Altered Carbon (Netflix)

[The Bluestocking]

They do this same thing in Bright, where Orcs are seen the lowest form of life quality.

The difference is that BRIGHT tackled the issue of racism pretty badly and in a hamfisted way. What I liked about the ALTERED CARBON adaptation is that racial diversity is taken as a matter-of-fact. The future is diverse and it's apparent in the show.

Also, @Connavar said: "Its just mainstream blog bs to complain about violence on women because that happens too often our world why wouldnt it be part of the story in future SF story where the people have even less power in places like Bay City,Earth."

This is true. And when I indicated further up that I'm impressed with how the show handles violence against women (VAW), I meant it. As the head of an anti-violence against women organisation, I'm pretty fed-up with the way VAW is often fetishised and normalised in pop culture. What ALTERED CARBON did is to show that it is utterly unacceptable and that when confronted with it, action must be taken to stop it. We can't wipe out VAW from shows and books and songs because VAW is all too common in real life. However, storytellers can approach the issue thoughtfully as the makers of ALTERED CARBON did.

 

[WarriorMouse]

I bet you don't like the Expanse as well, do you?

Got that right. I hated it. Tried reading it but just to dark. Also tried to watch the series but .... If I want to be depressed I can just watch or read the news. I would like to see a TV series adaptation of Asimov's Foundation books. Those were a dark dystopian future, but there was still hope.
There was some funny bits in the Altered Carbon episodes. The Zamboni cameo's and being able to recognize some of the location shots, plus the appearance of full tilt Punk "Max Headroom"

 

[Connavar]

Also: I applaud the showrunners and script writers for showing us a racially diverse future and being able to avoid whitewashing.

I applaud the author first for creating truly broad,multicultural world that showed an Earth, other planets where there were hybrid cultures in a realistic ways like Harlan's World and the future Earth had class, identity, religion issues that was a problem for whole humanity. Many SF books even from today the future of humanity is shown in a context of white,American,European world too often.

I agree about the showrunners too, i applaud them, the main creator/showrunner for sticking with Morgan's view of his world. She told in interview that it was important to show the racially diverse world, that Kovacs prefer bodies that looked like his Japanese-Slavic biracial self. Its so different to see the hero being played by two Asian actors in modern big tv show, film. They could have taken the easy way, whitewashing like Ghost in The Shell, Death Note, Battle Angle Alita. They even made Elliot family, daughter black when they didnt have change such minor characters, their ethnicity

It shouldnt be a big change, surprise to see a Latin female cop play a big role in big SF tv/film who speaks Spanish half of the show. The female leads in the genre are seldom minority from other cultures, languages. Thats the problem of the genre in these mediums the norm for the people you see, read about excludes so many others.....

 

[svalbard]

I watched the first episode last night and I have now lined up the series on Netflix for a weekend binge watch.

After initial confusion placing characters and timelines I was immersed, in no small part due to Kinnamen's performance. I thought the hotel scene was excellent, although I am still unsure of the establishments properties.

I was also not familiar with Morgan's work before this. It calls for an investigation on my part into his writings.

The Expanse has competition.

 

[WaylanderToo]

gotta be honest just binged this over 3 sessions, really enjoyed it

 

[ctg]

Making Altered Carbon was no easy feat, by any means, and that includes in the costume department. Over 2,000 actors and extras were featured on the series, with up to 600 unique costumes that ran the gamut from near-celestial beings to synth fight club owners. In this interview with io9, costume designer Ann Foley talks about how they made a series set hundreds of years in the future feel relatable, except for those who saw themselves as more-than-human.

https://io9.gizmodo.com/altered-carbons-costume-designer-talks-about-designing-1822670864

 

[Dave]

I've finished it and I liked the way that they introduced the back story for Kovacs and the changes they made to make that more relevant.

On the subject of race and ethnicity in the future, unless we go down some route of picking children's genes from out of a catalogue, then it will be a very long time before we all become homogeneous. The world is a lot bigger than most people realise, and the majority of the world is not pale skinned, blue eyed, blonds, nor do they speak English, so no reason why that would change. The wealth is concentrated in a very small number of people though, and that is likely to continue.

I'm still not sure about Meth's personalities being changed by the very act of living through so many sleeves. It was mentioned that there were mental health issues from soldiers living in many 'different' sleeves, but Meth's have clones to sleeve into. Presumably you sleeve into a young copy, grow old in that, and then sleeve into a new young copy. I accept that is pretty odd and must have some consequences, but I still think that the kind of people who are Meths are already arrogant, spoilt, unfeeling and full of a sense of privilege, just because they are wealthy. Being able to afford to sleeve into an unlimited number of clones is not necessarily a cause, rather an additional symptom. This would need to be a much bigger discussion about whether our personalities are fixed from childhood or puberty or birth, and whether they develop and change as we grow old, and by how much. The fact is that there are no people alive as old as Meths and so we can't really answer definitively. Reileen had possibly changed. We didn't see enough of her in the past.

I think the more interesting philosophical question concerns the spoiled rich offspring of Meths. They have been spoiled rich kids for centuries and that must affect their personalities. The creation of Meths has destroyed the natural course of maturity and progression. The son will never take over the role of the father.

 

[DrMclony]

Am I the only one who finds the sound mixing on this show unbearable?

 

[Dave]

No, there were several times when I couldn't understand what Kovaks had said at all. Once I even had to replay it and still had trouble.

I'm not saying it is alright, but it seems to have been a recent problem with several TV productions. The BBC was heavily criticised last year for some period drama (I never watched it and so can't remember the name.) So much so, that I think they went back an edited later episodes after complaints.

 

[The Bluestocking]

I watched it with the subtitles on. That helped. But yeah - a few times Kovacs sounded all mumbly.

 

[DrMclony]

Yeah, that was my experience. There is a craze among sound engineers lately to cut the treble down and all but obliterate the mid levels because it makes it seem "edgy". In actual fact it is a lazy arse way to fail to give atmosphere, and renders everything unwatchable. It does vibrate your gut in a cinema, but it renders home sound systems wasted money as it sounds better on a two dollar speaker from a junk store. Even the slightest background noise becomes boomy hum which obscures the dialog even further, like listening to a snake hiss through white noise. Where audio tracks are concerned, I am afraid I am a bit of a perfectionist.

 

[WaylanderToo]

Yeah, that was my experience. There is a craze among sound engineers lately to cut the treble down and all but obliterate the mid levels because it makes it seem "edgy". In actual fact it is a lazy arse way to fail to give atmosphere, and renders everything unwatchable. It does vibrate your gut in a cinema, but it renders home sound systems wasted money as it sounds better on a two dollar speaker from a junk store. Even the slightest background noise becomes boomy hum which obscures the dialog even further, like listening to a snake hiss through white noise. Where audio tracks are concerned, I am afraid I am a bit of a perfectionist.

is it possible you are one of us older ones meaning that your hearing has dropped off from 'peak sound' (so to speak)? Speaking as an oldie I will admit that I do find some mixing quite poor, or indeed, the background noise (especially music!) too intrusive... but I'd argue it's still less annoying than the canned laughter we used to get in sitcoms

 

[Vladd67]

is it possible you are one of us older ones meaning that your hearing has dropped off from 'peak sound' (so to speak)? Speaking as an oldie I will admit that I do find some mixing quite poor, or indeed, the background noise (especially music!) too intrusive... but I'd argue it's still less annoying than the canned laughter we used to get in sitcoms

Growing up watching M*A*S*H on BBC2 I got used to it without canned laughter, it is almost unwatchable with it.

 

[DrMclony]

lol Canned laughter is always pretty bad... On an aside, I dragged my old recording cans out of retirement which I haven't used in years, and it's fine and dandy through those. Go figure. I wouldn't call myself old, but perhaps I haven't been always so kind to my ears lol. The tinitus does get annoying some days.

 

[The Bluestocking]

I'm nowhere near old and there were times I would've strained to hear what Kovacs was saying (Joel Kinnaman has quite a baritone rumble) if it wasn't for the subtitles.

 

[WarriorMouse]

Yeah, that was my experience. There is a craze among sound engineers lately to cut the treble down and all but obliterate the mid levels because it makes it seem "edgy". In actual fact it is a lazy arse way to fail to give atmosphere, and renders everything unwatchable. It does vibrate your gut in a cinema, but it renders home sound systems wasted money as it sounds better on a two dollar speaker from a junk store. Even the slightest background noise becomes boomy hum which obscures the dialog even further, like listening to a snake hiss through white noise. Where audio tracks are concerned, I am afraid I am a bit of a perfectionist.

Sound engineers get a lot of flak for things they often have no ultimate control over. The director or producer sets the overall tone of a production in the editing room. That person sits in a studio and edits the recordings and footage to what they want to hear and see.

 

[ctg]

That person sits in a studio and edits the recordings and footage to what they want to hear and see.

Sometimes the record is also ultra low, possibly set for the headphones instead of the loudspeakers.

 

[duckEwe]

Just watched episodes 1-3 and they were AWESOME!

One thing I hated was Takeshi smoking, so obviously not part of the story and only there because the tobacco companies pay millions to producers to write it in, doesn't netflix have enough money?

Was wondering how others feel about the cigarette commercials inside TV shows and films. Any opinions or comments, ?

 

[WaylanderToo]

Just watched episodes 1-3 and they were AWESOME!

One thing I hated was Takeshi smoking, so obviously not part of the story and only there because the tobacco companies pay millions to producers to write it in, doesn't netflix have enough money?

Was wondering how others feel about the cigarette commercials inside TV shows and films. Any opinions or comments, ?

TBH I didn't really notice it... that is to say yes I did see he smoked but it really didn't register as out of place or jarring

 

[Vladd67]

I believe the smoking is in the book, Takeshi didn’t smoke but the original owner of the sleeve did. Ortega even says she was always trying to get Ryder to quit.