Altered Carbon (Netflix)

Speaking of the second season. The last episode of the second season look me probably 4 hours to finish. It was terrible. The fights, boring. The story in the final episode, negates most of the entire season. They knew the show was ending and threw it in the trash.

Garrett

Nov 8, 2025 — 2 min read

Review

One this this show did really well was made the action, initially. There was a simple rawness, aggressiveness, and intensity to the fighting. The second season added a John Woo, Matrix, silliness to it. There is a lot of wire work that makes it feel more like a ballet or kindergarten dance off. There is such a drastic difference between the two seasons. We rag on Game of Thrones for moving away from source material, but this is the holy grail of sins.

Lets move on from that and talk about the acting. Joel Kinnaman, Takeshi in the first season, was right in line with the the book. He was sour, stoic, mean, and selfish. Anthony Mackie on the other hand is emotional and sensitive, which doesn't feel right. Chris Conner, who plays Poe, is a standout. I love his character and his character in the second season is my favorite part. I only really enjoyed it for him. He was electric.

My Rating

What started off as faithful to the books and a good series, quickly turned into garbage where they moved so far from the book, the ending of the show makes less sense than the ending of the book. First season, easy 8, second season is a 4. It is so bad that the first season can't help it. This is a 5. Chris Conner couldn't save it with his masterclass.

Parental Rating

The first season starts with nudity, violence, and drugs. Oh yeah, a CRAP TON of f-bombs. There isn't a chance that my dad would make it through the first episode. I wish I could say that my mom would, actually I don't. It would never be something they would watch. I totally forgot about the whole religious aspect in the first season. Nope, they are out. I am interested in what they would think of the arguments though.