unsuitable for turbo viewing?

I've been watching Altered Carbon. It's another series dystopia, and perhaps revision for post-Brexit Britain and post-Trump world?

I've paused after about four episodes. I like the scene/staging, but I'm struggling with the generally bleak characterisations. Well, maybe not with Poe, who is the embodiment of an Artificial Intelligence hotel called the Raven. Bizarrely the AI persona seems to have more humour and character than many of the main players.

The main premise is of a disk thingy containing personality and memory, which can be inserted into an available body/clone to reboot a human. Science fiction has a few versions of this type of thing, including a couple in recent Black Mirror episodes.

The series based on a 2002 novel by Richard K. Morgan uses a Bladerunner/Philip K.Dick/Neuromancer/William Gibson cyberpunk-noir setting, with a rainy Bay City, comprising the remnants of San Francisco at its epicentre. It's a lavish Sprawl type visualisation which should bode well for the rest of the production.

Many style cues are from the original Bladerunner, yet I really wanted an even more challenging future view. The often understated Black Mirror and most Philip K.Dick does this quite well.

Our main Altered Carbon protagonist has a brutal past and has been offered the kind of deal that Vin Diesel or Bruce Willis get when they are asked to save something significant.

We've also got some stiction moments, with commercially engineered scenes designed to encourage onward viewing. It's like the next step along from those short segments in old sitcoms, designed to slot between ad-breaks and retain audiences.

But I did stop. I flipped to an old series of Homeland, which immediately felt more characterful.

Maybe with all the snow I shouldn't have used sci-fi for bike turbo viewing? As another dystopian character remarked, I'll be back.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.