Season 1 was a story masterfully written, directed and acted. Season 2 is nearly laughably bad in comparison. The one thing that demonstrates how poorly this season was done is that Kovacs doesn't even seem to be the same "character". In a world where bodies are exchangeable but minds can live on eternal, Kovac doesn't have the same edgy, deep, whitty, badass character as in season 1. Season 2 Kovac is a boring angry soldier.
4 Reviews
Unwatchable
faresar2 March 2020
I am half way through episode 4 and i paused to check rating and it looks like i am not alone. This season is like a fake or non original version of the series. I rated this series 9/10 after watching season 1. After watching some of s2 i am lowering the rating to 7 overall. If i was rating season 2 alone then i am thinking 5/10.
Cast is terrible. Story is boring, acting is average. Barely any cool futuristic concepts in this film. Its basically what made the series awesome.
Its like the producers dont get what made this successful in the first place.
Was the budget low? What happened?
I am forcing myself to finish it because i have nothing else to watch but i am bored. I paused it just to write this review
Cast is terrible. Story is boring, acting is average. Barely any cool futuristic concepts in this film. Its basically what made the series awesome.
Its like the producers dont get what made this successful in the first place.
Was the budget low? What happened?
I am forcing myself to finish it because i have nothing else to watch but i am bored. I paused it just to write this review
I keep waiting for it to get better
ssourgirl1 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I keep waiting for it to get better but it only gets worse. The series is nothing without Joel Kinnaman and Martha Higareda. You need at least one of these leads to carry the story.
Kovacs has absolutely no depth, no hidden compassion, just a self centered aggressive prick. Falcon without a shield. He has no range and no connection.
Poe is the only character that makes this season watchable, except when Kovass is verbally abusing him.
Kovacs has absolutely no depth, no hidden compassion, just a self centered aggressive prick. Falcon without a shield. He has no range and no connection.
Poe is the only character that makes this season watchable, except when Kovass is verbally abusing him.
An Inferior Sleeve In A Corrupted Stack
hagan_family15 May 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Bottom Line Up Front: This 2d season is a disappointment for so many reasons.
I binge-watched the first season while occasionally cringing, often levitating out of my seat from suspense and frequently laughing at unpredictably-timed wicked wisecracks. I couldn't see where the twists and turns were headed because of the characters and their intense and cleverly-constructed development, both internally and with respect to one another. The plot development zig-zagged ruthlessly, forcing me to keep attention focused or else risk losing the thread of the very different and massively complex universe). I loved being kept hanging in suspense (while I hated it at the same time). The Kovacs character was unpredictable, lethal, occasionally (and unpredictably) vulnerable at times. At the end of Season 1 I felt semi-satisfied with the ending, a number of strange loose-ends were tied up, but enough enduring mystery remaining to have me anticipate Season 2.
And then, the exciting, rip-snorting, action-packed unpredictability morphed into something significantly less so and far, far more pedestrian. Further, I was delighted to see who Kovacs' new sleeve being Anthony Mackie -- someone I've followed within the MCU. That is, until I began watching through the first 4 episodes. That is where the stark differences began to show up:
1. Kovacs ... the original Ryker "sleeve" ... popped out combat-ready and already taking charge. The Season 2 Kovacs "sleeve," as much as I like the actor, was groggy, inept and easily dominated by others. It took him 2-3 episodes to stop consistently losing hand-to-hand contests. It was quite disillusioning.
I found his characterization of Kovacs's conflicts reduced from fully 3-dimensional to barely 2-dimensional. Mackie's character is unconvincing of deep conflicts -- he doesn't convince me there's a gritty "bottom" to his character, and instead, I find him much more of a nice guy who's generally angry, and episodically (and unconvincingly) obsessed by the memory of Quell (her amnesia and uncontrolled actions also unconvincingly portrayed).
2. Poe ... his incessant internal "debate" over whether to "Fully reboot" or not became tedious and added very little to plot development or to quality of suspense. I found that I really stopped caring whether the AI rebooted or not. Further, the addition of "Miss Dig" suggests the series "jumped the shark" pretty quickly.
3. Plot-line development became far too predictable (by contrast w/Season 1), and its main characters far too superficially rendered. In fact, the level of insipidity only grew, the longer I watched.
So, as a series, the quality precipitously dropped off across the board between Seasons 1 and 2. It's like the producers planted a corrupted stack into an inferior sleeve and foisted it off for sale to the public as a fully-formed new human. I really am disappointed that the only remaining believable character is the original Takeshi Kovacs. He's very good (acting-wise) portraying his initial character, which further contrasts and diminishes the 2d Season from it's promising potential to a fairly bargain-basement achievement.
I binge-watched the first season while occasionally cringing, often levitating out of my seat from suspense and frequently laughing at unpredictably-timed wicked wisecracks. I couldn't see where the twists and turns were headed because of the characters and their intense and cleverly-constructed development, both internally and with respect to one another. The plot development zig-zagged ruthlessly, forcing me to keep attention focused or else risk losing the thread of the very different and massively complex universe). I loved being kept hanging in suspense (while I hated it at the same time). The Kovacs character was unpredictable, lethal, occasionally (and unpredictably) vulnerable at times. At the end of Season 1 I felt semi-satisfied with the ending, a number of strange loose-ends were tied up, but enough enduring mystery remaining to have me anticipate Season 2.
And then, the exciting, rip-snorting, action-packed unpredictability morphed into something significantly less so and far, far more pedestrian. Further, I was delighted to see who Kovacs' new sleeve being Anthony Mackie -- someone I've followed within the MCU. That is, until I began watching through the first 4 episodes. That is where the stark differences began to show up:
1. Kovacs ... the original Ryker "sleeve" ... popped out combat-ready and already taking charge. The Season 2 Kovacs "sleeve," as much as I like the actor, was groggy, inept and easily dominated by others. It took him 2-3 episodes to stop consistently losing hand-to-hand contests. It was quite disillusioning.
I found his characterization of Kovacs's conflicts reduced from fully 3-dimensional to barely 2-dimensional. Mackie's character is unconvincing of deep conflicts -- he doesn't convince me there's a gritty "bottom" to his character, and instead, I find him much more of a nice guy who's generally angry, and episodically (and unconvincingly) obsessed by the memory of Quell (her amnesia and uncontrolled actions also unconvincingly portrayed).
2. Poe ... his incessant internal "debate" over whether to "Fully reboot" or not became tedious and added very little to plot development or to quality of suspense. I found that I really stopped caring whether the AI rebooted or not. Further, the addition of "Miss Dig" suggests the series "jumped the shark" pretty quickly.
3. Plot-line development became far too predictable (by contrast w/Season 1), and its main characters far too superficially rendered. In fact, the level of insipidity only grew, the longer I watched.
So, as a series, the quality precipitously dropped off across the board between Seasons 1 and 2. It's like the producers planted a corrupted stack into an inferior sleeve and foisted it off for sale to the public as a fully-formed new human. I really am disappointed that the only remaining believable character is the original Takeshi Kovacs. He's very good (acting-wise) portraying his initial character, which further contrasts and diminishes the 2d Season from it's promising potential to a fairly bargain-basement achievement.
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