Let's Talk About ALTERED CARBON Season 2: Feels Like Wearing a New Sleeve

From what Altered Carbon has taught us, sometimes getting in a new sleeve can cause some serious “sleeve shock.” Season 2 at times feels like a brand new body, but suffers from some of the shock of all the changes. There are a lot of improvements in season 2 and great things that are brought over from season 1, but like people who live through sleeve shock in the show, it can be disorienting or difficult to get used to for some time. This will be a general overview and review of season 2, there are so many parts, characters and interesting lore beats that won’t be covered here. But please comment below what your thoughts were about the Elder, Trepp, Colonel Carrera and anything else we didn’t mention here!

Let’s first address Anthony Mackie, he did a fine job as Takeshi Kovacs, period. He can brood well, he can act fairly mysterious and be the thoughtful and stoic Takeshi we know. However, Anthony can’t help but be a little bit more expressive than the other Takeshis. We see him get more visibly angry, happy and lonely than anything we saw last season. But it is hard to say if this is Mackie or if this is the direction of the show and writing. On one hand, Mackie is his own person and brings his own strengths of a more comical and sassy Takeshi. But on the other hand, the writers may have thought that the passing 30 years of hopeless searching, constant resleeving and growing obsession of Falconer would end up taking a toll on Takeshi, making him a more reckless and passionate version of himself. With all these things to consider, Anthony Mackie performed very well and still made us feel like we were watching Takeshi Kovacs even if he acted somewhat out of character.

Now, let’s talk about the story. It is a love story, it is a romantic saga and journey for Takeshi at its core. His love and obsession drive him every step of the way this season. This may be a reason why people aren’t enjoying it so much, the political conversations, meth dealings and family drama from last season take a back seat to focus on Takeshi and Quellcrist. I am not a huge fan of romantic media, most of it is pretty cheesy or absurd. But when it is done right and characters are truly driven by their undeniable feelings, we can get a great result of unique storytelling. Season 2 does suffer from some cheesy content, some poor or obviously bad choices in the name of love, but it does succeed for the most part in making the audience see the passion and love between characters as natural and tangible.

Poe is somewhat of a double-edged sword in season 2. We love seeing him in just about every scene, he has so much personality and is a great counterpart to Takeshi. However, this season’s journey for him to try and retain his memories while endangering Takeshi just didn’t add up. He was always very logical with some growing emotions, but he never put his feelings or the feelings of others before doing what’s right. I understand that years have past and people change, including A.I., but it was odd for Poe to continually put off being fully helpful until the very last moment. This brings us to Dig 301, which was a great addition to the cast and would be welcome in future seasons, her ability to be a more passionate A.I. and have a unique dynamic and opinion of humans made for a great character. Her connection to Poe is one of the better parts of the season, very entertaining to see the two A.I.s have so much humanity. 

Poe’s resurrection (reconstruction) made sense and his loss of memory totally appropriate. But his storing of the raw, human DHF, when did he do this? Where did he store all this information if he was just rebooted with Dig 301’s (Annabel) program? Why couldn’t he store his own memories/consciousness in the same way? The DHF is almost guaranteed to Kovacs (who else could it be?) which seemed terribly obvious and kind of cheap. It takes away from Takeshi’s sacrifice just a couple of minutes earlier with his inevitable return. I understand that the show could really only continue with Takeshi, but why kill him if you’re going to bring him right back? Overall the ending just wound up being terribly unsatisfying and then forcibly making room for a third season made deaths or “real deaths” of anyone seem insignificant.

Lastly, let’s talk about the universe, action and other parts that make Altered Carbon feel like a real world. It was great that the story took place on a different planet than last season, but the streets, meths and culture almost felt identical, which was disappointing. It would have been nice if the story took place on multiple planets and really extended the universe literally and metaphorically. The action scenes were great like last season, but things were for sure toned down a little bit, less blood, gore and nudity, most likely to appeal to a wider audience. Season 2 felt like Altered Carbon, just at a slightly less intense level.

Season 2 was good, it had a lot of great and interesting moments. It took a lot of risks too with a deeper dive into the lore by mixing in various new ideas of sleeve memory, the Elders and A.I. communities. The love story was a bold move that paid off for the most part, even though some character choices and reactions were pretty out there. For as much as this season fixed issues from last season, it also brought in a number of new ones, holding it back from being truly great leaving this season just short of the impact of last season.