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. (Sadly, “Altered Carbon” Season 2 does make room for one rather flat white guy.) Chris Conner and Anthony Mackie in “Altered Carbon” Diyah Pera/NetflixĮven 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.
#JOEL KINNAMAN ALTERED CARBON SERIES#
Through a confusing series of mini-missions, he ends up partnering with a local bounty hunter named Trepp (Simone Missick), and the trio work to expose the truth before Colonel Ivan Carrera (Torben Liebrecht) bores them to death. butler Poe (Chris Conner) is glitching and he’s running short on real friends. Kovacs has to clear his name, find his lady, and survive a war between the Harlan government (led by an overtly villainous governor played by Lela Loren) and a mysterious band of rebel fighters, all while his loyal A.I. 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. 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. Simone Missick in “Altered Carbon” Diyah Pera/Netflix 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. Where to Watch This Week’s New Movies, from ‘The Starling Girl’ to ‘BlackBerry’
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