Warning: Minor spoilers ahead for Netflix's "Altered Carbon."

Netflix has seemingly put a lot of effort into its new cyberpunk action series "Altered Carbon" — but the resulting show falls a bit flat.

Set in Bay City (aka San Francisco) in the year 2384, "Altered Carbon" imagines a future in which immortality can be achieved. Physical bodies, also called sleeves, are disposable. People's consciousness is stored in a device called a stack. But only the super-wealthy, called Meths, can afford true immortality.

An ex-soldier named Takeshi Kovacs — played primarily by Joel Kinnaman — has been put into a new sleeve after "sleeping" for 250 years. A Meth named Laurens Bancroft purchased his consciousness and revived Kovacs in order to solve Bancroft's own attempted-murder case. But of course, nothing is as simple as it appears.

Why You Should Care

"Altered Carbon" is based on the 2002 award-winning novel of the same name by Richard K. Morgan. The TV adaptation was created by Laeta Kalogridis, a seasoned writer who helped craft James Cameron's record-breaking movie "Avatar."

Kalogridis first optioned the rights to "Altered Carbon" 15 years ago, which means the show is a passion project with a long history.

"Altered Carbon" features a lot of solid CGI and visual effects work. Katie Yu/Netflix

The first episode of "Altered Carbon" was directed by Miguel Sapochnik, whose name is familiar to any "Game of Thrones" superfan. Sapochnik directed three of the most critically-acclaimed episodes of "Game of Thrones," including season five's "Hardhome" and season six's "Battle of the Bastards" and "The Winds of Winter." He'll also be directing two of the coming final episodes.

Though Netflix hasn't confirmed the reported extravagant production cost behind "Altered Carbon," the first 10 episodes are said to make up one of the most expensive premiere seasons in television history.

Lieutenant Kristin Ortega (Martha Higareda) and Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman). Katie Yu/Netflix

What's Hot

If you're looking for intense, bloody action sequences with solid fight choreography, "Altered Carbon" delivers. The world building is intriguing, with clear nods to recognizable landmarks (like San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge — only it's been transformed into a slum while cars fly overhead).

The exploration of technology is compelling, too, including the horrifying prospect of virtual reality used for torture. "Altered Carbon" also confronts the way religion would clash with growing digital capabilities and "immortality" by having Neo-Cs (neo-Catholics) opposed to transferring their consciousness into a new body.

Poe is the AI manager of a hotel. Katie Yu/Netflix

The show also features the novel concept of an artificial intelligence (AI) hotel called Ravenwood. The hotel and it's digitized host Poe, is one of the stand-out side characters. Poe provides comic relief and another interesting tangential exploration of how an AI program would adapt to the world once it becomes self-aware.

People will recognize the lead actor, Joel Kinnaman, from another Netflix series — "House of Cards." As he did in his role as the young Republican opponent to Frank Underwood, Kinnaman excels at being a tense, angry, about-to-explode man.

What's Not

The show kicks off with a nudity filled pilot and only gets more sexy from there. There's a hollowness and complete lack of subtlety in the portrayal of sex and technological advances in porn and prostitution.

The instances of violence against women or the trope of a rich man's lusty, adulterous wife falls flat at a time in our culture when women are demanding better from Hollywood.

There are a lot of a topless women in "Altered Carbon." Katie Yu/Netflix

Though "Altered Carbon" gives full-frontal nudity scenes to both women and men, the treatment of sex feels ham-fisted and shallow — especially when it comes to women.

The pace picks up by episode four, when "Altered Carbon” stops trying to impress with nudity and the self-flagellating hero and instead begins providing more backstory for Kovacs.

The expository noir-style narration by Kovacs gets a bit tired and never hits the emotional depths it wants you to.

You'll pick up on the invented bureaucratic lingo eventually, though watching with captions is probably best if you haven't read the book.

Will Yun Lee as Takeshi Kovacs in a different sleeve. Katie Yu/Netflix

The Bottom Line

If you're into cyberpunk or dystopian movies like "Blade Runner" and "The Matrix," then "Altered Carbon" is worth a shot. But if you're not sold within the first four episodes, it's probably time to bail.

Like showrunner Kalogridis' co-written script of "Avatar," "Altered Carbon" is an unsubtle and trope-filled examination of what could happen when humanity takes technological advances too far. But also like "Avatar," the visuals and cast make the medicine go down easier.

Grade: B-