Apple TV’s Severance Fills Void Left by Netflix’s Cancelled Altered Carbon

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After Netflix unexpectedly canceled its excellent cyberpunk series after only two seasons, Apple TV+’s popular sci-fi show has stepped in to take its place.

Apple TV currently offers the best selection of science fiction shows, but it’s missing a key genre: cyberpunk. That’s about to change with their new series based on William Gibson’s Neuromancer. Netflix, however, has already entered the cyberpunk space, successfully adapting a popular and award-winning book.

Although it’s disappointing Netflix canceled the show before it could finish its story, a sci-fi series on Apple TV explores similar ideas and themes.

Altered Carbon Season 1 Remains One Of The Best Cyberpunk Adaptations Of All Time

Cyberpunk is a sci-fi style that’s notoriously difficult to translate to television, primarily because of its visuals. Creating believable, immersive cyberpunk worlds—filled with glowing cityscapes, massive cities, and advanced technology—requires a lot of computer-generated imagery. Despite budget constraints, Netflix’s Altered Carbon manages to capture the look and feel of cyberpunk exceptionally well.

When it comes to storytelling, Altered Carbon does an even better job, especially in season 1.

At its heart, cyberpunk explores a world of stark contrasts – advanced technology existing alongside widespread poverty and hardship. The show Altered Carbon exemplifies this with concepts like Cortisol Stacks and ‘Sleeving,’ highlighting the divide between the wealthy and the disadvantaged and vividly portraying a ‘high-tech, low life’ reality.

The wealthy elite, known as The Meths, have achieved immortality, escaping death altogether. Meanwhile, the residents of Bay City are stuck with the bodies they’re given and must endure centuries-long waits for new ones.

As a huge fan of the genre, I still feel like television is really missing a truly great, high-quality cyberpunk series. Apple TV’s upcoming Neuromancer adaptation has the potential to be it, but I was really excited about Altered Carbon on Netflix – it felt like it was building towards something really special and a long-lasting franchise, which made its cancellation so disappointing.

Netflix Cancelled Altered Carbon Too Soon, But Apple TV’s Severance Perfectly Fills The Void

As a huge fan of sci-fi, I’ve been thinking about Severance, and while it looks more like a cool, retro future than a gritty cyberpunk world, thematically it totally nails that “high-tech, low life” vibe. The way they use technology – that Severance chip – is so interesting. It reminded me a lot of the “sleeves” from Altered Carbon; both concepts really mess with what it means to be a person and how we experience life. It’s not just about cool gadgets, it’s about how tech fundamentally changes us.

The Severance chip changes how a person thinks, allowing their awareness to be divided and managed.

As a fan of Severance, it’s really struck me how the show highlights a huge imbalance of power. The people at the top, like Lumon’s executives, seem to be using the severance procedure to escape their own problems, and maybe even to profit from the suffering of others. But down below, the severed employees are just stuck in this endless, draining work cycle, all for the sake of boosting Lumon’s productivity. It’s a really unsettling idea, and it makes you think about who really benefits from these kinds of technologies.

As a huge fan of Severance, I’ve been thinking a lot about what happens when someone ‘retires’ from Lumon. It’s not just a job change, it’s like the destruction of a stack – it completely erases your ‘innie,’ that work-self, from existence. It’s a really chilling thought!

There are many parallels between the sci-fi shows on Netflix and Apple TV, making them thematically related. In some ways, Severance has stepped in to satisfy viewers who missed Altered Carbon when it ended.

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2026-02-08 05:59