This show shows quite perfectly, that these 4 ingredients aren´t a guaranty for a great show.
I´m at episode 8 now and don´t feel attached to any of the characters. The concept of people in different "sleeves" is quite fascinating but not well explored - instead we get a murder mystery and a cliche filled "rebellion".
It is not a bad show either and I hope they´ll improve their storytelling in season 2.
I question how "big" the budget was to begin with. The exterior (city) locations seemed very small and sound-stage cramped and it seemed like every street scene was shot on the same street from a slightly different angle to try to disguise this fact. A lot of repetitive indoor locations -- Ortega's apartment, the police station, the hotel lobby or Kovacs suite, or the weird, narrow room in Bancroft's house.
IMHO, they did a terrible job of world building from a location and visuals perspective.
The nudity was great, though. I don't know if they used FX and/or a body double for Martha Higareda -- I was surprised someone with a fairly busy career was willing to do that much full nudity, and equally impressed with Kirstin Lehman's willingness to do a lot of nudity at age 45.
A couple of dicks and I'm surprised they showed the vagina (though had pubes). They usually rarely do that (more so than the penis). Liking the diverse characters, especially the Asian representation which is severely lacking in many shows. You got a Hispanic and muslim cop. Japanese futuristic type world or so, black characters and the whites being more or less the protagonist (totally fine). None of it felt forced either or putting on some agenda thing.
shareYeah, feels like 2 or 3 GREAT story lines were crammed into one season. That's why it suffers.
Also, too much exposition, obviously :D