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Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is a sci-fi tv series based on the anime of the same name, which was released in 1998. This series was released in 2021 and is directed by Alex Garcia Lopez and Michael Katleman. The first season consists of 10 episodes which range from 37 to 60 minutes in length. The show follows a dysfunctional crew of bounty hunters aboard the Bebop, their spaceship. Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, and Faye Valentine travel the galaxy together struggling to make ends meet and survive their treacherous day to day lives. All the while former hitman Spike struggles to move on from his past, as it threatens to catch up to him. Last week I reviewed Cowboy Bebop the anime, which is now one of my all time favorite shows. I watched the anime for the first time just a few weeks before Netflix’s live action remake/adaptation was scheduled for release. While I haven’t had much personal experience with western live action remakes thus far, I knew the stigma behind them. Typically, live action remakes of anime are very poorly received, both commercially and critically. Despite this, and my love of the original, I had hope for this new series as well as some genuine excitement. The trailer looked promising, as did some of the other first looks that were released. Yoko Kanno was returning to score the series and it looked like this could be a fun remake, or reimagining of the original series. Unfortunately, it had some very big shoes to fill considering the anime is widely regarded as one of the best, if not the best anime of all time. For this review I’ll be trying to look at this series on it’s own, as well as how it performs as an adaptation of its source material.
On it’s own I think Netflix’s Cowboy bebop is fine. For someone who has never seen the anime I think this series will be a perfectly passable sci-fi action comedy. Looking at it in this way the show has some decent highs with some very low lows. The plot is decently engaging, while somewhat predictable however, I think it works more often than not. It even has some pretty good emotional moments towards the end of the season. I do, however, think the story is hurt in the finale by a twist that comes out of nowhere and completely goes against the development of a certain character. The plot and story of each episode is heavily aided by the show’s lead performances. Daniella Pineda, John Cho, and Mustafa Shakir all do a great job playing as Faye, Spike, and Jet respectively. They give energetic and charismatic performances, and form good chemistry within this bounty hunting trio. These fun performances carry the entire show and help save it from a lot of it’s faults. Elena Satine, Tamara Tunie, and Mason Alexander Park also do good jobs in their roles. Unfortunately, standing out from this is Alex Hassell who gives a terrible performance as the show’s main villain, Vicious. His goofy facial expressions and cartoonish overacting ruin any amount of intimidation the show tries to have the character present. Overall this makes the series’ main antagonist feel completely harmless and destroys much of the tension and investment in his conflict with Spike.
A positive for the show is it’s great set and costume design. This sci-fi noir world is perfectly crafted in a largely practical way. With the digital effects being pretty good as well. There is a lot of detail in every aspect of this galaxy that helps to bring this world to life. The costumes are also well designed and add a lot of flair and style to the show. Sticking with the positives Yoko Kanno’s score helps breathe life into the series with it’s incredible jazz sound. The quality of the action differs with some sequences being very bad with others being pretty good. Aside from a few specific setpieces I found the action to be pretty decent overall. As far as the comedy goes a decent bit of the show’s humor does land with some good physical comedy, and a funny line here and there. With a lot of this is again, heavily aided by the mostly good performances from the main trio. While the series does have its fair share of positives it is also plagued by some troublesome flaws. Despite the vibrant and detailed sets the show is ultimately very bland in appearance, with much of the color being muted and dulled to fit a specific look. The show switches between a few colored filters which end up adding a very stale look to the show most of the time. The cinematography also leaves much to be desired. The show uses an absurd amount of Dutch angles, to the point where it’s actually distracting. Aside from that there is very little creativity or much to speak of at all. The writing is also abysmal at times. There are several weird moments in the script that leave you scratching your head, and the dialogue can be laughably bad. With it only being occasionally salvaged by the performances. The best moments of dialogue in the show are the ones that are ripped directly from the anime, which makes a lot of the new material feel very lacking.
All in all, in a vacuum, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is a perfectly fine show. It has its ups and its downs, and in the end they balance each other out. It’s as an adaptation of the anime where the show really struggles. I think for this adaptation to work it should’ve taken the setting of the anime and the characters and placed them in an entirely new story. One that follows our trio getting caught up in some bounty hunting or syndicate related story that is completely original. I think the show should’ve either done that, or just fully committed to it being a remake of the anime. Mostly sticking to the same plot points, in the same vein as a Disney live action remake. Unfortunately, Netflix’s Bebop tries to have its cake and eat it too. The show tries to redo the iconic moments from the anime, and use the same stories and plot points, while also changing them up and taking it in a slightly new direction. I think in the end this doesn’t work, and the show just ends up not knowing what exactly it wants to be. This also leaves almost everyone watching unsatisfied. As the fans who wanted an exact recreation are disappointed in the changes, and fans who wanted a new story are left wanting more. You have a season where one episode is almost a carbon copy of an episode from the anime, while another is almost entirely new. It ends up producing moments and characters that are ultimately less satisfying, less engaging, inferior versions of ones we have seen before.
I think for the most part the actors do a good job portraying their anime counterparts. John Cho for instance does a great job with the laid back and carefree aspects of Spike. Overall he nails
his personality, body language, and cadence. But while the performance for Spike is great, the writing behind this version of the character is lacking to me. For one, his fighting ability fluctuates throughout the show and is very inconsistent. In one episode he can’t beat a single criminal in hand to hand combat, but in another he is able to take out an entire building of highly trained individuals without any serious injuries. Action scenes with Spike are also a far cry from the ones in the original series. In the anime Spike flows like water, his fighting style is smooth, cool, and visually satisfying. In the Netflix show it looks slow and clunky. Another big issue with the writing of this character is how he is nearly always being saved by someone. Spike is the protagonist of the series, and in both big and small moments he is often saved by another character. This continues all the way into the finale which makes this character less dynamic as a result. When you’re rooting for the hero to triumph and he’s constantly being bailed out it takes away some of the investment. Especially when you can just look at the scene they’re copying from the anime and see how that Spike handled things in a much more entertaining and satisfying way. On the other hand, Mustafa Shakir and the writers nail Jet Black in every possible way. Mustafa Shakir’s performance is almost identical to Beau Billingslea’s, and overall he feels like the exact same character in every possible way. While Daniella Pineda is doing a good job, her take on Faye is very different from Faye in the anime. This Faye is much more energetic and quirky then the more reserved femme fatale character of Faye in the anime. Despite this difference I honestly wasn’t too bothered by the change.
The other notable changes from the anime involve Vicious and Julia. In the anime the two are hardly ever in the show, which keeps an air of mystery around them both. In this adaptation they’re present in half of the show and fleshed out much more. While developing them isn’t an inherently bad idea, the show doesn’t pull it off at all. In the anime Vicious is intimidating, fearsome, and extremely threatening. He’s cunning and a capable adversary. That and his lack of screentime made him very memorable and a perfect villain for the show. This version of Vicious loses all mystery and adds nothing in return. He’s presented as stupid, bumbling, whiny, and almsot completely incompetent. He is shown to be a somewhat capable fighter, but it doesn’t save his character. As the show’s main antagonist he is completely laughable, and it isn’t helped at all that the performance behind this character is just as terrible. Julia is also a far less compelling character overall. In the original series she is shown to be strong, capable, and independent. This version of Julia flips between being a damsel in distress and a somewhat independent character. She also doesn’t help Vicious's characterization at all by constantly showing him up. The main issue with all of these character changes isn’t that they are changed, but that the changes are bad. The characters in the anime had tons of depth and substance behind very cool and entertaining exteriors. The characters in the Netflix show have had almost all depth and subtly gutted and are not nearly as cool, entertaining, or likeable.
As I stated earlier the series tries to maintain the main overall plot of the original while also doing it’s own thing, and it just doesn’t work. The new material the show creates is decent at best, and straight up bad at the worst. And whenever the show tries to recreate a story from the original it just ends up being a dollar store copy of the original show’s version. Even the score which uses many classic tracks from the original series feels lifeless at times. It seems like iconic tracks are inserted in places where they don't belong. It ends up feeling hollow like the show itself. The show’s runtime does it no favors either. Part of the reason the episodic nature of the anime worked so well is because of its fast pacing and short runtimes. Meanwhile this show tries to tell some of the exact same stories, but makes them twice as long. Which results in them being bloated and much messier with horrible pacing. The best episodes in the show are the ones that do their own thing, and do more to separate themselves from the source material. At times the show feels like a jumble of ideas when the new ideas and plot threads mix together with the plot from the anime. It makes the story feel very disjointed. When the show recreates scenes and episodes from the original it falls short because these scenes can never live up to the originals. Especially when the work hasn’t been put in to make these scenes work and feel earned. The Netflix show tries to do its own thing, up until it's time for an iconic moment, then it copies the anime, and it feels unearned and hollow. There are glimpses here and there of an interesting and even a good adaptation, but they're only that, glimpses. The show isn’t confident enough to fully separate itself from the plot of the anime. If it fully committed to its new ideas and new story then I think this would be far better.
Ultimately Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop fails as an adaptation of the original series, and doesn’t do much to stand out for newcomers. The new material introduced is never given the proper chance to stand out on it’s own. And what remains from the original series is a world, story, and cast of characters lacking almost everything that made them so beloved and iconic. Almost all of the deeper themes, nuance, and subtly have been removed. What’s left is a show that struggles to be fun due to poor writing, lackluster visuals, middling comedy, and standard action. The bright spot in all of this is the lead performances which add a certain charm to the show. Despite all of this I don’t think this is the worst show ever made, and I didn’t hate all of it. I actually had fun here and there, but overall the show was mostly dull with both fun and frustrating moments. I really was looking forward to this show, and was disappointed to dislike it as much as I do. As someone who loves the anime, this show is quite frustrating at times. But it isn’t the end of the world, and the anime will always be there. While it hasn’t been officially renewed for a season 2, it looks like that is practically a certainty. Hopefully season 2 will see an improvement of the show, because it does have some potential. But as it stands we’re left with a disappointing adaptation and an average show overall.
Objective Score: 4.5/10
Personal Score: 3.5/10
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