Saturday, February 10, 2018

"Altered Carbon" (2018), Netflix, various directors. Capsule review.

Despite some middling reviews this Blade Runner-ish series is quite well constructed, from the neo-noir proceedings to the increasingly deranged ideas that come from its timely device. The rich can live forever, and immortality (as Asimov noted on one of his trilogies) provokes the stagnation of a reified social body and its decadence, both upstairs and on the smelly basement of human society. The tone is not for everyone, and the dystopian ambiance is a staple of the commentary on the current disarray. Still, it is said that the decline of a civilization stirs the waters of creativity. From a simple child´s song in Tim Minchin´s "Matilda" to a detective story set in the far future, artists use the oppressor´s own funds to scream that we must rebel in the end if we intend to survive. Is this a sublimation of our own desires, made to maintain us quiet? Or are these works of fiction the first salvoes on the liberation war to come?

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