#the world revolves around the ability to body swap and NOTHING pertaining to the trans community has even been hinted at

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Stumbled on the series Altered Carbon a few days ago. I'm only five episodes in, but so far so good. The concept is exceptionally whumpy, but the execution is fairly standard for mainstream TV (handwaved injuries, trauma not really acknowledged). It's also a cyberpunk setting that goes heavy on world building, so naturally I love that.

(mini review with some spoilers beneath the cut)

Pros:

- Whumpy premise. Rebel/mercenary is taken out of prison by a rich guy who wants to hire him (and who almost verbatim claims him as his property)

- Interesting world, colorful and visually fun

- The concept of resleeving (transferring a person's consciousness into a new body) is used for both comedy and horror and it's great

- Episode 4 is like 30% torture chamber

- The way they illustrate "body death" as cheap makes a lot of sense to me for the the setting

- There's an AI hologram character and I love him

Cons:

- Has the gratuitous violence, nudity, and gore that's become typical for "adult" sci-fi. I don't mind it, (and I love the fight scenes) but half the time it seems like it's just for shock value

- excessive amount of sex scenes. Also makes half the female characters sex workers, and has a few instances of 'violence against women as a plot device'. The extent doesn't seem necessary aside from the "gritty" vibes these shows feel like they need to be taken seriously

- most of the romance feels forced

- oh and the male lead is literally drugged and sexually assaulted, but afterwards it's almost played like it was consensual??

- yeah yeah it's typical for sci-fi protagonists to be super tough and unflinching and it's part of the character but holy cow the lead has minimalist reactions to pain

#calico reviews #despite my complaints its still a good show and ill probably watch more #i know i said i loved the cheap death and hated the shock value in the same breath but im mostly just annoyed #adult media seems to feel the need to go out of its way to prove it's worth a 'mature' rating #and it just feels kinda lame and overdone #dont get me wrong i love violence and gore but its how its portrayed that matters #repo! the genetic opera gets away with it because it fits the sorta campy unapologetic tone #but most media just wants to be gritty and shocking #its not lost on me that the premise is similar to wildefire lol #im actually delighted #whump rec #altered carbon #tw sa mention #tw noncon mention #also a smaller complaint and i know i haven't finished it but #the world revolves around the ability to body swap and NOTHING pertaining to the trans community has even been hinted at #smh