Cheezwiz

I agree - I kept hoping that something postive would break for Patrick and his family, but he can't seem to outrun his past. I also wanted him to fight tooth and nail for that beautiful house rather than caving to the New Agey scam artists, but perhaps he was just exhausted, and a bit ambivalent given the awful things that happened to him there as a child. I felt like his friend Johnny need to be there to smack some sense into him. I don't think his marriage will survive, but I hope he finds some measure of contentment in the final episode. This has been an excellent show with a stellar performance by Benedict, but emotionally draining to watch.

This was a great episode. I was surprised to see that it was focused heavily on Bridget's predicament, since I thought she was only a minor character, and wasn't expecting her to turn up again in the series. It was good to see that she recognized the error of her social-climbing ways and fled with her mother & daughter before it was too late. Her final utterance to HRH Princess Margaret as she left was priceless. Yes indeed - Margaret's awful imperious behaviour at social engagements has been well documented. She was a haughty miserable cow, who loved lording her royal status over others. People were not allowed to sit until Margaret sat, and they were not allowed to leave until Margaret decided to call it a night. Being that she drank like a fish, she often kept people up until well into the next morning. She was a brutal cutting snob as well. It was interesting that they depicted Patrick being triggered by her bullying at the party. I thought his tenderness toward Bridget's lonely little girl was lovely - he was clearly seeing himself at that age. It was also cathartic seeing Patrick confess his past trauma to Johnny, and to interact with the kindly older gentleman who encouraged him to pursue something that utilized his talents. Probably the only two decent souls at the party. Oh, and Chilly Willy of course! After a harrowing first couple of episodes, this one did indeed feel a bit hopeful.

Quite the collection of awful humans (with the exception of Anne) in such a stunningly beautiful setting. Everyone too cool for school, and full of sour disdain. Poor Patrick - and from reading about the real life St. Aubyn, that assault was not a one time thing - he was raped repeatedly during his childhood and no one - including his addled Mother - protected him. It does make one wonder how the father became such a monster - was he born a sadistic psychopath, or did someone do the same to him? Or was it a combination of both? From what I understand, physical & sexual abuse was a part of the upper crust school system for boys, and simply passed on from one generation to the next. It's a miracle that Edward St. Aubyn managed to survive, and break that cycle with his own loved ones.

Returning just to say that the first episode clearly had an effect on me. I was dreaming about it last night ( I went to bed right after watching it). Both the show and my dream felt very jumbled and feverish.

Just watched the first episode. It was a tough watch (I have a hard time with graphic drug scenes, and withdrawal/barfing scenes) but I thought it was brilliantly done. It was a mixture of horror and high comedy, with sharp witty dialogue and I thought Benedict did a brilliant job. I felt sympathy for him right away even though his character is a dissolute mess - it's evident that there is just the tiniest glimmer of decency buried in there somewhere. His stream of consciousness babble was really well done, and the quaalude scene was a great scene of physical comedy (or horror, depending on your view). I agree with the others who find the actor who is cast as young Patrick very distracting. I'm not sure if this is a deliberate choice for some reason, but the kid looks nothing like Benedict Cumberbatch, and it pulled me right out of the show each time he appeared. All I could think of during his scenes was "couldn't they have at least found a kid with blue eyes?". I took the lizard as a hallucination that was part of the heroin withdrawal that was kicking in badly at that point, but it could also be a callback to something in his past. I LOVED the hotel room sets - I thought his suite was gorgeous, and as I watched, I kept wanting to tidy it up as he trashed it. And yes, they are getting the women's fashions down - the 80's ugliness was just revving up in '82. I can't decide which decade was worse, the 70s and 80s were each their own special kind of ugly. I liked the character Allison Williams played, but found her performance pretty wooden, which was no surprise. I felt like this first episode was a bit of an exhausting ordeal, but I'm really looking forward to diving into the following episodes!

No kidding. One lifetime is plenty in most cases. The three actors together are the only thing holding my attention at this point. And THAT's where I've seen the actress playing Lizzie before! It was driving me crazy!

I've watched a couple of episodes so far, and although I was intrigued by the premise and some of the themes, I'm not loving it. In my opinion, this review in The Atlantic totally nails it: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/02/altered-carbon-netflix-review/552182/

Exactly the same for me - I like Kinnaman which is why I tuned in, and the show touches on many themes that are relevant to today's world. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be exploring them much in the episodes I've watched. Instead the focus seems to be on tedious fight scenes and baffling flashbacks. The main thing I've been feeling while watching this is how much I miss Kinnaman's portrayal of Stephen Holder in The Killing - a not-so-great show with some great acting.

Managed to stick with it through another episode, but I am still finding it a chore. I really don't care about any of the characters, and am still confused by a lot of what's going on. For me, the best scene was between Kovacs and the stripper - it felt genuinely moving in a show that seems to be working overtime to be detached and hardboiled. Both actors were excellent in that exchange. Other promising bits - I liked the actor who is playing Lizzie's father, and it seemed clear from the get-go that he will become an ally to Kovacs even though their first encounter was a punch-up. I'm also still enjoying Poe the AI - some much needed comic relief. The weakest link for me is Ortega. Both the writing and the actress are not working for me - I'm finding her performance OTT. I am also not clear on who the blonde siren who dropped from the sky was supposed to be, or why Ortega had stashed her body away. Spot the Vancouver location: The historical museum where Kovacs was talking to the little kid is the Museum of Anthropology!

I'm not usually a sci-fi fan, but I like Joel Kinnaman, and the premise sounded kind of intriguing, so I thought I'd give it a try. Also, I'm from Vancouver and get a kick out of picking out Netflix film locations. Eh, I don't know if I'm going to continue watching or not. It was very hard to get into - I thought about turning it off several times. I don't object to violence in movies if it has a purpose, but so much of it felt like unnecessary window-dressing. You can almost hear the show's creators frantically trying to fill running time with "Hey! for added coolness, let's do lots of balletic slo-mo blood-spurting acrobatics!". The rest felt like hackneyed wanna-be Bladerunner stuff. The dialogue felt very cliche and irritated me to no end. It takes real skill to pull off hard-boiled exchanges without looking laughable, and this show isn't quite getting there. Another problem for me is that they seem to be spending a great deal of time on the former Takeshi Kovacs - wanting to pull the audience's heart-strings with flashbacks. I just don't care about his previous incarnation AT ALL. So if this is going to be a major plot-thread of the series, I'm not going to be engaged. The two cops are not working for me either. The best thing so far is Kinnaman, and I think if they inject a bit more humour into the series it might have potential. Kovacs wandering around dazed carrying a pink kiddie backpack, along with the AI hotel scenes were at least somewhat amusing. Spot the Vancouver location: the ultra-wealthy industrialist's house is the Marine Building!

I binged on this all weekend, and I did enjoy the world the show built, but not necessarily all of the characters. I think they are really going to have to step up Miriam's comedy material if they want to launch her into stardom. To me, most of her routines seemed weak and all over the place, punctuated by crass vulgarity that didn't quite fit with her character. She also seemed too bright to have done something like trash a really famous comedian onstage. I mean I understand being disillusioned by the chasm between the on-stage/off-stage personas, but good grief, if nothing else, the woman sent her home with a box of French macarons and a fur coat! Unlike some people, I have zero sympathy for Joel, and hope to see less of him in the future. From the moment they revealed him in the first episode, I thought he was a horrible mismatch for Miriam, appearance, intelligence, wit, charm, and drive-wise. They did not seem to have any chemistry to me, and I was sorry to see Miriam cave and spend the night with him following their kid's birthday. I quite enjoyed seeing Suzy tear a strip off of him in the finale. She definitely had much more chemistry with the actor playing Lenny Bruce. I'm not familiar with the actor playing him, but he's doing a good job, and also bears a decent resemblance to the real comedian. Hopefully he'll continue to pop up here and there as a sort of debauched comedy fairy godfather. I also really enjoyed her parents, and her adventures at her department store job - she is a natural as a saleswoman, so I liked that they put her in that environment. I'll give a 2nd season a look - in the meantime, I will daydream about living in a fabulous apartment, and wearing that glorious wardrobe!

Ditto for me - the clothes and sets are absolutely gorgeous, and I've been watching just to live in that world for awhile. The colours in the garments and decor are just stunning. I know little of Manhattan, but I love the vanished world they seem to have recreated. As far as the actors go, I like the lead actress, but am finding the back and forth with her loser ex a bit tedious. I may also be in the minority, but with the exception of her drunk rant, I'm also finding Miriam's comedy routines weak. Watching for the eye candy mostly.

Now that Phillip has retired from his official duties, I imagine his mortifying gaffes (or rather the media reports of them) will diminish.

Yes indeed. The letters & telegrams from David that were intercepted by British Intelligence proved he was in fact actively angling with his Nazi buddies to be reinstated on the throne. This is why the info - even when released many years later was so shocking, and likely the REAL reason for his banishment from the UK. It had nothing to do with the social scandal of marrying an American Divorcee. He was engaged in full-on treason.

They didn't mention how old the technology was either - so, we as the audience are not sure it existed when the accident happened. A couple of tweaks to the script would have fixed that.

Good point! I'm assuming that sort of technology wouldn't just be limited to insurance claims. I don't recall them saying anything about it in the episode, but perhaps the tech can only access memories that are fairly recent, like within a couple of years? The accident happened more than a decade earlier, so perhaps harvesting the memories wouldn't have worked as well. But you're right - it is a plot hole - no explanation was offered.

I really enjoy how this show plays with expectations, and you can't always tell where the episode is going. I was initially inclined to think Daly was a sympathetic character, bullied by his partner and dismissed by colleagues, but they turned that on its head. You realize that he's full of toxic rage, and is willing to channel this into pure sadism in his virtual game world. I wondered if gamer-gate was an inspiration for his character - seemingly mild-mannered nerdy guys on the surface, but boiling with hateful resentment & misogyny on the inside. Although there were dark thought-provoking themes, I loved the comedic stuff in this episode - not typical for Black Mirror. When Daly went on his first pizza break during a gaming session, I laughed out loud when all of the characters slumped into relaxed positions - including the space monster!

I found this episode insanely gripping, dark and disturbing. Initially I felt some sympathy for Mia, because at the time of the original incident, she was in shock, and her boyfriend bullied her into covering up the accident. I was supremely annoyed when he reappeared years later to declare unilaterally that he was going to write an anonymous letter detailing what had happened. Had I been in her position, I would have been furious, but would have let the chips fallen where they may, and gotten a good lawyer if it came to that. The ease with which she slipped into serially murdering people was chilling. As soon as poor Shazia pulled into Mia's driveway, I was yelling at my screen "Don't do it! don't go in there! Run girl, run!". And the little baby. I was really hoping they wouldn't go there and they did. : ( I was actually glad to see her get her comeuppance at the very end (yay guinea pig!). For those saying this episode didn't have a moral, I disagree. I think it was a tech-updated version of the famous saying "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive." Except instead of garden-variety deception, the main character was engaged in multiple murders. I've been working my way through the episodes in order, and I think I need to take a break and watch a comedy special or something.

As I was watching, I kept thinking that he looked like the love-child of both Matt Damon & Phillip Seymour Hoffman! The creature bits were hilarious.

This confused me as well - was he imagining what the crash site looked like? Was he having a nightmare? Dream sequences haven't been a part of the show, so it didn't seem to fit to me either.

That's interesting - I've been wondering about who they will choose since they announced Olivia Colman as the next iteration of HRH. Fiennes is great actor, but not someone who leapt to mind when casting for middle-aged Phillip. My idea for an older Prince Phillip: Bill Nighy - not that he resembles the real Duke of Edinburgh in any way, but to me he looks like he could be the 60-something version of Matt Smith.

This confused me - I honestly thought this might be a continuity error, although for a show with that kind of production value, an error that big seems unlikely. But it was the hair length that changed back and forth in addition to the style, which seemed odd to me.

I think that's correct - from what little I've read, Phillip wasn't especially close to his sisters due to the age gap. Once he moved back to England, he didn't have much to do with them. I'm assuming he probably felt more loyal to England, because it provided him some stability when he was essentially a stateless person.

Wow! I didn't even realize that was Greg Wise as Mountbatten! He's aged, and I am still picturing him in my head as Mr. Willoughby! He really does resemble Mountbatten, and as others have pointed out, we're not likely to see more of Edward & Wallis, but Mountbatten will undoubtably be appearing in future seasons. Hope they keep him as well - he's at just the right age where he can span several time periods. Looked up photos of the real Louis Mountbatten - a very handsome devil.

Agreed. He's absolutely perfect in that role.