Weekly What are you watching thread #16

the big issue with s2 of altered carbon is that the premise of the story involves the same "person" inhabiting multiple bodies. this works well enough for the first iteration on screen because the multiple actors involved are the viewers' introduction to the story, but becomes a problematic in later iterations (particularly s2 as it takes place tens/hundreds of years in the future) because almost none of the actors are the same - the personhood of the characters is lost because the actors who play them change and have different personalities/demeanors/quirks on screen. the story seems much more well adapted to literature because the author is able to control the presentation of each "actor" (read: character, leading to a more cohesive continuity in character) in that environment much more capably than screenwriters are able to with actors on a set.

travelers seems to make a super big deal about scenes, series of scenes, and even episodes revolving around a single characters issues, only generally touching on the overall theme; of note would be the long hair blonde guy addicted to heroin or whatever. just like suits did, it orchestrates episodes in "blocks" of content that focus on some forced personal issue, then loosely tie it to the next one. i guess these technically move the overall story forward, but the repeated focus on individuals just to switch to another as a means of storytelling in this way feels boring to me.