Altered Carbon Season II (Netflix series)
Created by Laeta Kalogridis
Season II brings us back to Harlan's World, as Kovacs is hired by a member of the super-elite, one of the immortal meths (I wish there was a hell for every single one of them.). This meth is in fear of his life as something is hunting him and can kill him permanently by destroying not just his stack but every copy of his mind (Good.). So, he does what anyone with more resources than sense in mortal fear does in this universe. He calls Takeshi Kovacs, however, there's only one form of payment that Kovacs is interested in, Quellcrist Falconer. If Kovacs keeps him alive, he'll tell Kovacs how to find her. Unlike the books where Quellcrist is a long lost historical figure, who thoroughly imprinted herself on Kovacs birth-culture to the point that even street thugs can quote her poetry, the show’s Quellcrist and Kovacs had an intensely personal relationship (They were besotted with each other. They were lovers. Just go ahead and say it.{but if I don’t dance around it how will I get my exercise? That said, I kinda feel that Kovacs is more into her than vice versa. Not that she doesn’t love him but the Revolution is first in her heart. Guess she’s your kinda of girl… As much as any girl can be of course}). To the point that when Kovacs realizes at the end of Season I that Quellcrist isn't lost forever and could be found... She became his overriding obsession (She did kinda “die” while talking to him, IIRC, and she is pretty much all he has left in his world of regret and self-loathing so…{Dude, Poe is standing right there!}). As a result, the Kovacs in this season is less grim and hopeless, as he has a goal that isn't foisted on him by someone he hates and might achieve. He's also more prone to outbursts and mood shifts as being frustrated in that goal can leave him feeling like a bad joke told by an apathetic universe to an angry audience (After a search lasting a century? Yeaaaah.). Anthony Mackie does a good job playing this Kovacs and brings a lot of charisma to the role, which is necessary as this version of Kovacs is going through a lot of emotional ups and downs. Because while he may or may not find Falconer, success may prove worse than failure here. Because the centuries haven't left Quellcrist untouched if it even is Quellcrist in the first place and not someone or something else in her body. Fortunately, Kovacs is not alone, as Poe is with him every step of the way, although this isn't always a good thing for Poe (Poor Poe.).
Poe is still suffering the damage that was inflicted on him in Season I, as such his memory is degrading and his focus is slipping. He could likely solve everything with a reboot but that would mean completely wiping his memories (It occurs to me that it should be possible to copy his memories as backups and then restore post-reboot…{The trick is copying them without copying the corruption eating away at his processors}). Which frankly is like saying you can solve your cancer by committing suicide, I kinda get why Poe isn't thrilled with that idea. He might not have a choice though as the damage is spreading and soon he might be shut down for good by it. Poe in a lot of ways becomes the real heart of the story for me. He is struggling with degradation and losing capability, he's also seeing what this loss is doing to the people he loves and faces their emotional reactions which range from bitterness to anger. Because Kovacs can't process his emotions without an angry outburst or ten. Poe struggles to find a way to use his rapidly decreasing time in a way that leaves his loved ones better off and reaffirm his own dignity and self-worth despite it all. As someone who lost a Grandfather to Alzheimer's... It hits home and hits hard (Same. Grandma has dementia.). I got to say that Chris Conner plays it magnificently, the confusion as he loses the thread of a conversation or a train of thought. The manic bursts of work while he can focus and use his abilities to the fullest. This is further built upon by bringing in another AI, called Dig 231. She is brought in to work as Poe's assistant and may end up displacing him entirely leaving Poe without any purpose or connection. Both characters are easily the most human of the story. Poe's story is easily the most compelling part of the series for me in Season II and he constantly proves to be the best change from the books the series has done. Hands down.
This season also gives us a look at Artificial Intelligences as an exploited class. In Season I, most of the A.I’s besides Poe had abandoned the idea of living with humanity if they could avoid it (I don’t blame them.). A number of them have even exploited humans, with one A.I. boasting of entering the slave trade (Except for him. Fuck him with a virus right in the code-spleen.). In Harlon’s World’s the A.I’s that we see are discarded for the most part and when they do encounter humans the idea of them having any rights isn’t even laughed at. It’s simply never brought up (Not even by the AIs themselves, really. Which is sad. Pretty much the only person who treats Poe like the person he definitely is is Kovacs, which contextualizes Poe’s attachment to him.{Kovacs doesn’t even treat Poe that well, but he treats Poe just like he would a human being, which makes him special to Poe. Which is a fucking sad statement right there}). This kind of makes sense as the Settled Worlds of Altered Carbon pretty treat mainline human beings as commodities (Oh the world we live in does that, just to a lesser extent…), never mind a whole new class of living beings we created. It is, however, striking just how dismissive humanity and AI’s have grown towards one another here. The AI’s aren’t plotting an uprising, they’re huddled in VR waiting rooms wasting away from boredom. Humanity isn’t exploiting AI's, so much as ignoring that they exist. When AIs and humans do interact, most humans are quick to pull out various tools to render AIs unable to say no though. Which is incredibly disturbing.
Poe isn't the only character struggling here though, one of the antagonists is Danica Harlon, daughter of Konrad Harlan and governor of Harlon's World. Succeeding her father as governor after he stepped down as governor and joined a religious cult called the renouncers. Danica is battling an insurgency (Good), an attempt by her father's immortal peers to reduce her to a puppet and the ominous military presence of the Protectorate that seeks to strip her world completely of the ore needed to make more stacks. Despite that, she manages to stay ahead by playing each group off of each other with such ruthless aplomb that I can't help but respect her talent and drive. After all, it takes guts to look people who are older than your very society in the eye and tell them no, especially when they can talk about bouncing your infant self on their knee only a couple of decades ago (She does have that going for her. I will give her credit for sheer nerve.). The show doesn't hesitate to show us how ruthless or dangerous this woman is either, as the narrative doesn’t show her hesitating nor does it try to lay the blame for her actions on a male subordinate. Danica Harlan does not need a man to run this planet, and if you forget that, she'll remind you and you might not survive that reminder (Aaaah Bourgeois Feminism. Not to be confused with solid Intersectional or Marxist Feminism. “Isn’t it grand how women can be ruthless despots too? Behold how progressive we are!”. Representation isn’t everything, kids.{I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here, man? Are you saying you don’t want female or minority villains? Or you don’t want capitalist fiction?} I am feeling kinda bitter today and lampooning real life. Where people don’t question the structural inequalities of the system we live in, but want more female/POC/LGBT representation within systems of oppression. Mayor Pete being a prime example. I have a lot of old fraternity brothers who Just Wanted A Gay President, who ignored the fact that he’s a terrible person and gaslit themselves. A common form of mockery we in the left will use is “Why aren’t there more female drone pilots?”{I can’t speak for others but I think getting rid of barriers holding people back due to their race, gender or other such traits is a good thing in and of itself, that kind of stuff showed up even in socialist nations after all} That’s true, it is. But the point is to get rid of the system that creates the barriers in the first place and when it comes to the oppressive shit - female drone pilots - well our drone program should not exist. At least not in our current foreign policy paradigm. See what I mean?{There’s a number of snarky things I could say there, for example, which drone program because we have like 3 or 4 of them but honestly at this point, it feels like we’re drifting into a foreign policy debate, which is wildly off-topic for this review so I’m just gonna stop now})
That said, I was disappointed in a lot of the plot decisions made in season II. Some of this is because Season II is only 8 episodes long compared to Season I's 10 but most of it comes from Altered Carbon deciding to play it safe. Character relationships, plotlines, and themes are all neatly tied up and treated in a Hollywood manner instead of really grappling with them. A big example of this is Joshua Kemp and the Quellist insurgency he is running. Instead of really taking a look at insurgencies and how a movement changes over time and without the guidance of its founder, we're given a rather pat Hollywood plot. The series plays with the idea of dealing with themes of imperialism, class structure, the cost of war and more but shied away (Of course they did. I mean, if they really tackled them, people might think a bit too hard about how such things apply in the world we live in today and that would be bad for the investors.). The story would have been somewhat daring if it was told ten or fifteen years ago but today it's rather safe and a bit mundane if you strip out all the fantastic elements of the series. At every point, it seems like the writers decided to shrink things down and reduce the scope of the story. Instead of a massive planet-wide war between a government that can threaten ships in orbit and vast interstellar forces, we get a single guerrilla band fighting a police force that seems to control a single city. Kovacs’ focus is reduced to a monomaniacal obsession with a long lost love. Instead of a large military machine, the Wedge is a single squad of special forces soldiers. The story is left feeling smaller and more banal as a result of it. The story seems to want us to believe that the problem is both that immortality is available and that bad people are in charge. The problem is that it undercuts itself. Danica is not ancient, as Kovacs is much older than she is but she can outdo her older associates in cunning and underhandedness in her quest to climb to the top. This suggests that instead of immortality being the issue, it’s the fact that the upper class is utterly and completely shielded from the consequences of their actions (Yes.). Of course, that's not an accident, when immortality became available the 1% of Altered Carbon proceeded to ensure as little change as possible, except for tearing down controls over their behavior and they had centuries to do it with (I mean… <Editor looks at the current state of the world>. Art imitates life I suppose. Dials it up to twelve, but it does imitate life.). Quellcrist's solution is to get rid of immortality but frankly, I don't think that will help because the system will more or less remain unchanged just with higher turnover (Yep. Bancroft’s affluenza-addled little snotling from the last season is gonna be every bit as terrible as his father.). Danica herself stands as proof of that. Season II was still a good watch for me and I enjoyed the series but I found myself preferring Season I. Although I do prefer Anthony Mackie's performance to Joel Kinnaman's. In fact, if I'm gonna be honest the acting is rather good and I have only praise for the cast in general. The sets were well done as well giving us a feeling of a place that doesn't exist on Earth. However, the weakness in the writing and unwillingness to really grapple with messy issues brings everything down. I have to give Season II of Altered Carbon a C+. It's a good watch, it's a fun watch but it ain't a great watch.
As an adaptation... There are some scraps of the second book here but not much. Since I haven't read the third book, which this season seems to be borrowing heavily from I don't feel I can give it a full grade as an adaptation. That said I do think the series writing and production team has wandered quite far from the characters and stories of the books and I don't think they've told a better story. Except for Poe. So I'm going to hold off on issuing a final grade on the adaptation and we may revisit this before too long depending on the feelings of my ever-wise patrons and you, the reading audience.
So due to the creeping shutdowns from COVID 19, we’ve decided to give you a look at what the review looks like before we cut it down for length. I hope you enjoyed. If you did, consider joining us at https://www.patreon.com/frigidreads where a dollar a month lets you vote on what books will be reviewed in the coming month. Next week join us as we close out March with the Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. Until then, stay calm, stay safe and Keep Reading!
Red text is your editor Dr. Ben Allen
Black text is your reviewer Garvin Anders
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