Critically acclaimed TV series Altered Carbon has a very interesting premise and amazing setting. The cast is delightfully diverse and the storyline is pretty easy to follow. The weak point is the way the roles have been typecast. The characters indulge in extremely ruthless violence and there are one too many mutilated female bodies.
It felt more than a few times as if the show kept it rubbing in our face. We still love it though, and the renewed second season is already streaming now. Today we are going to share ten characters from the first season which were the most clichéd in this sci-fi series.
Poe
Poe is the least stereotypical and the most joyous character throughout the season. He has been consistently delightful. Everyone loves Poe, but, he too, has not been spared from the clichéd portrayal of a comic sidekick.
He is an AI who has his own hotel, the Raven, which is mostly deserted. He is chirpy, extremely loyal and can do anything of course. His expertise ranges from making enjoyable small talk, engaging villains to give much needed time to the hero friend for gearing up, lighting up the otherwise tense mood and psychiatry. The good news is he has returned as his usual self in season 2.
Isaac
Isaac Bancroft is the son of Laurens and Miriam Bancroft. He has a number of siblings, around twenty more, from the same set of parents. The biggest problem of his life is that he is forced to stay young by his father.
Like all the children of mega-millionaires, he wants to shoulder the responsibilities too and wants to do something on his own without any interference from Daddy. This character is a new addition by the series. He did not exist in the book the show is based upon.
Lizzie Elliot
The daughter of Vernon Elliot is the most poorly adapted and the most over-dignified character of season 1. She used to work as a prostitute at Jack It Off before her stack was damaged deliberately by Oumou Prescott, family lawyer of the Bancrofts. She was driven insane, but, can remain alive if she stayed in virtual, i.e., in her stack. Things get a bit banal from here shortly after AI turned psychiatrist Poe heals her.
She somehow achieves superpowers, cool ninja moves and unbearably remarkable strength. And the twist in the finale with Lizzie magically changing her sleeve’s physical appearance without doing anything was very cringe-worthy.
Vernon Elliot
He is the father of Lizzie and a close ally of Takeshi Kovacs. Previously a medic, Vernon enters the story when Kovacs finds a threat video message sent from him to Laurens Bancroft. He becomes a suspect of the murder and is soon found out by fighter cum detective Kovacs.
His character has been largely typecast with terrible dialogue, some hard-boiled demeanor and clichéd character development with no scope but to help Kovacs in his pursuit.
Miriam Bancroft
The femme fatale of the first season, Mrs. Bancroft has everything a man could desire - looks, power of seduction and money. The best thing about her is that she loves being in her natural state, we mean, being naked. She, just like her husband Mr. Bancroft, is meth and has a number of sleeves at her disposal, which she adequately makes use of.
She has lots of children too, which she has understandably gotten bored of, and staying true to her cougar self, keeps finding new men for a bit of spice.
Quell
Quellcrist Falconer is the leader of the rebellious organization called the Envoys. She is also a legendary fighter while being a genius scientist at the same time. She is the person who designed and invented the stack, the technology through which conscience could be transferred from one sleeve to another for as many times as you want, essentially guaranteeing an immortal existence.
Like all heroes, she had invented it for mankind. After seeing it’s abuse by wealthy people, she turns a rebel and single-handedly assembles an army of fellow rebels.
Reileen
Reileen is the original Kovacs’s sister. She has always been infatuated with her muscular brother and stays so till the finale. We will see what season two holds for her if she comes back. She is almost cartoonish in her schemes.
The show Reileen strays a hundred miles away from the books Rei who is still sensible and has better reasons to do what she does. She has been dumbed down to a point where the character looks a lot like a clichéd vamp with somewhat unjustifiably weak motive.
Laurens Bancroft
Mister Bancroft is a very wealthy man and sort of a leading antagonist too. He owns gazillion sleeves, has a number of factories and like all the villains of Asian drama, has a lot of influence on the government and police department. While having so many utilities at hand and nothing much to do, he hires Kinnaman Kovacs to do his bidding, er, to do a small errand.
The task is to find who murdered him because it’s not enough to know that you are still alive. Duh! Bancroft is larger than life character who enjoys the company of women a bit too much and always provides new sleeves to the girls he kills.
Ortega
Kristin Ortega is a perfect match for the ruthless Kovacs. She is a strong fiesty police cop who can crack nuts with her thumb. She is Latina by origins and more than half of the screen time that she occupies, she yells, screams and abuses everyone in the vicinity, in Spanish. She is bilingual and to establish that she keeps alternating between the languages a bit annoyingly. A passionate fierce Latina cop seems a great concept, but, is not very efficiently executed, especially with that OTT ill-temper.
The character has much more potential if only she could be given some bandwidth and a stronger subplot to realize it. A little distance from the stereotype would have done some good too.
Takeshi Kovacs
If looks could kill, Joel Kinnaman would be one of the very few people alive. Takeshi Kovacs is the lead protagonist or shall we say anti-hero of the cyberpunk novel turned TV series. When he is not killing his targets, he can be found brooding over something or the other.
He kills, he protects and women melt like hot butter as soon as he enters their line of sight. He is supposed to be an antihero, but, that could not be strongly established with rare scenes showing a few glimpses of his reluctance towards violence, and a shady past with very few scenes to account for. He does everything a stereotypical good old hero does.
