Reviews by:
@the_owlseyes
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“You're not Dostoevsky,' said the citizeness, who was getting muddled by Koroviev. Well, who knows, who knows,' he replied.
'Dostoevsky's dead,' said the citizeness, but somehow not very confidently.
'I protest!' Behemoth exclaimed hotly. 'Dostoevsky is immortal!”
Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
What's our body? Is it part of our identity or just a vessel with a crew called conscience? I think that it's possible. After all how can you be sure that this is your body. I'm not going to talk about the LGBTQ+ but our conscience doesn't have a gender so it would be natural to move it in different bodies or shells. Sure, digitalizing the mind would mean achieving eternal life or eternal damnation, but isn't it what we all want. To live forever and experience life. After a while it won't be life, I think, it would be a prolonged death. But this theory could justify another theory, the one about simulation but it's another concept, far from what we're talking right now.
I'm not sure that it's me who is writing right now. I mean, maybe I'm thinking about the words but it's possible that I'm just an avatar of a multidimensional being who is playing Sims Online.
What's the point of all of that? No one, because we like to question the pillars of our lifes. Usually we do it when we want to use our mind, for real. But saying that doesn't make me more clever, it just makes more miserable. My opinion is what it's because of my experiences and I'm just one among the others.
My mind defines what I'm but doesn't make me unique. As well as the body.
We should be part of a bigger grid of cosciences and live every experience together. Only then we will be unique.
I think that uniqueness stand in unity.
So, why would you live forever as a digitalized conscience who migrates between bodies like a ghost?
PLOT
"Set in a future where consciousness is digitized and stored, a prisoner returns to life in a new body and must solve a mind-bending murder to win his freedom" or "I'm not sure this is my body".
SCRIPT
This series should have stopped after one season because the second one ruins everyting which came before. All the character development, all the world building and plot weaving is out of the window in the second outing. Why? I think corporate agenda. It's clear that he second season is pushing ideas which are in line with movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. I'm a bit, more than a bit, disappointed. An awesome concept and premise ruined by the politically correct. Why not focusing on the characters, the world and the themes when you can shove liberal ideas down the audience throat.
This started as a clever show with an interesting idea and an overarching plot. Themes like social injustice, capitalism, life and death, ethics and more are used well in the first season. In the second one they get sidelined to focus on racism and things like that. The shift is dramatic.
I don't want to go on. I feel unsatisfyed and betrayed by this show.
Script: 6/10
ACTING
There's a big difference between the first and the second season and I think that it's all thanks to the change of lead. Even though I like Anthony Mackie and his charismatic persona( this is why his Marvel character works), I think that Joel Kinnaman does a better job at portraying the protagonist. I would also say that he's more likeable, which is unexpected, and charismatic. I think that he's more able to steal a scene. For the others is just the same. Martha Higareda is better than Simone Missick, James Purefoy and Kristin Lehman are better than Lela Loren and Torben Liebrecht. There're just a few actors who made thorugh the first season, like Reneè Goldsberry and Chris Conner, who delivers a good performance as Poe.
Overall is a pretty mixed bag.
Acting: 7/10
PHOTOGRAPHY
I like how colours and lights are used to create this dystopic world. It isn't just grey but a chromatic dance which pleases the eye. I think that there're genuinely beautiful shots in this series, especially in the first season. I like the fact that they wanted to use different filters to show the different epochs of the world and how it degraded. Natural scenes are bright and colourful, while sci-fi frames tend have a grey or green filter, to make us feel uneasy. Almost all of it is thrown away in the second season. Unfortunately.
Photography: 7/10
EDITING
It's ok, sometimes it's remarkable and sometimes it isn't. I appreciate the fact that it tries, at least, to do something interesting when it's needed. This editing works but it isn't enough. It's sufficient because it does what the series needs from it. Nothing more.
Editing: 6/10
SPECIAL EFFECTS
They're good. Sure, they aren't top tier or groundbreaking but they're well done, considering the budget and how they're used. I like how they've built the two cities displayed in the series and the technology used in it. It grants pretty good visuals and amaze. For me this is what kept the series going in the second season.
Special Effects: 8/10
SOUNDTRACK
In the first season the series delivers a marvellous soundtrack. It's a pity that all of it is lost in the second season, where it becomes like a CW show's background music. You can appreciate a dreamy score made of synths and electronic music in the first season. This is one of the reason why the first half works so well. Unfortunately something is missing in the second one and that hurts the experience a lot. Thannks to it the series get worse and becomes mediocre.
Soundtrack: 6/10
COSTUMES
They're steampunky but I won't say that they're as original as Blade Runner. Surely they looks good and fits the characters perfectly, especially Kovac coat, but it isn't enough to say that they're majestic. I like the praetorians suits, a lot, but overall I think that, for being a series set in the future, it works. More than mediocre.
Costumes: 7/10
CONCLUSION
Script: 6/10
Acting: 7/10
Photography: 7/10
Editing: 6/10
Special Effects: 8/10
Soundtrack: 6/10
Costumes: 7/10
AVERAGE: 6,71
A good series which became a low rated one thanks to Netflix politically correct and a shitty second season . Watch it, only the first outing. It deserves to be appreciated but we don't have to consider the second season. I won't. Never.
Director: Uta Briesewitz, Alex Graves
Screenplay: Laeta Kalogridis
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, James Purefoy, Martha Higareda, Chris Conner, Dichen Lachman, Ato Essandoh, Kristin Lehman, Trieu Tran, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Anthony Mackie, Lela Loren, Simone Missick, Dina Shihabi, Torben Liebrecht
Soundtrack: Jeff Russo, Jordan Gagne
Cinematography: Corey Robson
Running Time: 50 minutes
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