
Netflix cancels 'Altered Carbon' after just two seasons - tosh
https://www.engadget.com/netflix-cancels-altered-carbon-203546958.html
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calaphos
Not surprised, season 2 was rather lacking, especially after the amazing first
season.

If you liked the story and idea I would recommend breading the Novel trilogy
it's based on. Season 1 was fairly close to the first book while the second
one was a really weird and IMHO badly done mix of the later two.

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mercutio2
Wow. I’m amazed you thought season 1 was even vaguely close to the book.

I never even tried season 2, they diverged so much (and so irritatingly!) from
the books in season 1.

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calmworm
My comment wasn’t on the book or the show’s relation to the book, just the
Netflix series.

Is it a good book/series?

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effingwewt
IMHO, much like the show it started spectacularly and spent its fuel too soon.
I thoroughly enjoyed all 3 books, but there were definitely diminishing
returns.

I will say even at its worst the trilogy is still better than the show (at
least season 2)

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vergessenmir
Season 1 was fantastic. Season 2 was meh. I would have been surprised if there
was a third, not only because S2 was lacklustre but because Netflix is known
to cancel after 2 seasons from a cost perspective. It turns out they don't do
S3s because contracts are up for renegotiation and they repeat their formula
on a new and different show. It's purely optimising cost and investment on a
show.

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monkeycantype
I can watch pretty much anything with a spaceship in it. You put it a
spaceship, it's like i'm 60 IQ points dumber (if we believed that IQ points
were a real thing and the intelligence can be measured on a one dimensional
objective scale). If there's a spaceship I will tolerate bad dialogue,
cardboard characters, absurd plots even absurd lack of plots. I'm willing to
give you spaceship show makers a budget of 60 IQ points worth of stupid, but
why? why do you need it?

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sitkack
The good writers have no shows and the shows with great budgets appear to not
have writers.

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tenacious_tuna
Frustratingly, the books had a brilliant set of concepts for them to work with
--and even tweak, a bit! But they diverged so crazily from that in S2 to go
off in a "Netflix tries to create 3am Syfy" direction.

Even with reliable material, Netflix finds a way to make it disappointing.

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thu2111
Seems to be an incredibly common problem. TV writers don't seem able to make
good stories, perhaps the skills needed are quite different. It's notable that
nearly all high budget TV serials in recent years are adaptations of books.
Knowing the books were successful surely reduces the risk, but then having
found a winning formula the TV firm wants the series to last forever. They run
out of book material and then the story goes off the rails as the TV writers
can't match it. GoT being a classic example.

I suspect the issue is timelines. TV projects are managed with tight deadlines
because they expect a new series within a year. A book can be released more or
less whenever the writer wants, as they answer to nobody unless they signed
some sort of multi-book deal which is rare. Writers take more of the financial
risk on themselves, whereas in TV it's the TV firm taking all the financial
risk. So you get whatever plot they could come up with in 6 weeks or however
long they have, and it can't match the quality of a story where perhaps the
writer spent a year on it.

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sitkack
It also appears that society as a whole is over-optimizing using clustering in
a low dimensional space. It is quite ironic to me that I will say this, as I
love animation as an art form, it can convey abstract ideas that are almost
impossible in any other medium. But, the world is becoming more cartoonish and
flat as PCA and k-means amplify the dimensions that optimize the outcomes.
Equivalence is skin deep, we wrap things in a veneer of chrome, carbon fiber
and hardwoods. The message is 100% medium.

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mixmastamyk
Sucks, I'd like to see them stick with and develop a good show for a while.
Many older shows didn't get really good until the third season. Orange ITNB
survived a bad season.

Re Altered Carbon, I loved S1 because of the mystery. A minor reason was
because I wasn't familiar with any of the actors, makes it easier to get
immersed. Didn't like S2 as much, partially because of the new leads, who
tended to be folks from other shows... the Avengers guy, the lady cop from
Luke Cage, and Damian Dark. I think I let out an audible grown when he came
onscreen.

I'd rather watch fewer higher quality shows than the next one, they will now
produce instead. I suppose my new strategy is to not start a Netflix show
until it hits its third or fourth (cough Daredevil+) season.

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wang_li
They broke too much of the universe in the first season. The second and third
books are largely unworkable after the changes they made. Like the envoys
being revolutionaries in the show but being ultra competent UN soldiers who
terrify planets due to their personalities and training in the books. Or
Quellcrist Falconer being turned into his girlfriend as opposed to a
historical figure. Or not having the retired envoys turned surf bum bank
robbing gang.

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dougmwne
Not supprised. Season 2 had clearly outlived it's premise and had nothing more
to offer around the whole body swapping concept. Season 1, while not perfect,
made a good contribution to small screen sci-fi and had nice thematic and
stylistic elements.

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loa_in_
As usual, budget constraints ruin all artistic visions.

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sitkack
Because writers demand such large salaries, if only they would lots it over
the rest of society.

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mleonhard
I watched Star Trek (TNG, DS9, Voyager, Enterprise), The Expanse, Orville,
Continuum, Altered Carbon S1, Farscape, Firefly, Travelers, Dark, and even
Stargate Universe.

What do you recommend watching next?

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prirun
Fringe, Stargate, Stargate Atlantis (though Rodney's constant yelling gets
annoying, sort of like Scott Bakula's of Enterprise; neither are great
actors). Dark Matter is good too, but it ends abruptly after 3 seasons without
an ending.

Fringe gets a little lame/silly when the alternate universe starts getting
featured in the later seasons, but at least it does have an actual ending.

I really hate that aspect of the new TV programming models: studios don't even
have the courtesy to write a few "wrap up" episodes at the end. Instead, they
show a preview of the next season, then have no problem with just canceling
it.

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johnmc408
Did the show have a good ending (ie no cliff hangers?) It is on my watch list,
but not if everything is unresolved...

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Doxin
Watching S1 is worth it in my opinion, it wraps up the story line but still
leaves a lot unanswered. S2 might as well be a different show and I wouldn't
bother.

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thecrumb
SOB I was just finishing up Season 2.

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xt00
yea I trudged through season 2.. season 1 was great and had all sorts of good
stuff going on with it... I kind of want to watch season 1 again to try to
figure out what went wrong..

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caddie
this was my favorite show by far!

