‘Altered Carbon’
Netflix’s newest science-fiction offering, Altered Carbon, is an ambitious deep-dive into R-rated cyberpunk noir. In a world where consciousness exists in digital form and bodies can be worn like “sleeves,” Joel Kinnaman plays Takeshi Kovacs, a legendary solider brought out of centuries languishing in a digital prison in order to solve a murder mystery. The series is a visually-overwhelming romp that challenges preconceptions as readily as it indulges in fast-paced excitement. Altered Carbon works best, though, as a futuristic noir. It’s also a series that constantly twists and turns so that the show’s final episode is almost a vehement repudiation of its beginning.