Poe seeks help from a fellow AI. Trepp gets a lead on the man she's after.
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Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.Kovacs contends with ghosts from his past as he's tortured by Carrera. “Altered Carbon” Season 2 is streaming now on Netflix.
Takeshi Kovacs can smile, and now, so can we. “Altered Carbon” sets itself up for a new actor to inherent the role if Season 3 gets the green light, but we won’t soon forget Mackie’s contribution. There’s a lot to admire in the production, staging, choreography, sound design, and plenty more craft elements, and now that they’re being supported by an accessible, enjoyable tone - and an accessible, enjoyable lead - that opens the door for a wider audience to appreciate all of it. What it’s become, though, is an entertaining spectacle for genre fans, no longer held back by empty posturing. “Altered Carbon” isn’t a laugh-out-loud comedy, or even an action-comedy. With plenty of help from his producing team, that’s what Mackie has done with Season 2. But you’re allowed to bring characters back from the “real dead” and use phrases like “you want me to hunt down myself?” (not to mention “real dead”) when a little levity is part of the journey. The distinct episodes help keep viewers invested when “Altered Carbon” goes too heavy on diegetic mumbo jumbo or changes its own rules to set up silly twists. Episode 7, “Experiment Perilous,” uses virtual reality to spice up its fight scenes, all of which are pretty darn entertaining already. Episode 5, “I Wake Up Screaming,” flexes the benefits of big-budget sci-fi, as the distinct and plentiful set designs spring to life. Episode 3, “Nightmare Alley,” throws fan favorites from Season 1 into a futuristic gladiator match, where Kovacs has to fight old friends and foes. Consisting of eight episodes, none of which run over an hour, Schapker and Kalogridis shape clear episodic arcs and even have a bit of fun doing it. But when his client is killed before Kovacs even reports for duty, a dangerous, wide-ranging conspiracy starts to unravel - one tied to Quellcrist and his home planet of Harlan’s World.Ĭhris Conner and Anthony Mackie in “Altered Carbon”Įven though much of the show’s drama stems from Kovacs and Trepp taking turns saying, “We’re through!” right before the other begs for help, Season 2 is smart enough not to overstretch its story. Season 2 starts with Kovacs getting sucked into a simple mission: Act as bodyguard to a respected official and be given the coordinates to his long lost love, Quellcrist Falconer (played with an unceasing ferocity by Renée Elise Goldsberry). It goes a long way, as do smart alterations by co-showrunners Alison Schapker (new to Season 2) and Laeta Kalogridis (the creator and Season 1 showrunner). Kovacs can’t suddenly be a hard-bodied Han Solo, punching baddies and cracking jokes he’s got to be the same serious warrior he was, just in a new sleeve.īut Mackie still adds more range and even a slight influx of good-humor to Kovacs’ super serious disposition. Anyone inheriting the Kovacs role also inherits the characteristics set by their predecessor. Mackie’s charisma is so powerful, you can feel it brimming on the edges of “Altered Carbon,” which leads us to the one problem facing him.
Plus, he’s clearly open to self-effacing commentary on his physicality, as proven by the gift that keeps on giving: “Pain & Gain.”Īll of these are key attributes for an interstellar warrior - and, you know, he can smile. Mackie’s multiple Marvel movies show off the rat-a-tat rhythms he can create with co-stars, as well as a penchant for complicated fight choreography. A respected actor and action star, he’s got a talent for finding humor in the midst of chaos. On the one hand, Mackie seems like an obvious choice to shake up the show’s stagnant palette. The series’ ideas are big, playful, and (like so much great sci-fi) topically applicable when following a consistent allegory, but all that potential remained trapped behind a stoic visage.
While the first season had other problems, including a crude obsession with human bodies that never developed beyond voyeurism, Kinnaman’s rigid, no-fun lead skewed the self-serious drama toward a profound bore instead of a galaxy-brained lark.
(“Sleeve” is what they call bodies in the “Altered Carbon”-verse.) The new lead doesn’t exactly reinvent “Altered Carbon,” but his uncontainable charisma - along with a tighter episode count and well-designed action pieces - open up Season 2, allowing audiences to take it only as seriously as they want. Or so I thought, until Anthony Mackie slipped into Kovacs’ sleeve. 'Black Bird' Review: Apple's Chilling Prison Drama Explores Pervasive Truths About Misogynyġ9 Best Erotic Thrillers, from Adrian Lyne to Brian De Palmaģ0 Disturbing Foreign Films to Watch, from Gaspar Noé to Takashi Miike
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