Altered Carbon, the 2018 Netflix original series created by Laeta Kalogridis, based on the 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan, is a visual masterpiece of cyberpunk science fiction. The crime-solving story takes place in 2384 in a world where the essence of human beings has been reduced to cortical stacks that can be implanted in the back of the neck, making human bodies simply “sleeves” that are interchangeable. The protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, is the last of the Envoys who led a failed uprising 250 years ago against this alien technology, fearing the societal changes it would bring. He is now revived in a new sleeve to solve the murder of Laurens Bancroft, a Meth (a reference to long-lived Methuselah), who is so powerful that he is backed up every 48 hours and thus was revived in a new clone of himself shortly after being murdered. With so much exposition that needs to be understood by the viewer in order to make sense of the environment derived from Morgan’s novel, the 10-episode first season of this series had to excel at visually establishing the framework of this new world – and it certainly succeeds. I am interested in exploring the conceptual underpinnings of the environments depicted, as well as some of the specific choices made. At the most basic level, the Aerium, the light-filled area above the clouds where the Meths live, is contrasted with the dark, neon-lit, chaotic atmosphere of the streets in Bay City where everyone else lives, which of course reflects typical cyberpunk as viewed on the screen, most notably Blade Runner. But, I would argue that Altered Carbon moves beyond the expected Cyberpunk visuals, specifically in its use of layering images to create complex visuals.
About the presenterYvonne Leach
Yvonne Leach is a tenured faculty member in the Cinema & Television Department at Drexel University and has been a program director, department head, and associate dean. She began as a filmmaker teaching production courses, but now she teaches primarily television studies courses. Her television scholarship focuses on television trends, story and production topics, as well as gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. She co-authored Television Show Trends, 2016-2020: Authenticity, Diversity, Sexual Candor, and Retrospection.