Season 1

The first half is fantastic. This is what cyberpunk should be--that separates them from other genres of sci-fi dystopia. Resleeving (exchanging bodies) is a great plot device that can be used excellently, bringing us both moral and practical questions about how is it to live in a world where bodies are disposable, that mind reigns supreme yet is limited in its physicality (in stacks), some sort of a cyber-Cartesian thinking? The show is thought-provoking when it raises those issues, treading finely through controversial topics such as prostitution, drug abuses, and questions of life and death ("if you can prolong life by simply changing your bodies, would you still do it?"). Like the grandma resleeving in a white punk in episode 5.

The second half however is very shaky. Since the introduction of Reileen in real time, not in flashback, the show seems to drift away from those issues and take on a generic Hollywood sci-fi weekends. It leans too heavily on familial drama. Not that such issue can't be written excellently, mind you, but the problem is there was no build up towards the issue. Instead, the drama is brought upon, borrowing elements from the subplots that have been spun in prior episodes. It felt really weak, especially since the antagonist's character seems to be written to appear multi-layered, yet becoming overly convoluted. They should have sticked to the issues raised in the first-half. It's as if the writers were changed mid-way.

That said, I still expect season 2 to come. The show has lot of potential.

An odd one. Visually this a a splendid dive into cyberpunk and presents a world with fascinating sci-fi concepts. It fully commits to its premise of having people be able to transfer their consciousness between "sleeves" and brings in all the issues that might occur if such a thing were really possible.

I've not read the book this was based on, but for all its sci-fi wonder I can't help but feel that this TV show completely neglected to include a human element. The show is cold and sterile, the characters are cut off from each other and it's difficult to think of anyone I actually liked. Was this on purpose? While you could read into that as a core theme of the story, there's also supposed to be a strong aspect of love there too and while we are told about it, we never actually get to feel it.

I think there's a mixture of writing issues and poor casting. The choice of actors here is kind of peculiar. Very few familiar faces are present and there were numerous people here who I had to wonder if they had ever acted before. So many of the actors do not fit their characters and it feels like they're fighting with the words and personalities they have to perform. Joel Kinnaman is particularly stilted and doesn't begin to feel like a person until the final few episodes where he suddenly remembers he's not supposed to be a robot - and certainly bears no relation to the (same) character being portrayed by Will Yun Lee who is far warmer and more open. For all the talk of souls, this is all very soulless. People are just disgusting to each other.

The character who really derailed the show for me was Takeshi's sister, Rei who shows up late in the game and completely disrupts the mood and flow of the story, while also negatively affecting the characters around them. Honestly, I think different actors would have helped the show quite a bit.

Still, I didn't hate the show at all. I found myself getting easily wrapped up in the mystery despite how ridiculously convoluted it all becomes. The script gives very little information to viewers and wants you to just absorb all that's happening until you become acclimatised. Then you get very big (and very fast) infodumps that require subtitles to follow. Not my favourite approach. Most of the action scenes are exciting but they do become repetitive, and the gratuitous nudity was often a bit too over the top when it didn't need to be. Nothing wrong with a bit of skin here and there, but this seems to want to make sure we see as much as possible all the time. The violence is more justified in this case, and is often brutal and effective.