Netflix Goes Cyberpunk

[Cynical Cat]

Netflix is doing a ten episode series based on Richard K. Morgan's cyberpunk novel Altered Carbon. It's the first of his Takashi Kovacs trilogy, so if it's a success we'll probably get more.

[Lys]

This is probably going to sink or swim based on well they cast Kovacs. Which is itself going to be interesting given that Kovaks is shown using different bodies during various flashbacks in the story. What i would do is have an actor playing Kovac's original self providing voice over narration, which would fit since the books are told in first person, but i guess we'll see what they do when the show airs.

[Cynical Cat]

They need a good Kovacs, but the show will live or die on overall execution. The whole setting has to grab attention. I suspect they'll recast Kovacs between seasons (because, you know, different planet different body) but you might be right about staying with a single narrator. They've apparently cast Quellcrist Falconer already, which may mean we get interesting voice over shenanigans or major deviations from the book because she shows up mostly as a very quotable poet/revolutionary until the third book which actually takes place on Harlan's World.

[Lys]

Well i hope they set Altered Carbon in Future San Francisco. Like they never actually clarify where Bay City is, but it was always pretty obvious to me is was the Bay Area megalopolis, so it would be jarring for it to be anywhere else.

[Cynical Cat]

Well i hope they set Altered Carbon in Future San Francisco. Like they never actually clarify where Bay City is, but it was always pretty obvious to me is was the Bay Area megalopolis, so it would be jarring for it to be anywhere else.

It pretty much screamed Future San Francisco. I hope they include the heavily armed, needy hotel A.I. That bit was fun.

[Lys]

Funny, that's exactly what i was thinking about just now. As i recall they mention that few people like to stay in AI hotels, and for the life of my i can't understand why, it's the best. Real life hotels need to be able to "assume host prerogatives" as the Hendrix so charmingly put it.