8th day of Summer Vacation: in which we talk about Altered Carbon, the TV show

We started watching Altered Carbon back in March, but work got in the way and we always wanted to watch at least two episodes at a sitting... and so we ended up finishing it last night.

I have thoughts. So many thoughts.

But first of all, I should clarify that this is only a discussion of the TV show. I've read the book multiple times, and there's a separate discussion to be had, where in I compare and contrast them. But that is not today, not this discussion.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

SPOILERS ABOUND.

If I hadn't already read the book and several spoiler-free but extensive reviews, I might have stopped watching half-way through the first episode. So confusing! So many people! So much darkness! (literal darkness, as in I couldn't make the action on the screen; also, so much spiritual darkness.)  But I hung in there, and it rewarded me with Poe, the AI-hotel, plus a hallucination of Rei, the long-lost baby sister.

Rei is played by Dichen Lachman, whom I have adored since her days on Dollhouse. She does a lot of work in the SF genre but I still feel like she doesn't get featured prominently enough. Chris Campbell is also terrific, if underused, as Poe.

The first six episodes proceed competently. Joel Kinnaman does a nice job of playing dark-and-broody Takeshi Kovacs. Martha Higareda delights as the hyper-competent Kristen Ortega. The entire Bancroft family comes across as weird, just something slightly wrong with each of them...which is perfect. There IS something wrong with each of them and it just takes Tak and the viewer a little while to figure out what it is.

Special shout-out to Matt Biedel, who does a fantastic job of playing Kristen's abuela in one episode, and then plays a very convincing Dimi the Twin in two other episodes.

Some of the scenes are just too dark, literally, and I had to depend on subtitles and intelligent guessing to deduce what was going on.

Episode seven changed everything for me. I love-love-loved Will Yun Lee's portrayal of Takeshi. I also felt that it was Dichen Lachman's best performance of the series; she's better when her character has a chance to relax a little. Renee Elise Goldberry is terrific as Quellchrist Falconer throughout the series, but this episode finally gave her a chance to do something meaty with the role, and she delivered.

Heck, did she ever deliver.

And that was a problem for me, because episodes eight through ten just felt flat to me. But I liked the pay-off, and I will definitely watch a second season if they make one.