Altered Carbon
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levels of nudity and violence.
In other words,Altered Carbonpromises something ambitious right off the bat.
Well soon find out if it delivers on those promises.
Out of the Past opens with a body seen floating from below, intercut with someone else showering.
We will learn that they are the same person, even though they dont physically look the same.
They are both Takeshi Kovacs, a highly-skilled assassin known as an Envoy.
He takes a few out, but they kill his partner and then blow him to bits.
But in this future, the body is just a shell.
People can be re-sleeved, their memories and personalities kept in a stack at the top of their spine.
And thats exactly whats going to happen to Tak.
Around 250 years later, Kovacs wakes up in a very different sleeve.
(The word sleeve is pretty self-explanatory, if you think about it.)
As you might imagine, religion doesnt sit well with reincarnation on demand.
So, why has a legendary Envoy like Takeshi Kovacs been re-sleeved?
Blue sky and sunshine above; clouds and rain below.
Its a caste system not unlikeSnowpiercer, but vertical instead of horizontal.
The rich build homes in the sky to avoid the clutter of common man.
Laurens wants Tak to solve his own murder.
Hes still alive because he backs up his stack to a satellite every 48 hours.
Ten minutes before a backup, Laurens was shot, or shot himself.
The cops believe it was the latter, but something doesnt look right.
If he wanted to be dead, he would be.
At first, Kovacs isnt interested.
Why help a member of the futuristic one percent?
Hell just go back on ice.
But hell have some fun first.
Back on the ground, Kovacs has a vision of his sister, played by the always-welcome Dichen Lachman.
Whats to live for?
They talk about the case, and there seems to be an old personal grudge between Ortega and Bancroft.
Eh, Kovacs still cant quite care.
Then he gets to the Raven, where he meets a charming A.I.
named Poe (Chris Conner) as in Edgar Allan Poe.
Poe promises food, view, private entertainment, and no fantasy beyond reach.
He does so and turrets drop from the ceiling, as Poe himself grabs a shotgun and starts blasting.
Kovacs wants to know who sent the killer, but he gets destroyed.
Ortega reveals that this assassin was double-sleeved in a twin, which means well likely see Penikett again.
Why would a dozen people want a nobody like Tak Kovacs dead?
Theres gotta be something to the Bancroft murder case after all.
And hell have to take it to find out why so many people want him dead.
Its more like hes just getting started.
Other Notes
Curious about the song that played over the final scenes?
Its The End by Daughter.
Did the hotel shootout remind anyone else ofBioshock?
Out of the Past was written by show creator Laeta Kalogridis, who penned Oliver StonesAlexanderand Martin ScorsesesShutter Island.
After each episode, Ill recommend a sci-fi movie I thought of while watching it.
