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Altered Carbon Season 1

Trying to figure out why Altered Carbon is so good, why the first season is great and the second one isn't so much.

The nudity is part of why it's good. Sprinkle lots of nubidy into a show and you have a guaranteed hit. Extended nudity. Frequent nudity. Gorgeous nudity. I'd add in some more nudity with imperfect people if I were doing the movie.

The idea of a man weighed down by memories is appealing to me. 

I can't really get into the action, you know in the movie that he's going to survive. Movies don't just suddenly end with the hero dying in the middle of it. And there are tells that it is fake. 

The narrative of the sexy hispanic cop is attractive. Her protective partner. Her wanting to protect the sleeve of her former lover. Her family is catholic and believes in RD or real death. 

The future technology is surprising, interesting, well crafted, unique.

The revealing and the carrot of what is hidden is deftly handled. The mind yearns to understand what is going on.

The abysmal filthy rich. Their moral corruption. Their horny lifestyles. Illegal activity. Financing whims. Indulging in fetishes. 

The layers, there's the sister, the cop, the filthy rich, the retro technology, the new technology, the past training in terrorist fighting. Like a good food recipe, they combine well. 

There is an edge, a kind of Noir feeling. People are on edge, wary of people trying to get over on them. They seem to really know a few things, but not a whole lot of other things. An interesting combination of haunting, confidence, and curiosity. Part of the noir appeal is the Camus question of why not kill yourself. What is the meaning of existence if you can't do enough of what you want to do? Other carry missions and heavy goals, but you hold it all lightly.

The show is visually rich. I read the book after, but I doubt I would have been that inventive, the novel didn't really include many visual details. The show has rich visual after rich visual after rich visual.


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