Altered Carbon Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

4. It's Clever & Ambitious

Sure, the writing isn't always as water-tight or as logical as it could be, but it's easy enough to mostly forgive considering the ludicrous ambition of the show on practically every level.

The central concept - of people's consciousness residing within a poker chip-like object called a "stack", which can be transported into different empty bodies, aka "sleeves", at will - is both horrifying and fascinating, especially in terms of the effect this has on society, from religion, to the government and even the nature of human relationships.

It is a show overflowing with ideas, more than it knows what to do with perhaps, but the depth of the mythology and the consistently intriguing, slippery riffs on the shifting meaning of identity, as well as the perils of immortality, make it never less than transfixing to watch at almost all times.