I was very excited after watching the first 2 episodes but by the 7th I got bored really. As a classic American tv series it eventually degraded into a soap opera. The characters became more immature and irritating as the story was progressing and Spoiler: Spoile why the hell didn’t he die at the end? And why wasn’t the cloned sleeve chosen to live. I feel so betrayed. The ending could not have been any more lame than that...
Spoiler answer: Like in Infinity, being "double Sleeved" is a crime, only one of the sleeved "personas" get to live, and the instigator of the double sleeve is severely punished (chekov's gun for 3rd book). As for why didn't he die at the end... the sleeve had a rescue beacon, so they found it and ran the Cube to check which one of them would go on. The book explains it al sooo nicely ^^
Not really... Quellcrist was dead by alien orbital satellite laser long before Kovacs was born, a female Sgt. Steel shaped Kovacs into a proper Envoy, Envoys were UN "peace troops" (as in, we send them to purge a colony's inhuman behavior, Morat style), and he left the corps (despite beign barred from 95% legal jobs because of the Envoy training FIRST step is to make you a sociopath) because a clusterfuck mission in a colony world called Innennin which gave HIM PTSD, killed off for real thanks to a nasty virus transmitted by their comms (as in, the Avatar's Sepsitor is a much preferable option), and made all the survivors leave the corps horrified. Also, Quellism is a philosophy present in the books, that opposes the 1% and corporations, and Kovacs is presented as an isolated man who doesn't give a fuck about almost anything. Oh, and the hotel is called the Hendrix, which is not relevant, is an AI housed in the hotel, and uses turrets to dispose of the tugs instead of being sleeved into an old man's body with a shotgun. So it's just that those of us who read the books are peeved because Netflix has pulled a Destiny for no reason (the series is loosely based on the book). Also, they vaporized the third book almos completely, making it hard for a third season to ever exist. As Quel would say, "make it personal, because THEY don't care". Spoiler: Quell's words. pg 159, Altered Carbon The personal, as everyone’s so fucking fond of saying, is political. So if some idiot politician, some power player, tries to execute policies that harm you or those you care about, take it personally. Get angry. The Machinery of Justice will not serve you here—it is slow and cold, and it is theirs, hardware and soft-. Only the little people suffer at the hands of Justice; the creatures of power slide out from under with a wink and a grin. If you want justice, you will have to claw it from them. Make it personal. Do as much damage as you can. Get your message across. That way you stand a far better chance of being taken seriously next time. Of being considered dangerous. And make no mistake about this: being taken seriously, being considered dangerous, marks the difference—the only difference in their eyes—between players and little people. Players they will make deals with. Little people they liquidate. And time and again they cream your liquidation, your displacement, your torture and brutal execution with the ultimate insult that it’s just business, it’s politics, it’s the way of the world, it’s a tough life, and that it’s nothing personal. Well, fuck them. Make it personal. QUELLCRIST FALCONER Things I Should Have Learned by Now Volume II
@xagroth @Dragonstriker I’ll say it again. Consider how much of a better ending it would have been if he had had died or at least his double sleeve would have lived instead of him, decided by a Rock Paper Scissors game...
On the book we get to read only from the survivor's PoV... and until the double sleeve, they were the same person, so... Have you considered that the second sleeve lived and went back to the island? ;) The ending you propose is a dead end, because the sleeve that went to the island would not leave. End of the trilogy in... book 1. Make survive the one who has no ties to Earth, and the show goes on, to book 2.
In the book, Kovacs decided that the two personas would play rock-paper-scissors to see which one would live and which one would get erased. And technically, the Kovacs that lived is the one that didn't go to the island. Definitely need to watch this, as soon as I can convince the roommate with the Amazon Prime script to stop watching Shannara.
I'd have Shannara sitting cold in my HDD since the first season went out. It simply doesn't call me. As for my wife monopolizing our TV, I simply watch on the laptop after downloading, I'm no fan of streaming. Funny enough, my lineup for this season is Lucifer, Overlord 2nd season, Violet Evergreen (wasn't expecting to fall into another asperger's series... but anime), and little else. For those about "adapting a book to a series always ruins it". I have read Overlord until Book 12, and I'm enjoying the anime series a lot. Then again, I imagine Japanese "adapters" don't even dream to put their signature over another author's work, even to make some political statement.
I watch Lucifer (I have read the comic it's based loosely upon and I don't care if it's not a slavish copy of it) and am enjoying it. I did the same for Preacher. Constantine, by comparison, was simply boring. I enjoyed the first half season of the flash, but superhero comics bore me for the most part. I grew up with Dredd, Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper (2000AD) and the spandex kids never made much of a dent in that.
I thought they did about as well as they could to translate the book. Some things annoyed me, but it is easier for most viewers to buy in to thin, less complicated back stories. Spoiler: Book related For some reason, the thing that got on my nerves was not saying "Martian".
Well, technically they weren't (they didn't originate on Mars, it's just the first place humanity found them). It was an outlying colony, from memory - but their maps all showed each colony world as the centre of its own little thing. At least we got to see a bit of one (not a thing until later books)
I'd be more annoyed about the Envoys having changed sides, Quell being alive in Kovacs' lifetime, the lack of Virginia Vidaura and the merging of both of them with Sarah than what they called the alien leftovers. Oh, also flying vehicles on Harlan's world (the Ancient kill-sats - the "Angels" - that the "Martians" left behind that vaporise any flyer over a backpack unit above a certain altitude with a gout of "angelfire" are the reason they don't have them). But my annoyance wouldn't change anything, so it's like water off a bottleback. Many HW born have acrophobia since they usually don't go "up". That said, I understand stuff was done just in case they only got a one-shot-season. Since the other books are only related to Altered Carbon by having Kovacs in them and occasional references to things he did in the other stories.
As the child of an expat Hungarian, I'm happy they got the pronunciation of his name right - even if somehow it became a "slavic" name (Hungarian ISN'T a "slavic" language - different linguistic group completely.)
Since I am a theater nerd and watched it with my bestie, who is a very serious theater person, we both love that, when they do season 2, Spoiler: spoiler Kovacs will have to be portrayed by a new actor. Her immediate reactions: "How dare they make me love an immortal sociopath whose immortality stems from getting new bodies that goes on adventures across space and finds new girlfriends along the way!"
Well, at least one new actor. Keep Will Yun Lee for the flashback scenes. Spoiler Since the Kinnaman Sleeve was actually Elias Ryker's (who gets cleared and gets it back), anyway, and he (kovacs) gets to go home after getting DHF'd to Harlan's world
I’m totally with you. My point is that everything that’s “wrong” with the series is due to changes from the books. Thus, the answer to criticism “x” is “it was explained better in the books”. Also, regarding Quell: Spoiler Uploaded, not killed.
Two things in counter to your argument; You are not your body. You’re saying the ending would have been better if Kovacs had kept the black t-shirt instead of the grey t-shirt. The “other Kovacs” didn’t die anyway. He’s Miriam Bancroft’s toyboy on the island.
