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Netflix’s new show, Altered Carbon, is based on a 2002 book by Richard Morgan. The story is set in a dystopian world that feels similar to the cyberpunk style we see in Blade Runner.

Altered Carbon is rated TV-MA and may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion when choosing to watch this episode or series.

 

Netflix’s new show, Altered Carbon, is based on a 2002 book by Richard Morgan. This is the first book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. The other two novels are Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Fun fact, Richard Morgan wrote two Black Widow graphic novels - Homecoming (2005) and The Things They Say About Her (2006), wrote for the video games Crysis 2 and Syndicate. So he has a little nerd cred in addition to these sci-fi books.

The story is set in a dystopian world that felt similar to the cyberpunk style we see in Blade Runner. It’s very easy to see that Morgan’s vision in this show pulls heavily from what we get from Philip K Dick and Ridley Scott. At least that’s what we get on-screen. I can’t attest to what the books are like, but I would imagine something similar.

The first episode, titled “Out of the Past” starts with a body floating naked in a vast ocean and quickly cuts to someone in the shower. The fact that there is nudity - although at this point barely any - isn’t surprising given the rating.

What we realize eventually as the story is played out is that the body floating in the ocean and the man in the shower are the same person, Takeshi “Tak” Kovacs, even though they physically are not the same. This is due to an advancement in technology that makes the body what it really is: a shell. People are “re-sleeved” - given new bodies when they die unless their “stack” is destroyed. The “stack” is basically a chip attached to the top of a person’s spine. We see Tak get killed, along with his partner in a raid by a group of military sentries.

250 years later, that floating body is pulled into a medical bay and unzipped from a bag filled with some sort of goop that I suppose is a holding tank for an unused body. This one, though, happens to be the new sleeve for Tak, as well as the former body of a convict.

As Tak is essentially reborn and given the rundown of his current circumstance here, we get to get some flashbacks and not-so subtle exposition about the world Altered Carbon is set in:

Tak is a highly-deadly, highly-skilled, and highly regarded assassin known as an Envoy.

To truly kill someone, you have to destroy their stack.

When it comes to religion, sleeving is, as you would imagine, frowned upon. (It’s essentially reincarnation, but with someone else’s body.) The idea of sleeving being a bad thing is shown when a 7-year old girl comes out to see her parents, but she’s in the sleeve (body) of a middle-aged woman. The parents, of course, are unhappy and are told that if they want a better sleeve they’ll have to pay for it instead of getting it for free from the government.

We also find out the reason Tak has been re-sleeved: a rich man by the name of Laurens Bancroft wants him to solve his (Bancroft’s) murder because he doesn’t remember what happened. The explanation here was interesting to me. As we’ve watched Tak make his way through this new-to-us world, it’s shown that just because you’re re-sleeved, it doesn’t mean you lose any memories. Tak has flashbacks over and over again, as well as hallucinations. Bancroft explains that his stack was destroyed, but he has a backup copy uploaded to a satellite every 48 hours. This enabled him to not just be re-sleeved, but essentially reborn from true death.

Tak isn’t interested in helping Bancroft, even though the man has promised him everything from unlimited money to a new sleeve of his choice. Instead, he decides he would rather “go back on ice”. This leads him to buying a ton of drugs from a guy on the street, getting high,

Altered Carbon is rated TV-MA and may not be suitable for everyone. Please use discretion when choosing to watch this episode or series.

 

Netflix’s new show, Altered Carbon, is based on a 2002 book by Richard Morgan. This is the first book in the Takeshi Kovacs series. The other two novels are Broken Angels and Woken Furies. Fun fact, Richard Morgan wrote two Black Widow graphic novels - Homecoming (2005) and The Things They Say About Her (2006), wrote for the video games Crysis 2 and Syndicate. So he has a little nerd cred in addition to these sci-fi books.

The story is set in a dystopian world that felt similar to the cyberpunk style we see in Blade Runner. It’s very easy to see that Morgan’s vision in this show pulls heavily from what we get from Philip K Dick and Ridley Scott. At least that’s what we get on-screen. I can’t attest to what the books are like, but I would imagine something similar.

The first episode, titled “Out of the Past” starts with a body floating naked in a vast ocean and quickly cuts to someone in the shower. The fact that there is nudity - although at this point barely any - isn’t surprising given the rating.

What we realize eventually as the story is played out is that the body floating in the ocean and the man in the shower are the same person, Takeshi “Tak” Kovacs, even though they physically are not the same. This is due to an advancement in technology that makes the body what it really is: a shell. People are “re-sleeved” - given new bodies when they die unless their “stack” is destroyed. The “stack” is basically a chip attached to the top of a person’s spine. We see Tak get killed, along with his partner in a raid by a group of military sentries.

250 years later, that floating body is pulled into a medical bay and unzipped from a bag filled with some sort of goop that I suppose is a holding tank for an unused body. This one, though, happens to be the new sleeve for Tak, as well as the former body of a convict.

As Tak is essentially reborn and given the rundown of his current circumstance here, we get to get some flashbacks and not-so subtle exposition about the world Altered Carbon is set in:

Tak is a highly-deadly, highly-skilled, and highly regarded assassin known as an Envoy.

To truly kill someone, you have to destroy their stack.

When it comes to religion, sleeving is, as you would imagine, frowned upon. (It’s essentially reincarnation, but with someone else’s body.) The idea of sleeving being a bad thing is shown when a 7-year old girl comes out to see her parents, but she’s in the sleeve (body) of a middle-aged woman. The parents, of course, are unhappy and are told that if they want a better sleeve they’ll have to pay for it instead of getting it for free from the government.

We also find out the reason Tak has been re-sleeved: a rich man by the name of Laurens Bancroft wants him to solve his (Bancroft’s) murder because he doesn’t remember what happened. The explanation here was interesting to me. As we’ve watched Tak make his way through this new-to-us world, it’s shown that just because you’re re-sleeved, it doesn’t mean you lose any memories. Tak has flashbacks over and over again, as well as hallucinations. Bancroft explains that his stack was destroyed, but he has a backup copy uploaded to a satellite every 48 hours. This enabled him to not just be re-sleeved, but essentially reborn from true death.

Tak isn’t interested in helping Bancroft, even though the man has promised him everything from unlimited money to a new sleeve of his choice. Instead, he decides he would rather “go back on ice”. This leads him to buying a ton of drugs from a guy on the street, getting high, hallucinating, and then encountering the cop that escorted him from the place where he was re-sleeved at the beginning of the episode,

This past weekend millions of people chose to watch two sports teams duke it out in hopes to take home some jewelry. I personally don’t pay any attention to sports of any kind, but I do know that the first Sunday in February means it’s time to watch some commercials. For the first time ever in the history of Geek This, I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on what was shown during the Big Game.

This past weekend millions of people chose to watch two sports teams duke it out in hopes to take home some jewelry. I personally don’t pay any attention to sports of any kind - although I do wish dodgeball was a national past time - but I do know that the first Sunday in February means it’s time to watch some commercials. Particularly those that are TV spots for upcoming movies. For the first time ever in the history of Geek This, I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on what was shown during the Big Game.

You may not be familiar with my “One Trailer” rule. This is something I personally enacted three or four years ago when I realized that there are literally dozens of trailers and TV spots out there for upcoming movies. My theory is that if you put them all together you’ll end up with at least half of the movie and that ultimately means it’s spoiled for you before you ever set foot in a theater.

That said, I’m going to dive into the trailers from the Big Game!

RED SPARROW

Red Sparrow is based on a best-selling novel by Jason Matthews and this teaser feels a little like something we might see from a Black Widow movie. In this movie, a ballerina by the name of Dominika is recruited by a Russian intelligence service and forced to use her body as a weapon after she witnesses something she wasn’t supposed to. The teaser doesn’t give much and it doesn’t really lead to any kind of anticipation. I think I’ll pass.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) are trying to rescue the island’s remaining dinosaurs after a volcano becomes active. Also, there’s a giant, genetically-engineered velociraptor on the loose.

Since I was a little kid I have loved Jurassic Park. That was the only film of the franchise I can honestly say I like. And then they release this second trailer for Fallen Kingdom. I was sucked in as soon as it started. The creepy toy piano and the claw? Yes please! I’m always leery, though, when there is a Jurassic Park sequel because none of them have lived up to the magic (for me) of the first one. Fingers are crossed here.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Solo: A Star Wars Story chronicles an adventure featuring everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder. In this teaser, we hear Han registering for the Imperial Navy as a pilot, we get to see Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, the Millenium Falcon in its youth, and of course, everyone’s favorite Wookiee.

If I were to have a man-crush on a character it could easily be Han Solo. As a kid I was fascinated with him and in many ways tried to emulate him daily. I even read the now non-canon Han Solo Trilogy by AC Crispin and became an even bigger fan. What’s great for me in this teaser is there are nods to that trilogy. The fact that Han is registering to be an Imperial pilot? Check. Possibly telling the story of winning the Falcon? Check? What I’d love to see is Han Solo not being called “Han Solo” for part of the movie. Maybe I’ll have to re-read the books and talk about them in a later episode. I’m really excited for this one.

SKYSCRAPER

Yeah… there was nothing here. It’s simply Dwayne Johnson talking to a group of executives about how they’ve built a 3500 foot tall skyscraper and how it’s probably not safe.

I love The Rock. I’d watch him in almost anything, so there’s a good chance I’ll be seeing this some time. Whether it’s in the theater or at home in my underwear, I haven’t decided yet. Maybe that’s the point: “Can we sell a movie just having Dwayne Johnson talk?” We’ll see.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force return to save the world again after a mission gone wrong.

This past weekend millions of people chose to watch two sports teams duke it out in hopes to take home some jewelry. I personally don’t pay any attention to sports of any kind - although I do wish dodgeball was a national past time - but I do know that the first Sunday in February means it’s time to watch some commercials. Particularly those that are TV spots for upcoming movies. For the first time ever in the history of Geek This, I’m going to be sharing my thoughts on what was shown during the Big Game.

You may not be familiar with my “One Trailer” rule. This is something I personally enacted three or four years ago when I realized that there are literally dozens of trailers and TV spots out there for upcoming movies. My theory is that if you put them all together you’ll end up with at least half of the movie and that ultimately means it’s spoiled for you before you ever set foot in a theater.

That said, I’m going to dive into the trailers from the Big Game!

RED SPARROW

Red Sparrow is based on a best-selling novel by Jason Matthews and this teaser feels a little like something we might see from a Black Widow movie. In this movie, a ballerina by the name of Dominika is recruited by a Russian intelligence service and forced to use her body as a weapon after she witnesses something she wasn’t supposed to. The teaser doesn’t give much and it doesn’t really lead to any kind of anticipation. I think I’ll pass.

JURASSIC WORLD: FALLEN KINGDOM

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Owen (Chris Pratt) and Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) are trying to rescue the island’s remaining dinosaurs after a volcano becomes active. Also, there’s a giant, genetically-engineered velociraptor on the loose.

Since I was a little kid I have loved Jurassic Park. That was the only film of the franchise I can honestly say I like. And then they release this second trailer for Fallen Kingdom. I was sucked in as soon as it started. The creepy toy piano and the claw? Yes please! I’m always leery, though, when there is a Jurassic Park sequel because none of them have lived up to the magic (for me) of the first one. Fingers are crossed here.

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

Solo: A Star Wars Story chronicles an adventure featuring everyone’s favorite scruffy-looking nerf herder. In this teaser, we hear Han registering for the Imperial Navy as a pilot, we get to see Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian, the Millenium Falcon in its youth, and of course, everyone’s favorite Wookiee.

If I were to have a man-crush on a character it could easily be Han Solo. As a kid I was fascinated with him and in many ways tried to emulate him daily. I even read the now non-canon Han Solo Trilogy by AC Crispin and became an even bigger fan. What’s great for me in this teaser is there are nods to that trilogy. The fact that Han is registering to be an Imperial pilot? Check. Possibly telling the story of winning the Falcon? Check? What I’d love to see is Han Solo not being called “Han Solo” for part of the movie. Maybe I’ll have to re-read the books and talk about them in a later episode. I’m really excited for this one.

SKYSCRAPER

Yeah… there was nothing here. It’s simply Dwayne Johnson talking to a group of executives about how they’ve built a 3500 foot tall skyscraper and how it’s probably not safe.

I love The Rock. I’d watch him in almost anything, so there’s a good chance I’ll be seeing this some time. Whether it’s in the theater or at home in my underwear, I haven’t decided yet. Maybe that’s the point: “Can we sell a movie just having Dwayne Johnson talk?” We’ll see.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force return to save the world again after a mission gone wrong. This time it looks like it’s IMF versus CIA.

Mission: Impossible has been a franchise that I’ve loved to watch.

Jerry Seinfeld is a household name thanks to his TV show, Seinfeld, that ran from 1989-1998 on NBC. Oddly enough, he didn’t really do a lot of well-known work outside of his stand-up career and guest appearances. And then came Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in 2012.

Jerry Seinfeld is a household name thanks to his TV  show, Seinfeld, that ran from 1989-1998 on NBC. The show, if you haven’t seen it is about… nothing. Well, kind of. It’s based on a somewhat fictional version of Jerry and his friends, Elaine, George, and Kramer. There isn’t an overarching theme throughout the show, other than the gang finds themselves in some hilarious predicaments. It’s one of those things you just have to watch to understand.

Well, anyway, thanks to the huge success from that show, Jerry’s well-known. Oddly enough, he didn’t really do a lot of well-known work outside of his stand-up career and guest appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. And then came Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in 2012.

The show was produced for the streaming service Crackle originally and has since been moved to Netflix, where every single episode is now available to watch and there is a new 24-episode season scheduled to release sometime in 2018.

If you’ve never watched a single episode of Comedians In Cars, it’s a pretty straight-forward concept: in each episode, Jerry (who is a major car enthusiast) picks up a comedian in a car - usually a fancy, expensive classic - and they drive through New York, Los Angeles, or wherever the comedian is from, and they get coffee while talking about anything and everything.

It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but there’s a level of “realness” in the conversations Jerry has with his guests. I think that’s due to the fact that there isn’t this huge production going on like a traditional talk show. They are literally sitting in a car, talking. It’s simple but brilliant and allows the guests to be honest and communicate on a more personal level.

Since this is a show about comedians, an obvious topic to cover here is, “How funny is it?” To be honest, it’s genuinely funny the majority of the time. What’s great about it, though, is it’s not some scripted television show and no one has lines. It absolutely wouldn’t work that way. The humor is genuine, so like stand-up, there are going to be moments and guests that you’ll want to go back and rewatch, but there are some misses.

I think it would be extremely easy to say that I didn’t like some guests simply because I’m not a fan of their style of humor, but I really did try to be open with each new episode. Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais aren’t comedians I would put on my Top 10 list if you were to ask me, but they happened to be great episodes because of their banter with Jerry. And there were times when guests you expected to be good just weren’t. (Sorry Jay Leno and Brian Regan!)

Also, one thing I noticed toward the end of the available episodes was how Jerry became more and more crotchety. He was a little more mean during that last collection and a half. Still, it made for a fun show.

As far as favorite episodes go, that’s really a tough one. There are currently 59 episodes on Netflix to watch and at 15-20 minutes on average, it’s easy to forget some that were absolutely stellar. But, if you were to stick me in a sweet classic car - oh man, those Volvos! - I’d have to say my top five were:

* Jimmy Fallon

* Stephen Colbert

* Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks

* Robert Klein

* Don Rickles

* David Letterman

I know that was 6, but come on! There are so many great people. Again, what was fascinating to me is that, yes, they were funny, but to learn more about what makes them tick? That’s the reason I love character so much. People are interesting, even if they are famous and slightly out of touch with the real world.

If you can’t tell by now,

Jerry Seinfeld is a household name thanks to his TV  show, Seinfeld, that ran from 1989-1998 on NBC. The show, if you haven’t seen it is about… nothing. Well, kind of. It’s based on a somewhat fictional version of Jerry and his friends, Elaine, George, and Kramer. There isn’t an overarching theme throughout the show, other than the gang finds themselves in some hilarious predicaments. It’s one of those things you just have to watch to understand.

Well, anyway, thanks to the huge success from that show, Jerry’s well-known. Oddly enough, he didn’t really do a lot of well-known work outside of his stand-up career and guest appearances on shows like Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. And then came Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee in 2012.

The show was produced for the streaming service Crackle originally and has since been moved to Netflix, where every single episode is now available to watch and there is a new 24-episode season scheduled to release sometime in 2018.

If you’ve never watched a single episode of Comedians In Cars, it’s a pretty straight-forward concept: in each episode, Jerry (who is a major car enthusiast) picks up a comedian in a car - usually a fancy, expensive classic - and they drive through New York, Los Angeles, or wherever the comedian is from, and they get coffee while talking about anything and everything.

It doesn’t sound like much, I know, but there’s a level of “realness” in the conversations Jerry has with his guests. I think that’s due to the fact that there isn’t this huge production going on like a traditional talk show. They are literally sitting in a car, talking. It’s simple but brilliant and allows the guests to be honest and communicate on a more personal level.

Since this is a show about comedians, an obvious topic to cover here is, “How funny is it?” To be honest, it’s genuinely funny the majority of the time. What’s great about it, though, is it’s not some scripted television show and no one has lines. It absolutely wouldn’t work that way. The humor is genuine, so like stand-up, there are going to be moments and guests that you’ll want to go back and rewatch, but there are some misses.

I think it would be extremely easy to say that I didn’t like some guests simply because I’m not a fan of their style of humor, but I really did try to be open with each new episode. Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais aren’t comedians I would put on my Top 10 list if you were to ask me, but they happened to be great episodes because of their banter with Jerry. And there were times when guests you expected to be good just weren’t. (Sorry Jay Leno and Brian Regan!)

Also, one thing I noticed toward the end of the available episodes was how Jerry became more and more crotchety. He was a little more mean during that last collection and a half. Still, it made for a fun show.

As far as favorite episodes go, that’s really a tough one. There are currently 59 episodes on Netflix to watch and at 15-20 minutes on average, it’s easy to forget some that were absolutely stellar. But, if you were to stick me in a sweet classic car - oh man, those Volvos! - I’d have to say my top five were:

* Jimmy Fallon

* Stephen Colbert

* Carl Reiner & Mel Brooks

* Robert Klein

* Don Rickles

* David Letterman

I know that was 6, but come on! There are so many great people. Again, what was fascinating to me is that, yes, they were funny, but to learn more about what makes them tick? That’s the reason I love character so much. People are interesting, even if they are famous and slightly out of touch with the real world.

If you can’t tell by now, I have really enjoyed Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee. I’m looking forward to the next batch of 24 episodes, which are coming sometime this year. I’ve heard Dave Chappelle, Kate McKinnon,