The problem they had was that the actors did so much green screen they didn't have much of a frame of reference, and it showed.
RD has always been a bit corny at times, but the writing certainly was weeker than in the past.
None the less I enjoyed it.
It is all too easy to remember classics of old too fondly, and nothing can compete against my memory of the sausage taking up 75% of the worlds surface sketch when Holly did an April fools windup on Lister well before April on account of it being too good to wait until April with... One of only two moments i've literally been on the floor with laughter in TV history (the other being the batman and robbin sketch on Only Fools and Horses).
This is the thing though, it's competing against a memory, against an IDEAL. It would be unfair to judge the new mini-series against an idealised version of Red Dwarf from old.
Having said that, yes it would be nice to see RD back at the Beeb with a proper budget with a lot less green screen and some good writers.