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

Published Oct 19, 2026, 8:52 PM EDT

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Carolyn Jenkins is a voracious consumer of film and television. She graduated from Long Island University with an MFA in Screenwriting and Producing where she learned the art of character, plot, and structure. The best teacher is absorbing media and she spends her time reading about different worlds from teen angst to the universe of Stephen King.

Neon signs. Flying cars. Corrupt corporations. Netflix’s Altered Carbon follows a long tradition of some of the best explorations of Cyberpunk. Premiering in 2018, the television adaptation of Richard Morgan’s novel follows a futuristic society where the richest can avoid death. Every person is implanted with a “stack,” a digital drive implanted in the spine that contains consciousness. For those who can afford it, death is no consequence. The richest in society can afford to download their consciousness into other sleeves, allowing them to live lifetimes upon lifetimes.

Joel Kinnaman plays Takeshi Kovacs, who wakes up to find he has been resleeved. A former freedom fighter, he is pulled out of storage 250 years after his death to help solve a murder. The world he wakes up in is startling, where the rich continue to benefit from the pain of others. These are themes prevalent in most Cyberpunk vehicles, but Altered Carbon takes these concepts the extra mile.

‘Altered Carbon’ Is Cyberpunk Cranked up to 11

The Cyberpunk of Ridley Scott and CD Projekt Red captures the feeling of futility in a sci-fi world. Corporations control everything, allowing the privileged to ascend and the lower classes to suffer. Takeshi Kovacs wakes up in such a world and is immediately disillusioned. Even though there is technology that allows death to be a mere inconvenience, more problems have arisen because of it.

When Takeshi is taken off ice, he sees others being resleeved. A 10-year-old girl who has a second chance at life after a car accident is resleeved into the body of an old woman, only because her family can’t afford the upgrade. This is only the beginning of the horrors this brave new world has allowed.

The rich prospering isn’t new to fans of Cyberpunk, but Altered Carbon takes it further than any other project has before. The poor and disenfranchised aren’t just preyed upon, but objectively tortured. Because virtually anyone can be resleeved, the concept of bodily autonomy doesn’t exist. Bodies are used and thrown away in a horrifying reflection of modern society. This dystopian narrative follows Takeshi through a world that he should never have been born into.

Throughout the series, it becomes clear that the future hasn’t liberated anyone from the trials of humanity. If anything, it has gotten worse. Cyberpunk is, at its heart, a dystopian genre that shows fans just where the sins of technology are leading. Even simple amenities such as AI-run hotels can turn dark. These businesses only care about getting guests and can become obsessive towards their human clientele.

Altered Carbon shows the worst-case scenario because, in addition to the rich getting richer, they can continue to amass their fortunes long after their lifespan. These visuals of the series are brutal and have been accused of being gratuitous, but that is the point of the series. Technology allows human rights violations on an epic scale, something that humanity should be striving to avoid. Universes like Blade Runner can be escapist in some fashion, even with their dark themes. Altered Carbon, on the other hand, never lets the viewer go with its bleak depiction of what is and what could continue to be in the future.