10 TV Shows That SUCKED After The First Season
8. Altered Carbon
When it was released, the first season of Altered Carbon was reportedly the most expensive series in Netflix production history and it shows. The setting is a beautiful, bright yet trashy futuristic cyberpunk world that needed a high budget to pop off the screen.
It’s interesting that Netflix invested so much, only to cancel the show after two seasons. Then again, the second season of Altered Carbon was a huge let-down from the first and maybe Netflix saw the writing on the wall.
Altered Carbon’s strength was in its world and the first season did a fantastic job of introducing us to its 360-year leap into the future. Humans can now upload their consciousness onto technology that can be basically dropped into a new body whenever it suits them. It raised a lot of interesting questions about morality and mortality.
Season 2’s recast of lead character Takeshi was then perfectly logical for the plot but altogether ungratifying. Anthony Mackie displayed none of mannerisms nor the humour of the character that we had grown to love through Joel Kinnaman’s previous appearance.
Coupling this flat performance with the swift departure from the seedy cyberpunk world and into something hollow and more generic, Altered Carbon’s second season felt like a totally different show - one that not only didn’t get the same funds from Netflix but also that didn’t bother to actually grow its world, instead opting for cheap action sequences and a very dull story.