(This review may contain spoilers).
The first thing I should say about this series is that it’s the first in a long time I actually binge-watched. Only ten episodes, but I was engaged right from the start.
At first glance, this series shares a lot of similarities with another series called Dollhouse. Of course, the idea of living forever by transplanting a person’s mind into another’s body isn’t a really unique idea.
I did think there were a lot of moral and ethical problems that weren’t explored to the extent they could have been. While Kovacs was an interesting character to see and learn about, I found it very hard to reconcile the person he was in the flashbacks to who he was in the present. I actually preferred the version of him portrayed in his ‘original’ body.
It was good to see glimpses of the divide between the rich and the poor and one scene in particular involving a little girl who’d been transplanted into an adult body was absolutely heartbreaking.
I did feel that the show kept breaking its own rules, in particular when it came to the clones and being controlled by one mind.
Poe was by far my favourite character of the series and I found the idea of the AIs absolutely fascinating. Ortega was a close second favourite, but while there were glimpses and hints of her being a strong character, towards the end of the series, it felt like she was becoming a damsel in distress.
I was a bit less taken with Lizzie, as I felt there wasn’t much detail about how broken her psyche truly was and how Poe was actually helping her. By the end of the series, it was very hard to suspend my disbelief when it came to her; and there was virtually no foreshadowing of what was revealed.
I almost felt that the parallel storylines could have been separate series, as even though the flashbacks allowed me to learn more about Kovacs’ background, there was still a lot tht didn’t make sense.
I thought the idea was executed in a unique way and even though I felt there was a lot more depth that could have been shown, there was a lot about this series I found engaging and it had characters I really cared about.
The series itself is incredibly dark, bloody and violent. I wouldn’t say it’s on the same level of something like Game of Thrones, but it’s definitely something to steer clear of if you don’t like strong bloody violence.
Even though I did find there were problems in the series and things I felt could have been done better, the storyline was engaging enough to keep me watching throughout. And even though I don’t intend to rush to buy it on DVD as soon as it comes out, I will be watching the second season if and when it comes to Netflix.
