‘Altered Carbon’ Review: Fallen Angels Doesn’t Shy Away From Television’s Tropes of Nudity

Altered Carbon continues its breakneck pace in episode two, layering more characters, plots and intrigue onto Kovacs’ search for Laurens Bancroft’s attempted killer. But even as I tried to keep up with the hurtling narrative, I found myself distracted. There are a lot of breasts in this show. A lot. I was ready to write about the constant objectification of women in this show, and in media generally- the near ubiquitous way that television communicates the grit of its worlds by setting scene after scene in strip clubs, and how the cameras always linger overlong on bare breasts even when the club is ostensibly just window dressing. Then came the dick. Yup, there it is. There’s a fair amount of men’s asses in Altered Carbon, but I have to admit that I was completely unprepared to see Laurens Bancroft’s penis flopping around. Showing actor’s primary sex organs is one of the last taboos that’s left in broadcast television. Granted, Netflix isn’t broadcast, but it still isn’t premium cable such as HBO or Starz. The platform inhabits a middle ground, where its low cost and existence outside of cable bundling makes it available to far more people, but the requirement for payment at all keeps its audience smaller than traditional broadcast television. Bancroft’s dick on Altered Carbon may not be as groundbreaking as saying “shit” on CBS (a moment which feels quaint by today’s standards), but it still feels like something noteworthy happened there. That “something” doesn’t actually ch…