Fi in all its Glory , all its Shame, all its Styles and Genres since i was 10 years old. That is 50 years of of searching for answers that Religion refuses to allow me to ask. because it has no intention of answering. I have searched these Stories that have given so many Questions, and give us so many possibilities. That is what Faith is, the never ending Question. The Peace that discovery gives us. That is our Religion, That is our Trinity. To Question, To Dicover, to find Peace. That is our War.
    I liked this story alot.    … Expand
  7. cherold
    Feb 15, 2018
    8
    Just finished season one of Altered Carbon. While I found it flawed and often confusing, I also found it riveting, watching the season in just about a week.

    The series takes place in a future where everyone's brain is recorded so that if you die the recording can be housed in a new body (called a sleeve). A revolutionary, kept in cold storage for a couple of centuries, is resleeved and    Just finished season one of Altered Carbon. While I found it flawed and often confusing, I also found it riveting, watching the season in just about a week.

    The series takes place in a future where everyone's brain is recorded so that if you die the recording can be housed in a new body (called a sleeve). A revolutionary, kept in cold storage for a couple of centuries, is resleeved and enlisted by a billionaire to investigate that billionaire's murder in a previous sleeve.

    The series has a solid noir feel, although the sex and violence are so pervasive that it is more Mickey Spillane than Raymond Chandler. This is certainly more inspired by Blade Runner than Maltese Falcon, but Blade Runner is a good source for inspiration. (Anyone interested in more classic noir should check out the Hugh Laurie series Chance.

    The action scenes are solid, the nudity is frequent and generally gratuitous, and the whole thing has an epic, over-the-top feel that makes it hard to stop watching.

    The basic underlying premise does not, by the way, make a lot of sense. If you were born in your body, and your brain was being backed up, you still wouldn't want to die, because a backup is not you (though once you've died once it would be different. Same issue for the religious folks who think being resleeved kills your soul; if there's a soul, the chip is not recording it. Basically, which the series never says it, most of these people aren't people, they are computer simulations of people. Which is interesting, but it's weird no one in the series seems aware of something so obvious.    … Expand
  8. Nobilis1984
    May 1, 2018
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. A good series with some weaknesses. But the optical one as well as the good actors are not deceptive about the strange logic and the inappropriate dialogues. The slow motion scenes take and the everlasting bellyaching highly the brothers and sisters love of brother and sister irritates. She kills all he loved and he forgives her for everything? Very unrealistically.
    A big plus. The series stimulates very much to think.    … Expand
  9. Anastasi
    Feb 20, 2018
    10
    really one of the best serial of modern times. cool special effecs< nice idea nd goodactors. what else do you need? we are watching with all my friends and love it!!
  10. C_ROCKD
    Feb 4, 2018
    8
    I have not read the book nor am I going to complain about something as minor as cigarette use in the movie. What I can say Altered Carbon is a well paced Sci Fi Drama with a good amount of action. The characters are believable and performed well. The world Altered Carbon builds is a rememberable Blade Runner esque enviornment. Visuals and cgi vary from good to almost stunning. TheI have not read the book nor am I going to complain about something as minor as cigarette use in the movie. What I can say Altered Carbon is a well paced Sci Fi Drama with a good amount of action. The characters are believable and performed well. The world Altered Carbon builds is a rememberable Blade Runner esque enviornment. Visuals and cgi vary from good to almost stunning. The story can get confusing if you don't pay close attention. The TV show feels as if you're watching a 10 hour movie. Each episode cliff hanger left me wanting to watch more. Try not to overly compare the the movie to the book but as a seperate adaptation. If you do this you will find Netflix has put out yet another very above average series.… Expand
  11. muyfresco
    Feb 4, 2018
    9
    No me esperaba nada de esta serie cuando la empecé.... ahora que la he terminado, la he visto del tirón... puedo opinar que es mucho mejor de lo que me habían comentado.
    Tanto el protagonista principal como los secundarios hacen un trabajo excepcional. El guion y la historia algo de lo que prefiero no comentar nada para evitar spoilers.... si te gusta la ciencia ficción esta serie es un    No me esperaba nada de esta serie cuando la empecé.... ahora que la he terminado, la he visto del tirón... puedo opinar que es mucho mejor de lo que me habían comentado.
    Tanto el protagonista principal como los secundarios hacen un trabajo excepcional. El guion y la historia algo de lo que prefiero no comentar nada para evitar spoilers.... si te gusta la ciencia ficción esta serie es un imprescindible.
    Ojo recomiendo verla del tirón en un fin de semana o algo así... porque la trama se sigue mucho mejor.

    Un saludo    … Expand
  12. mammary_glands
    Feb 4, 2018
    10
    Pitch perfect cyberpunk. Simultaneously funny, dark, heart-wrenching, and thoughtful. The world is rich and well rendered, helped by the beautiful cinematography and production value. Characters are interesting and lovable. Losing them is a gut punch, which speaks to the strong writing. Can't wait to see more of this kickass show if/when it gets a second season.
  13. Codex
    Jun 19, 2020
    10
    This season I fell in love with this world. It is a blast to watch from episode 1 onward. If you want a true cyberpunk experience, this is the show for you. It takes risks and it pays off in spades. But don't bother with season 2. It's hot garbage. 1 and done.
  14. Voodoo123
    May 10, 2018
    9
    +New industry standard for 4k HDR presentation
    +Superb cast deliver memorable performances
    +Immersive cyber-punk world +Excellent writing -Action scene choreography broke the immersion for me at times Easily the most impressive visual presentation I've yet to see in UHD HDR, I was blown away by the detail present considering I watched the 2160p 15mbps netflix streaming quality.    +New industry standard for 4k HDR presentation
    +Superb cast deliver memorable performances
    +Immersive cyber-punk world
    +Excellent writing
    -Action scene choreography broke the immersion for me at times

    Easily the most impressive visual presentation I've yet to see in UHD HDR, I was blown away by the detail present considering I watched the 2160p 15mbps netflix streaming quality. Altered carbon present a story so weirdly wonderful and refreshingly sci-fi that it puts many recent attempts to shame. Creating an impressive dream-like cyber-punk world AC pushes the boundaries of its modern tv show medium to tell its impressively layered story.

    Joel Kinneman is fantastic here and the rest of the main cast also do a great job of really diving into their characters. At first I felt a little intimidated by this world of sleeves, meths, stacks, 'working them over in virtual' and real death. Theres alot to take in as this production doesn't treat the audience as a fool and dives straight into whats happening but by the second episode I found the world started to make more sense to me and that I understood the motives of each character. AC has a good pace. I was impressed to see the same locations weren't re-used too often.

    One thing that for me, broke the immersion at times, was that the action choreography felt a little inconsistent... The action, for the most part, was excellent, elsewhere I found it to be quite amateurish. Those occasional faults aside if you are in any way a fan of science fiction genre you owe it to yourself to watch the highly complex story of this wondrous punk digital dreamscape unfold in front of you!    … Expand
  15. ZackMurph
    Dec 3, 2018
    10
    Is the show perfect? Absolutely not , but it adventures to try to be something creative and to a degree it's fresh.

    The acting is absolutely fantastic with characters sometimes taking on multiple personality and fitting the roles perfectly. Though there are a few characters I wouldn't have minded having less screen time. The overall characters and performance were enjoyable. This    Is the show perfect? Absolutely not , but it adventures to try to be something creative and to a degree it's fresh.

    The acting is absolutely fantastic with characters sometimes taking on multiple personality and fitting the roles perfectly. Though there are a few characters I wouldn't have minded having less screen time. The overall characters and performance were enjoyable.

    This show does take a sci-fi type of fan in order to hit a 10/10 mark. Everyone else will probably give it a 5/10-8/10 because of issues with the plot or long drawn out back stories. Even I have to admit that the season had a few segments of emptiness that could have either been cut or redone to make the overall story more compelling.

    In all, Altered Carbon isn't your run of the mill world breaking tv series but it definitely hits a lot of notches within many sci-fi fans belts and the average viewer can easily enjoy the show as well. If the writers learn their lessons from the first season and apply that knowledge to the second. Then I could easily see the show's fanbase growing.    … Expand
  16. ComandanteCobra
    Mar 4, 2020
    8
    Very good, hard sci-fi, a little old school (in a good cyber-punk way), good mix of action and drama. There is conspiracy, dystopian future, noire investigations, hot girls (also boys), gunfights, martial arts stunts, relation (and problemes) with technologies and dehumanization...and so on.
  17. gandalfsucks
    Jul 9, 2018
    8
    An excellently constructed Blade Runner-type world. The characters are compelling, and the acting is par Netflix originals. The production value is through the roof, but the overall series is hamstrung by the middling story, as has become common with my experiences with Netflix originals. An unnecessary murder mystery along with a few other side mysteries for what is essentially a familyAn excellently constructed Blade Runner-type world. The characters are compelling, and the acting is par Netflix originals. The production value is through the roof, but the overall series is hamstrung by the middling story, as has become common with my experiences with Netflix originals. An unnecessary murder mystery along with a few other side mysteries for what is essentially a family drama. Some events, especially towards the end, occur for no other reason other than being necessary for the lazy scriptwriter. The show spends way too much time dealing with relationship dynamics that will be useful only if they ever make a second season, or if they had spent more time in this one. You expect the story to break the traditional rules set by the world, but when the rule breaking becomes commonplace by meaningless characters, it loses the impact. Good effort, but quite a few irksome story points.… Expand
  18. angelknives
    Dec 10, 2018
    7
    Altered Carbon is a show full of interesting world building, ideas, and premises that never get used to their full potential. The first few episodes set up so many interesting ideas about AIs, immortality, class struggle, and even aliens, but the rest of the season fails to follow through on these set-ups.

    The main offender is the final part of the season, when a sudden new surprise    Altered Carbon is a show full of interesting world building, ideas, and premises that never get used to their full potential. The first few episodes set up so many interesting ideas about AIs, immortality, class struggle, and even aliens, but the rest of the season fails to follow through on these set-ups.

    The main offender is the final part of the season, when a sudden new surprise antagonist is introduced. The character and the storyline attached to them is incredibly cliched, boring the audience with how predictable it makes the show. And the worst part is that this storyline takes away time from the actually interesting parts of the story. Parts that are left horribly underdeveloped.

    The ending itself is probably the weakest part of the show, tying up everything in neat little bows, presented to the audience in the most easily digestible form, narration.

    All in all, the show does have a very interesting world, and while the writing sometimes suffered from awkward dialogue and lacklustre plotting, I still enjoyed it. I think the lead actors are probably to thank for that, as they really sold the story to me, even when the story itself failed.    … Expand
  19. Archound
    May 11, 2018
    10
    It is the best cyberpunk-themed show you can watch on your telly. It is better than Blade Runner in basically every aspect.
  20. NerdHaus
    May 28, 2018
    10
    Loved it so much I read the book. The cast, script, plot, cinematography is all fantastic.
  21. Bobbydownhill
    Mar 8, 2020
    8
    Cyberpunk sweetness and awesome cast and storytelling. Bit long list of executive producers instead of crediting the composer. But over all a very pleasant change of menu on Netflix
  22. notings
    Aug 27, 2020
    10
    Świetny film aktor pięknie gra Moniką twarzy...............................
  23. hornysoul
    Sep 21, 2018
    7
    Admito que este tipo de séries nunca me fascinou, mas até foi bom perder algumas horas do meu tempo livre a ver esta produção. A série começou com o pé errado, na minha opinião, mas até conseguiu dar a volta ao longo dos episódios seguintes... A atuação dos atores foi OK e a história prendou-me.
  24. Beauner
    Apr 11, 2020
    9
    This season is great.. Great atmosphere, great acting, intriguing story (not perfect, but very entertaining), Rated MA for holy **** over the top violence, blood, nudity, and bad assery. Unfortunately, they ruined everything with season 2. Do yourself a favor and stop after season 1 and call it good.
  25. Crythor
    Mar 8, 2019
    10
    After watching game of thrones (which i love) i didnt think that any series would take away my breath any time soon. Man was i wrong. Altered carbon is the sci-fi quality equivalent to game of thrones. The effects are unrivaled currently and the story is thrilling. Great characters, great world but dont take my word for it watch it.
  26. stormtossed
    Apr 10, 2020
    8
    Amazing first season. This show had everything that an (adult) sci-fi lover could have ever wanted. Strong Blade Runner's vibes, creative and interesting world building, philosophical questions, great special effects.

    But what made this show stand out, was the depiction of adult themes: tons of sex, nudity, graphic violence. You couldn't look away. Always keeps you hooked. I strongly    Amazing first season. This show had everything that an (adult) sci-fi lover could have ever wanted. Strong Blade Runner's vibes, creative and interesting world building, philosophical questions, great special effects.

    But what made this show stand out, was the depiction of adult themes: tons of sex, nudity, graphic violence. You couldn't look away. Always keeps you hooked.

    I strongly recommend it.

    Too bad 2. season has lost everything that made this show special...    … Expand
  27. Pi0
    Feb 27, 2020
    10
    One of the best shows on netflix. And one of the best scify blade runner atmosphere shows ever. Great casting, great main actor. A believable world with a good looking enviroment. And disapointing what turned out in season 2... Season 1... was another class
  28. Juhapekka
    Mar 3, 2020
    10
    The first season of AC blew my mind! The visual boldness, the cyberpunk world, and Kinnamans excellent stoic portrait of Kovacs played well with the gumshoe main storyline. The casual nudity that underlined the casual relationship people had with their sleeves were justified and made the whole thing more compelling. A brave and fresh addition to TV's scifi world by Netflix!
  29. Plmnkoijbvhu
    Apr 9, 2020
    10
    A masterpiece. Truly one of my favorite sci fi shows ever. Sadly only the first season is good. They ruined it completely in the second.
  30. Club2020
    Oct 30, 2020
    10
    Great concept, brilliant acting, and story with some great twists and a very satisfying ending... 10 out of 1 stuff
  31. Adams1987
    Mar 27, 2021
    10
    Altered Carbon Season 1 is one of those shows you must watch absolutely amazing story and characters! just watch it and don't dare to watch season 2... your life will be much better without it...
  32. GraySummer
    Oct 14, 2021
    9
    I really enjoyed Season 1. I love the world building, concepts, style and tone of this show. I adore the Neo-noir and Cyberpunk pairing and Joel Kinnaman is great as the lead with some very memorable action scenes. Unfortunately some of it's moments are extremely cheesy and i didn't find the main villain particularly believable nor the flashback moments very watchable. This makes theI really enjoyed Season 1. I love the world building, concepts, style and tone of this show. I adore the Neo-noir and Cyberpunk pairing and Joel Kinnaman is great as the lead with some very memorable action scenes. Unfortunately some of it's moments are extremely cheesy and i didn't find the main villain particularly believable nor the flashback moments very watchable. This makes the second half of the season a bit of a disappointment as the potential was not fully realised. However there is a lot to love in the themes, presentation and main characters, thus overall this show has shaped up to be one of my biggest guilty pleasures. (shame about season 2)… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

2
#2 Most Discussed TV Season of 2018
30
#30 Most Shared TV Season of 2018

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
64

Generally favorable reviews - based on 25 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 25
  3. Negative: 0 out of 25
  1. The Detroit News
    Reviewed by: Adam Graham
    Mar 1, 2018
    50
    Big issues of body, mind, identity and technology shuffle around the Altered Carbon universe, but the show often drags its feet in order to fill its individual episodes’ running times.
    Read full review
  2. Vox.com
    Reviewed by: Emily VanDerWerff
    Feb 5, 2018
    80
    For a series that makes a lot of basic storytelling stumbles and often seems to feature characters who can only speak in exposition, Altered Carbon’s first season is surprisingly gripping, especially in its superior back half. This is probably the best first season of a Netflix drama since The Crown’s first year dropped in late 2016.
    Read full review
  3. The Atlantic
    Reviewed by: Sophie Gilbert
    Feb 5, 2018
    50
    Altered Carbon is so busy trying to wow viewers by constantly one-upping the imagery and the intensity that it barely pauses to consider its story. The writing is also distinctly clunky: a hodgepodge of vacant platitudes and canned spirituality.
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