TV:
Altered Carbon. This Netflix series is based on a book that I had never heard of but am kind of interested in now. Basically it’s about a far future where they have figured out how to download your consciousness into a disc (“stack”) and can move it from body to body (sleeve). Wealthy people can clone themselves and have available sleeves for whatever dumb things they get up to. People who may get murdered but their stack is still intact, they can get placed in a completely different sleeve regardless of what their original race or gender was. Basically the gist of this story is one of the rich guys gets murdered but it was right before his stack back up so he has no idea who murdered him.
(Just typing that right now… that is stupid – everything is on the cloud. My dang Google docs save automatically every few seconds. Hmm, plot hole).
The rich guy needs a detective so he gets the last Envoy (a specialized soldier who has the ability to easily move from sleeve to sleeve and can be dropped into the middle of combat situations) who had been put away for treason 250 years earlier. The failed rebellion was about the stacks and the unfairness of it all, or something. So, this guy, who was originally an Asian guy, is downloaded into the (white guy) body of the former partner of a police officer lady who probably would have left him alone except for all that.
Anyway, then adventures ensue. One of the things that I thought was funny was that the majority of the show took place in a cyberpunk (think Blade Runner, the aesthetics thereof) version of San Francisco called “Bay City”. Of course, it looked nothing like it actually does, but there were a couple of fun shots of the Bay between SF and Oakland, which were towering skyscrapery cities facing each other. The view kind of looked out like it was from the San Mateo Bridge.
So, final grade: solid B. It was super gorgeous to look at with impeccable set design and world building, but the story was kinda weak. I still liked it though.
MOVIES:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Full confession: I recorded this off HBO thinking it was a documentary about the famous immortal cell line “HeLa” that helped many scientific breakthroughs since the 1950s. I wasn’t far off but you will imagine my surprise when I discovered that it was actually a movie starring Oprah as the daughter of Henrietta Lacks and it was more about writing the book, the family, getting to know Henrietta as a person, and a bit about the controversy about the ownership of cell samples and how the family received no compensation for it. It was a little “after school special” but all in all, interesting. I’m going to pick up a copy of the book and read it later. I find the science and the ethics interesting.
PODCASTS:
Astonishing Legends: Episodes 87-89, Black Eyed Kids. Dudes, this took me awhile to get through all three episodes (it was about 6 hours of content, I believe) and I got really creeped out (in a good way) during the first episode and had to turn it off! Though… it was like 1 in the morning. Anyway, these episodes deep dived into the phenomena of “black eyed kids” – what are they, where do they come from, and are they real. Totally interesting! I’ve started on the three-part Yeti series and I’m stoked!
Casefile. I forget what episodes, but they were interesting. I’ve listened to a number of these over the last few months. I will admit that I like the true crime aspects especially as most of these stories are set in Australia so it’s a different group of crimes (ugh I sound horrible, like, whelp I’ve heard all about the American horror stories! Give me foreign ones now! but like… no really, they’re interesting). I did just download one that is about a boy who disappeared in the 80’s from Martinez, CA, which is in the valley where I live, since I was a kid then I’m not familiar with it. So we’ll see!
I did also listen to a couple episodes of My Favorite Murder, which I guess I like since I’ve listened to like 40 episodes now. Some future ones I have on tap are Dirty John, and Black Hands. I first heard about Dirty John from this article series. My sister has listened to the podcast, which is based on the articles, and recommends it. Black Hands is about the Bain Family murders which took place in New Zealand, and is supposed to be similar to Serial (which I have not listened to nor am interested in for whatever reason). I knew about these murders before and also I think there was a MFM on them.
Anyway, that is what I’ve been consuming lately.