With Cyberpunk 2077 just recently emerged from development hell, the cyberpunk genre might actually get some renewed interest. As Blade Runner 2049's box office return proved, the world was not quite ready yet for cyberpunk. But that was then and Cyberpunk 2077 has since come out to bear that artistic torch once more.
Chance are, most of its players will have developed a lovely palate to consume some more cyberpunk media and yet there are only a few movies in the genre. Hence, turning one's attention to TV shows isn't a bad idea for those seeking a bit of prolonged cyberpunk escapism or for those looking for whatever could go wrong in the near future.
Sadly canceled by Netflix, Altered Carbon's two seasons are nonetheless a wild ride. The series explored the essential 'revival' of a man named Takeshi Kovacs, who only existed as a consciousness that needed other dead humans' physical bodies to practically exist. Takeshi was also a member of a rebel group who tried to take on mega-corporations and the ruling class, not unlike what transpired in Cyberpunk 2077's Night City.
The cyberpunk theme mostly serves as a stage or backdrop for an intricate crime investigation plot in the first season. The second season is more about Takeshi's journey to reunite with a long-lost love and friend, and this time, he's more free to do what he wants.
Anyone who's played through the story-heavy game Detroit: Become Human will find this one a delight. It has a similar plot where an old and prejudiced human cop gets paired with an android partner. That cop is named John Kennex and he lost a human friend due to the accidental negligence of some android cops.
So it's a poetic irony that John gets paired with one of them while his psychological wounds are still fresh. However, the android he's paired with just might sway him and change his opinion about robots, as the series explores what exactly it means to be a human being.
Incorporated's plot is simple enough. It follows the usual premise of cyberpunk worlds where companies and corporations rule everything and are more powerful than whole countries. Given what the world economy looks like today, that's not exactly too far-fetched, but the difference in Incorporated is how one man decided to bring it all down.
This was not exactly intentional, however, the protagonist, Aaron, has the goal of finding his childhood love Elena and in order to do so, he has to impersonate as a manager in the richest corporation in his world and rise up in the ranks. In doing so, he's actually tearing the company apart, brick by brick.
TekWar is an old one from 1994 and much like most cyberpunk series and films, it's a cop drama, but with the added flavor of a cyberpunk world. The series is also a direct adaptation of the novels written by Ron Goulart. Hence, it features a futuristic experimental drug named Tek.
It's a powerful hallucinogenic drug that pretty much functions like an inhalable VR headset. The whole show revolves around the drug and introduces cyberpunk gimmicks related to virtual reality, as well as the typical syndicates involved in distributing them.
Even older than TekWar, Mann & Machine is a 1992 classic TV series whose quality might put off the regular youngster these days. Still, its story is quite similar to Almost Human, in which a cop gets paired with an android who is about as experienced as a rookie police officer.
The catch is that the android cop partner is a beautiful bot played by Yancy Butler in her prime. The android cop also doesn't understand idioms, so it's more of a mentor and master relationship between a veteran officer and his lovely junior.
Now on to animated shows. In order to become well-acquainted with cyberpunk, one has to have seen one of the most successful cyberpunk anime, Ghost in the Shell. On top of a highly-influential film that provided the inspiration for The Matrix, it also has an anime series.
This would be Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and it expands on Major Motoko Kusanagi's tenure as an esteemed police special unit as she tackles the drawbacks that come with futuristic cybernetics: cyborg criminals. Among them, an enigmatic hacker named "The Laughing Man" keeps Kusanagi's hands fuller than usual.
Before Ghost in the Shell even got its first anime adaptation, 1987's Bubblegum Crisis was already making female cyborgs kick all sort of butt. It's an anime series that evokes the 1980s aesthetic all too well from the art style to the neon lights and even the hairstyles or clothing.
As for the anime itself, Bubblegum Crisis pits the Knight Sabers, a group of female mercenaries equipped with powerful exoskeletons, against a group of robots that have gone rogue. It just so happens that these robots are often the result of a corporation that's hung up on their own power and greed, making their experiments and trials go awry.
Psycho-Pass is popularly known as the anime version of Minority Report. It also explores the notion of predicting crimes and future criminal behavior among individuals as a pre-emptive system of law enforcement. But since it's a system in its infancy, it's bound to be messy.
In the middle of it all is a novice cop named Akane Tsunemori, with her idealistic views on upholding justice. She is, however, paired with a veteran officer who gradually shows her that their futuristic law enforcement system is not without its own faults and oftentimes serves unjust judgments.
For a cyberpunk anime more philosophical than Ghost in the Shell, Ergo Proxy might scratch the itch. Much like other cyberpunk media that feature robots, Ergo Proxy also toys with the notion of machine self-awareness and humanization.
It does so by making the premise a semi-post-apocalyptic world where humans made AutoRevs, or androids, to help them recover civilization, bit-by-bit. However, things become more complicated when the AutoRevs start contracting computer viruses that give them human emotions and consciousness.
Last but not least is one of the most underrated offerings from the Batman-verse, Batman Beyond. It delves into the deep and dark future of the caped crusader, as Bruce Wayne is succeeded by Terry McGinnis as the next Batman. Of course, things have changed around Gotham and it's now a cyberpunk hellhole, seething with crime and excess.
Batman's enemies are more difficult for that matter since he's not just up against the usual lunatics in costume but also against corrupt authorities and the apathetic populace. This one is certainly one of the most unique takes on the dark knight and shouldn't be missed, and the cyberpunk setting is just the icing on the cake.
