All the gore and sex felt juvenile to me. When you take those away you are left with an unoriginal and thin setting that was set up just as a backdrop for the gore and sex. This is of course entirely subjective, but it is the same I have felt with [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1477624625s/830.jpg|493634].

UPDATE 5 YEARS LATER: The TV series was awesome! Either I have become more "juvenile" in these years, or it's just a great series. I don't recall the book in sufficient detail, but from reading around online, the show has made a number of significant changes that may contribute to how much better I liked it.

Tough-guy one-liners feel cheesy in a novel. But on-screen with a deadpan delivery they work fantastically. "I know people like you." "There are no people like me.", "I don't care about her. Don't take it personally though: I don't care about anyone." etc, etc.

Solid focus on the societal effects of the DHF technology. This must have been there in the novel, but I guess it was subtle enough for me to miss it. Or it could be that what felt cliche in a book feels fresh in a show because I've seen it in other books but not in other shows?

A lot of deviations in the show directly work to make Takeshi more relatable. (Ortega, Rei, Quell, Elliot, Poe I think all had lesser roles or connections to Takeshi in the novel.) While the show is plenty violent it's probably still much tamed compared to the book.