Altered Carbon Season 2 Review

February 24, 2020 at 8:07pm
By Jason Stettner

This is a Netflix Original series that somewhat continues the events of the first season. This is however a largely different sort of experience with a fresh lead, and a completely new sense of atmosphere. This is a cyberpunk style show featuring these items called stacks. They allow everyone to essentially live forever as they venture onto new sleeves which are what human skins are considered in that time.

This season takes place after a time jump where Takeshi Kovacs has taken a new form, that being played by “Anthony Mackie”. This is due to circumstances outside his control, and this series takes on the role of a more generic action film set against a future dystopia. It’s a bit of a disappointing turn, as it feels like they go way over the top. This is especially present towards the end where it’s almost silly in nature and ever so generic.

That being said, this was still enjoyable and generally alright. We once again get to see our pal Poe (Chris Conner) and he has an interesting yet predictable side story throughout this season. While it does aim to leave something direct, and perhaps striking it ultimately takes that back which was very disappointing.

Anthony Mackie was great as the lead in this season, he felt like the character yet had a different degree of toughness there. There are also some interesting twists as certain events progress and perhaps too much of a look at the lore of the technology that powers these sleeves.

It’s an interesting dive into sci-fi, yet not one that was exciting as I might have hoped for. They really didn’t play with the mystery very well there. They do have some neat extra characters, but some are missed from the previous season. It’s just not as good quite honestly, which is disappointing as this is perhaps the genre I love most and I truly enjoyed the first season.

This is just such as divergence from what that was. It does have some cool action, and the hunt part of the plot was neat yet not drawn out enough. The focus on certain story lines ultimately dampened the potential for this one, as again it felt silly as opposed to being some dark and gritty future.

The Conclusion

Altered Carbon Season 2 doesn’t hit the heights of the first season, being a generally alright continuation of the first that comes across as more generic this time around. I really didn’t like the more silly approach it took and towards the end it just seemed sad honestly. I thought they handled the time transition well, only for things to sort of degrade as it progressed.

I thought Mackie was great here though, really commanded the screen while feeling on par with the character and tougher when the action moments arrived. A pleasant surprise for sure, as I felt the lead change was a bit odd but it does make perfect sense in regards to the context of the show. It was great to see how Poe was integrated, that should be a neat yet perhaps drawn out side story to enjoy.

It’s just not quite as interesting as that initial season was and that’s very disappointing to me. It does nail the sense of atmosphere well, and if you’re interested in the lore it really digs into that in ways that perhaps weren’t needed.

Altered Carbon Season 2 Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.5