"Altered Carbon," Year Two

Minor spoilers ahead

The body-swapping, practically immortal badass Takeshi Kovacs is back, this time in a new "sleeve" played by Anthony Mackie. Thirty years after the first series of "Altered Carbon," he's returned to his old haunts on the planet of Harlan's World, taking on a new murder mystery, while continuing his quest to find his old flame, Quellcrist Falconer (Renee Elise Goldberry). Among Tak's allies are a mercenary, Trepp (Simone Missick), Tak's old AI pal Poe (Chris Conner), Poe's new AI friend Dig 301 (Dina Shihabi), and yakuza boss Tanaseda Hideki (James Saito). The season's villains include a corrupt politician, Danica Harlan (Lela Loren), and the commander of an elite military force, Colonel Ivan Carrera (Torben Liebrecht). A few other old faces also return, but I'll leave viewers to discover in what capacity.

Despite a new leading man and a significant time skip, this series of "Altered Carbon" is clearly a continuation of the first series and takes pains to ensure viewers are aware of all the connections. Quite a few members of the original cast return, some in expanded roles, and we're yet again following Tak on an adventure that has an awful lot of connections to his and Quell's past as doomed revolutionaries. What's different is the tone of the show, now more concerned with romances and personal relationships than sci-fi worldbuilding. There's still plenty of angst and flashy violence and grungy cyberpunk aesthetics, but the universe feels a little smaller and more familiar. It's less exploratory and more concerned with examining its existing concepts. The budget has also noticeably been trimmed, resulting in fewer elaborate sets, a smaller cast, and less fancy CGI.

I like Anthony Mackie here, but his Takeshi Kovacs is more subdued and less imposing than the first season version played by Joel Kinnaman. This helps in his quieter scenes with Renee Elise Goldberry, but in others he tends to be overshadowed by the more bombastic performers, like Missick and Conner. And speaking of Conner, while I'm glad that Poe was carried over from the first series, I don't think giving him a bigger role was the best idea. He's much less interesting with a more conventional set of problems, given a new love interest and saddled with a nasty glitch that causes memory loss and time gaps. Goldberry, on the other hand, greatly benefits from more screen time and prominence, after essentially being promoted to a secondary protagonist. The character of Quellchrist is so outsized, she should be impossible to play, but Goldberry had no trouble convincing me she was a legendary warrior and scientific genius.

However, what I continue to appreciate "Altered Carbon" for the most is its willingness to engage with more complex science-fiction concepts. This series might be more simplified and streamlined than the last one, with only eight episodes and some really single-minded villains, but it's still full of body-swapping, needle casting, stacks, clones, synths, nanobots, AIs, virtual worlds, and a few new tricks too. The mystery is well laid out, and the investigation leads to some interesting new corners of the "Altered Carbon" universe. It's still also unusually violent and brutal, and committed to casting a variety of diverse faces. Having a sweeping, epic romance between two black leads in a science-fiction show is still rare enough that having the love scenes between Mackie and Goldberry feels like a win.

If the show continues, however, I'll be glad for Tak to leave his past further in the distance, and hopefully for a change of scenery. While I don't mind the proliferation of dank bars and prison cells, "Altered Carbon" is looking a little too much like every other sci-fi show out there these days, especially next to the "Star Trek" revival shows and "The Expanse." However, I'll gladly deliver kudos to the excellent fight and gun battle sequences, and a showstopper of a deus ex machina. When the show wants to deliver its wow moments, it definitely still knows how. Here's hoping that Netflix decides to bring this one back sooner rather than later.

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