re: Altered Carbon - NetFlix Original scifi series Spoilers start on page 3

On episode 5. Okay show. The lieutenant detective is horrible though

Where do they get the sleeves? It sounds like most don’t. They hold onto a stack until they can get one.

I do have a theory on sleeve supply for the masses though. I thought it was odd that with all of this advanced medical tech and even robot doctors, you still had issues providing healthcare to everyone.

There’s a scene where they go into a hospital emergency room and the wait is even worse than the stereotype we see in movies today. Robot doctors should fix that to a certain degree. I’m thinking stacks change the equation of dying and how much people are willing to pay to save what is now a sleeve rather than a life.

It’s like cars. Many cars that insurance totals actually get fixed and resold. If the guy that runs the hospitals and the guy that runs the sleeve store are the same Meth, or are friends, then you can create incentive to have less than adequate healthcare to create a supply of used sleeves. That also fits in with the show theme of Meths using their societal power and virtual immortality to control the lives of normal people.

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What's the point of having a DNA lock on anything

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Think of it as a really strong password that needs to change with your sleeve. But you’re right, some sort of brainwave scan would seem more reasonable as a biometric identifier.

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Wouldn't you die every time you switch bodies? It appears that a copy is made.

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If we are really an individual perspective based on a collection of memories and experiences, then a copy is just a slightly different version of us. Not sure if you’re there yet but it comes up that it is illegal to double sleeve and have more than one copy of your self running around. I assume this rule is also in part another sign of a constrained sleeve supply. Everyone does not just get to hop into a new sleeve as soon as they die.

Watched the first episode and there was just too much going on and hard to follow for me. Don't think I'll continue it.

Read 'em. Not as good as the first? Maybe. Each one is different - the "detective noire" feel is only in the first one. But the other two have their own style. Kovachs is still the same.

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I just can't get past the poor writing and poor acting. And not nearly enough James Purefoy in the first 4-5 episodes. The scenes with Quell in the forest are like something out of Battlefield Earth. Then you have cringe worthy scenes with Russians or something like that. Ortega is fine as froghair but she is written so poorly that she is incredibly annoying.

I was so hyped for this show but I am extremely disappointed in it. I really want to like it so much. I love cyberpunk and many of the ideas are great and it looks very nice but, the execution, writing, and acting are just poor all-around (with few exceptions).

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ugh. how disappointing

i find the show good and i see all the things people are saying are a disappointment. But to me, there isnt one of these futuristic scifi stories that is written perfect.

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got to pay for it somehow. Even though the tech is there doesnt mean it is free.

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Doctors cost so much because it takes decades to train a human. All surgical robots are instantly experts and regularly upgradable. These robot doctors can work 24/7, or at least with much less down time than a human doctor requires. Over time the cost savings of robot vs. human doctor should be sufficient that more patients could be treated for the same or lower cost.

The only reason for that to not be the case is artificial scarcity, like how the Diamond companies hoard all the diamonds to make them more valuable, or an exploding population outgrowing the new robot doctor capacity. Considering the themes of the show, I'd guess artificial scarcity is the culprit.

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i find the show good and i see all the things people are saying are a disappointment. But to me, there isnt one of these futuristic scifi stories that is written perfect.

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I agree, the flaws that people are pointing out aren't bothering me nearly as much. Although considering how this show has me going of on tangents talking about economics and such, I've just been really sucked into the world they created. I don't know how much ground the books covered, but I wouldn't mind a second season involving different characters in this world.

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here will never be a perfect one, but well-produced, well-made shows can save even the poorest of scripts. sounds like this whiffed on everything. ill watch a few eps tonight with low expectations

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it didnt whiff on all of them. There are some pretty great scenes. The introduction to the hotel scene and the torture scene really stand out.

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1) When you find out the freedom fighters are really trying to limit the life of a person to 100 year. IMO they basically want to murder everyone and everyone who will be born. This makes me root for the protectorate.
2) When Rei is found out to be behind it because she was trying to save her brother. seems a little much to me.

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Yep.

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omg...did they seriously turn Reileen into Takeshi's sister??

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Yep. That and the change to make the Envoys part of Quell's freedom fighters (with Kovacs being part of her group) are going to royally piss you off.

Other than those changes though, they really stuck fairly close to the book and I thought did a good job with moving the book to film. They did a good job with Kovacs on Earth and the entire look and feel of that storyline was excellent.

But the flashbacks with Quell and the change with making Rei his sister were just dumb.