Altered Carbon
Posted: 03 Feb 2018, 19:54
So has anyone else given this a go?
Netflix's new show has a budget reportedly three times that of Game of Thrones. They're really making a play with this one. And the premise sounds good: massive sci-fi world-building with a thriller plot and questions about identity, morality and humanity. Blade Runner: The Series? Sounds up my street.
Based on the pilot episode, though, all the budget has gone on the production and effects. They had about 50p left over for the script and acting. Where Game of Thrones thrived on its wit, insight and relationships as much as its look and gratuity, the dialogue here is a mixture of bowling-ball exposition, obvious one-liners and clichés that may only have been revived to tie in with the show's theme of coming back from the dead.
Joel Kinnaman in the lead is not just wooden, he actually looks weird: a wiry pub sneak with an Arnie muscleman physique. One of those guys whose neck is bigger than his head. James Purefoy, as his employer (who I expect will turn out to be one of the villains) is going for a kind of Anthony Hopkins/Colin Firth thing, but seems to have spent a year or two hanging from the ceiling of a Spanish bar. And the Latin police officer is just plain awkward.
I will give it another episode or two to see if it gets smarter and slicker now it's got the big opening out of the way, but this one is screaming slashed costs or cancellation.
Netflix's new show has a budget reportedly three times that of Game of Thrones. They're really making a play with this one. And the premise sounds good: massive sci-fi world-building with a thriller plot and questions about identity, morality and humanity. Blade Runner: The Series? Sounds up my street.
Based on the pilot episode, though, all the budget has gone on the production and effects. They had about 50p left over for the script and acting. Where Game of Thrones thrived on its wit, insight and relationships as much as its look and gratuity, the dialogue here is a mixture of bowling-ball exposition, obvious one-liners and clichés that may only have been revived to tie in with the show's theme of coming back from the dead.
Joel Kinnaman in the lead is not just wooden, he actually looks weird: a wiry pub sneak with an Arnie muscleman physique. One of those guys whose neck is bigger than his head. James Purefoy, as his employer (who I expect will turn out to be one of the villains) is going for a kind of Anthony Hopkins/Colin Firth thing, but seems to have spent a year or two hanging from the ceiling of a Spanish bar. And the Latin police officer is just plain awkward.
I will give it another episode or two to see if it gets smarter and slicker now it's got the big opening out of the way, but this one is screaming slashed costs or cancellation.