Netflix’s 10/10 Sci-Fi Adaptation of Award-Winning Novels Gets Cyberpunk Right

Netflix’s *Altered Carbon*, adapted from Richard Morgan’s novels, uses a future where people’s consciousness can be transferred between bodies to explore inequality and corporate power. The article argues that the series pushes cyberpunk’s bleak themes further by showing how technology can deepen exploitation rather than free humanity.

Joel Kinnaman plays Takeshi Kovacs, a former freedom fighter revived 250 years after his death to investigate a murder. The wealthy can afford repeated resleeving and extend their lives, while poorer people face degrading trade-offs, including a child placed in an older woman’s body because her family cannot pay for an upgrade. The series also depicts bodies being abused and AI-run hotels becoming unsettling, presenting technological progress as a route to greater violations of human rights.