I just started watching a new series on Netflix called Altered Carbon. This is an adaptation of a cyberpunk science fiction novel written in 2002 by Richard K. Morgan. I read the novel about 15 years ago, and it was one of those stories that stuck in my head. I was super-pumped when I heard that the book was finally going to be made into a series. It’s a Netflix original, so that’s the only way to watch it at the moment.
I’ve watched only the first three episodes and thus far, I love it! The story takes place in a future world where human personalities can be stored digitally and downloaded into new bodies (the new bodies are referred to as “sleeves”).
Of course, the more money you have, the better body (sleeve) you can obtain.
Most people have implants in their spinal columns called “stacks” which store all their memories. If their body dies, their “stack” can be stored indefinitely and then implanted into a new body. If your stack is somehow damaged, you’re dead for good. However, the very rich are able to keep backup copies of their stacks in remote storage, which they update regularly. This way, even if their stack is somehow destroyed, they can be “resleeved”.
The story revolves around our hero, Takeshi Kovacs (played by Joel Kinnaman), an accused terrorist who’s been “on ice” for the past 250 years and has now been revived in a new body. He was brought back (resleeved) in order to find the murderer of a very, very rich man named Laurens Bancroft. It was believed that Laurens Bancroft committed suicide, but the recently revived Bancroft believes that he was murdered, and has hired Kovacs in the hope that Kovacs will find his killer.
…and thus the story begins.
I’m definitely looking forward to watching the next seven episodes in this series (the first season consists of 10 episodes). I think this is a great start to the series and can’t wait to see where they’re going to go with it. If enjoy cyberpunk, science fiction or dystopian stories and are a Netflix subscriber, you might want to check out Altered Carbon.
Or you can check out the original novel HERE