Altered Carbon: A Visually Stunning Futuristic Neo-Noir on Netflix

Amazon is currently hard at work on an official Blade Runner TV series that will bring the cyberpunk world of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic to the small screen. But, eight years ago, Netflix already made its own version of a Blade Runner TV show, and it was already a smashing success.

The cyberpunk genre has been enjoying a moment on television in the past few years. Apple TV is turning William Gibson’s seminal novel Neuromancer into a streaming show; Prime Video’s one-season wonder The Peripheral keeps picking up new fans; and Cyberpunk: Edgerunners was a satisfying expansion of the video game. The mack daddy of cyberpunk, Blade Runner, is coming to ride that wave later this year. Starring Michelle Yeoh and Hunter Schafer, Blade Runner 2099 is set to premiere on Prime at some point in 2026.

It’s been an interminable wait, especially since we don’t have a confirmed release date, so we don’t even know what we’re waiting for. But if you want to see a Blade Runner TV show, Netflix has the next best thing just sitting in its library, gathering dust. Altered Carbon is every bit the visually dazzling, morally complex futuristic neo-noir that Blade Runner is. It only ran for two seasons, but that was all it needed to make its mark on the genre.

Altered Carbon Is A Visually Stunning Futuristic Neo-Noir

Like Blade Runner, Altered Carbon uses its dystopian, neon-lit future to highlight the divide between the haves and the have-nots. In the futuristic world of Altered Carbon, scientists have figured out a way to transfer people’s consciousnesses into a new body, or “sleeve.” This “resleeving” process is very expensive, so only the ultra-wealthy are able to afford it, and they’ve used the technology to achieve a kind of immortality. It’s a bleak look at the endgame of the obscenely rich, and the plight of the 99% living in the ruins of their excess.

The series revolves around Takeshi Kovacs, a badass mercenary and sole survivor of the Envoys, a rebel force that tried and failed to revolt against the new world order. 250 years after the Envoys have been defeated, a 300-year-old magnate brings him back to life in a new sleeve in order to solve his own murder. In season 1, Kovacs was played by Joel Kinnaman, but in season 2, when he got resleeved, he was played by Anthony Mackie. That set up a great revolving-door premise for a series that would allow a new A-list star to play the lead role in every season.

Unfortunately, that’s all there was. After its second season, Netflix determined that Altered Carbon wasn’t drawing in enough viewers to justify the expense. This is what hobbles a lot of great sci-fi TV shows; they’re so expensive to produce, with all their visual effects and elaborate set designs, that they have to be a massive hit right off the bat to justify those costs and incentivize the producers to make more. Altered Carbon became one of many Netflix shows to be canceled before their time.

Why Altered Carbon Is Still Worth Watching (Despite Its Cancelation)

It’s not always worth investing the time in a canceled TV show. If a show is canceled before it has time to resolve its storylines or answer any of its mysteries, then what’s the point? But Altered Carbon is still worth checking out, despite the fact that it was cut short. Each season follows its own investigation, and even has its own lead actor playing Kovacs, so it has an almost anthology feel to it. You get swept up in each individual season and its individual narrative. Altered Carbon’s first two seasons are so great, you’ll wish they’d made a third.