Altered Carbon: Fallen Angel Show Only

February 16, 2018 8:18 AM - Season 1, Episode 2

While Kovacs tracks down a man who sent Bancroft a death threat, Lt. Ortega bends the rules to keep tabs on his whereabouts.

"Mom said grudges are stupid."

Very noir feel, complete with femme fatale.
They must have been speaking Spanish slowly, I could partially follow along!
The museum scene was more harrowing than I expected - which I guess I shouldn't be surprised by, since it's pretty fresh for Tak and totally rewritten by the victors.
This is the second Netflix Original series with a character in a "trauma loop."
I get it, flesh is cheap.

I'm glad the "envoy intuition" is being toned down - just show that he knows stuff with a couple quick flashes, don't have it hammered into the audience.

The stacks seems to be perfectly created to trigger trypophobia ( fear of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes or bumps, previously), makes them look like an weird blend of organic and machine, along with the oil-shimmer.

posted by the man of twists and turns (12 comments total)

Are we plus books or not? If not, and just commenting on the show, I really actually loved that museum scene: One of the things I tend to love about science fiction is its ability to comment on our reality through the lens of an alternate future. And that really sold it: How do we know what we know? How is history transmitted? How can you know what is true? And also, how do you discourage rebellion? By taking the actual rebellion out of it. You’ll notice that the museum is heavy on images, and light on explanation of Quellcrist’s philosophy. And yet this information isn’t just for the lower classes who might be tempted by it. The children running around don’t seem to have the poverty markers we see in Takeshi’s travel through the streets. All classes not living in the sky seem to be the same in terms of what they learn and experience. There’s a lot of resonance there, if you look for it.
posted by corb at 8:40 AM on February 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Are we plus books or not


No.

People who want episode-by-episode discussion with books should post those threads.
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:29 AM on February 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

Please, not the books, too. I find those threads muddled and chaotic.

I'm very much enjoying the series. The museum scene, especially Kovacs looking at the display full of Envoy stacks was really effective. The little girl was a nice touch.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:55 AM on February 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

And that really sold it: How do we know what we know? How is history transmitted? How can you know what is true? And also, how do you discourage rebellion? By taking the actual rebellion out of it.

Oh my, yes. I love what they did there, and I think it's valuable for audience members who may never have thought much about what it means for the victors to write the history books.
posted by mordax at 1:19 PM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

People who want episode-by-episode discussion with books should post those threads.

Can a mod add the 'Show Only' spoiler condition to this thread, per the OP's intent?
posted by oh yeah! at 4:43 PM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Yep a mod can!
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 4:45 PM on February 16, 2018 [2 favorites]

I thought the museum setting (UBC Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver FYI) was a little on the nose, but to be fair I was just there a little while ago and maybe I'm just more sensitive to that.
posted by quaking fajita at 6:35 PM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Super tip of the sleeve hat to the man of twists and turns for that trypophobia link. Now everything makes sense. So says Poe.
posted by valkane at 7:23 PM on February 16, 2018 [1 favorite]

Next Episode
posted by the man of twists and turns at 9:52 AM on February 17, 2018

Stacks: in my minds eye, I saw "sleeve/bracelet/two-parallel-cylinders-of-discs that fitted between the transverse process and the spinous process of a vertebrae (or two)" around a vertebrae or junction and patched into the spinal column, not a disc - as shown in the show - that fit in between two vertebrae - which would have to the sever the spinal column to be implanted.

Alternate explanation is that it's a ring around a vertebrae/ junction and grows that trypophobia inducing pattern through the spinal column. But, if you had a hardware stack glitch, you'd lose the sleeve trying to fix it (barring quantum advancements in nerve regeneration science).

So Kovac's sleeve is the only nicotine addict in the city? And nobody seems to mind?

I'm enjoying the Poe AI more than I thought possible.
posted by porpoise at 7:19 PM on February 17, 2018

And honestly I don't mind having show only threads for short series like this. Books included threads often turn into a bitchfest that the show didn't include _this_ plot point from the book or displeasure how they changed the other thing or blah blah whatever, and it pulls away the discussion from the entirely different yet still unique thing that was the show.
posted by Kyol at 7:22 AM on February 21, 2018

Watched this episode in the hope that the show gets better as it goes along. I think I'm out, it's just so cliched and boring.
posted by octothorpe at 6:00 PM on February 23, 2018