Altered Carbon

NewGamer11 · 3 Feb 2018 at 11:43

2StepSteve said:
Watched the first episode tonight.

I felt like it didn't flow well at all, the pacing was rushed and it was not very well polished in terms of story telling. It felt off in its delivery.

If I wasn't to see another episode again, it wouldn't bother me, which is the first time I've said that about a Netflix series that I've watched.

The second episode is a lot better in this regard. I had similar thoughts to you.

TriedandTested · 3 Feb 2018 at 12:10

Didn't grab me at all. Ep 1 was weak other than the visuals...and visuals alone don't make a good show.

I'll stick with a little longer but seems another crappy Netflix show.

"Don't get yourself killed" says the female cop....such original and clever writing.

Street · 3 Feb 2018 at 15:45

I watched the first episode last night and wasn't really impressed. I'll stick with it a bit to see if it improves but it just seems like another cop drama with twist, it really didn't grab me at all.

G-MAN2004 · 3 Feb 2018 at 17:04

TheOracle said:
Unless I've completely missed the point. Most people are dead and existing as AI?

Not really immortality. I mean it's not much different than scanning my brain and putting it into a chatbot

I wouldn't say AI. The stacks contain their minds. Think of it as a brain transplant I guess.

glenimp617 · 3 Feb 2018 at 17:47

G-MAN2004 said:
I wouldn't say AI. The stacks contain their minds. Think of it as a brain transplant I guess.

It's a digitised copy of their mind. To me, that isn't being alive. The rich guy even had an off-site backup copy.

Steampunk · 3 Feb 2018 at 18:21

TheOracle said:
It's a digitised copy of their mind. To me, that isn't being alive. The rich guy even had an off-site backup copy.

It's a digital copy of a live human mind. It's not the same as an AI (such as the hotel) which was built by people. What's in the stack is the mind of a person who was born, grew up, had human experiences, and has now been transferred to another stack in another body.

You can make the argument that a digital personality transferred to another body isn't alive or a real person, but it isn't (in the universe of the books) the same as an AI. Indeed, one of the main plot-points of the book is that Catholics believe that once you die, that's it, and the copy of your mind from a stack isn't a real person and shouldn't be brought back in a new body. If you want to kill someone and not have them come back in a new sleeve to testify against you, kill a Catholic who stays dead.

glenimp617 · 3 Feb 2018 at 18:23

Yeah, I get that. I just have a hard time believing you are a real alive person when your mind is held on a futuristic floppy disk.

Put it this way, if you could copy your mind to a usb stick would you jump off a tall building? I know I wouldn't

Randomface74 · 3 Feb 2018 at 18:43

Cool show, fits nicely into a 1 day marathon.
but...

wrong choice at the end imo.

Steampunk · 3 Feb 2018 at 18:47

TheOracle said:
Yeah, I get that. I just have a hard time believing you are a real alive person when your mind is held on a futuristic floppy disk.

Put it this way, if you could copy your mind to a usb stick would you jump off a tall building? I know I wouldn't

That's an argument about continuity. Someone would come back who has your mind, but is it you, or just a copy of you? If you replaced your mind atom by atom with an artificial brain that effectively gave you immortality, would it still be you? What about when your body wears out and you transfer your artificial mind to a new body? What is it if you copy the data from your mind to another one? If you keep both copies, that's two versions of you that instantly start to diverge, but are you the same person if the original is deleted? Morgan addresses some of these issues as people come back in different bodies, the rich keep multiple spare sleeves, often clones of their original bodies, and the issue of very illegal multiple sleeving.

The idea is probably better investigated in Greg Egan's various short stories concerning his Ndoli Jewel device.

JediFragger · 3 Feb 2018 at 18:51

TheOracle said:
Yeah, I get that. I just have a hard time believing you are a real alive person when your mind is held on a futuristic floppy disk.

Yeah, they're effectively just Avatar's at that point. The 'real' person died at the original time. I suppose what you personally define as 'real' though...

NewGamer11 · 3 Feb 2018 at 19:22

JediFragger said:
Yeah, they're effectively just Avatar's at that point. The 'real' person died at the original time. I suppose what you personally define as 'real' though...

Yes, that’s the argument about mind uploading. What’s the point, ‘you’ don’t get any benefit but your personality and memories live on.

Back to the show - the plot changes from the book are retarded, I don’t know why they made them. Some of the acting is pretty bad too.

Martha Higareda is lovely at least.

Rroff · 3 Feb 2018 at 19:34

TriedandTested said:
"Don't get yourself killed" says the female cop....such original and clever writing.

There is a reason for that line when you get further a long.

I've not finished the series yet but it seems to be descending into convoluted twaddle after a promising start having left much of the fairly interesting premise behind but maybe it will tie it all up in the end.

TriedandTested · 3 Feb 2018 at 20:23

Rroff said:
There is a reason for that line when you get further a long.

I've not finished the series yet but it seems to be descending into convoluted twaddle after a promising start having left much of the fairly interesting premise behind but maybe it will tie it all up in the end.

Cool. Hope so. I'll stick with it. Does has a nice Bladerunner-esque feel to it.

v0n · 3 Feb 2018 at 22:33

Five episodes in and it's so-so. Seems like a good idea but delivery is quite messy. Didn't read the book, a lot of elements don't fall into places for me, I don't know what and why the characters are doing what they are doing half the time. Green screen backgrounds sometimes get really ropey like keying process were not finished but from technical point of view I like that BR thing they do with the continuation of lights outside lighting up actors to make up for the lack of sets and physical scenery.

But it's the casting for me that is the weakest point - the leading man is as wooden as in anything he's been before, but that's survivable, similar to Keith Urban that's his one and only style of acting even if completely unrelatable to the audience, however that mexican lady with broken nose, oh my lord, every time she's opens her mouth and attempts delivery, her scenes burst with a conviction of a morning shift stand in reading lines at the rehearsal somewhere in Chatham Theatre, and even then it's probably detrimental to the actual panto cast at the said venue. So many good choices for that role and such missed opportunity. Oh well...

TNA · 3 Feb 2018 at 23:17

I am enjoying it. I agree it has it’s flaws, but I can look past them. It is visually stunning for a tv show imo. Will definitely keep watching and hope it gets renewed.

opethdisciple · 4 Feb 2018 at 01:00

Worth a watch?

G-MAN2004 · 4 Feb 2018 at 02:38

opethdisciple said:
Worth a watch?

The story line is a bit hard to follow at times, but I'm enjoying it.

It's worth it for the visuals alone tbh.

Snookums · 4 Feb 2018 at 03:03

On episode three right now. It’s keeping me interest which is a change compared to most of the drivel on Netflix.

Having not read the books however I feel they have geared a fair few things towards book readers specifically but make them a large part to the lore/needed knowledge.

VincentHanna · 4 Feb 2018 at 08:44

Reviews were pretty fair then?

Rroff · 4 Feb 2018 at 11:26

I'm disappointed - started with an interesting premise but rarely revisited it and by the end had fallen back on a fairly predictable pedestrian story. I was hoping there was some over-arching complexity I was missing but I don't think so.