I love science fiction. Let me start there. Because I love it so much, I'm hard on it; it's a tough love.
But try as I might, I can't find many flaws in episode one of Altered Carbon on Netflix. Netflix is known for its quality in house programming, but science fiction is a special thing. Fraught with trope traps that are easy to fall into, and often making the mistake of building a eye-candy-rich world with no substance or substantive characters to fill it. In Altered Carbon's case, it sort of feels like we're having it all: rich story, interesting characters, and eye-popping visuals.
The main character is just as new to the world as we are, navigating the dystopian consequences of a war he lost, a war he is the sole survivor of. In this new world a piece of technology called the "stack" is humanity's key to immortality. Bodies are a dime a dozen, referred to simply as "sleeves".
Our main hero is revived 250 years after the lost war, to find that his enemies have consolidated power. The social classes are all but complete separate, with the elite living literally in the heavens in a place called The Atrium.
This one is not to be missed folks. It's a rare case where a show delivers on the awesomeness of it's premise. I hope they keep it up.
