I pride myself on welcoming change, and when it comes to media, that the juggernaut classics of each respective genre aren’t necessarily perfect or even immortal. There will come time where those classics can and will be overthrown by newer media as time moves on and we learn more about what does and doesn’t work. Needless to say, I think it’s okay when something is adapted in a different form of media and it’s okay for the newer adaptation to be good without necessarily having to fully live up to the original. When I saw the marketing for Netflix’ live action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, I was excited to see how they would bring the classic to life in a new and unique way. It would also give me an opportunity to ease people unfamiliar with anime into Cowboy Bebop through it. Unfortunately, those hopes seem to have been dash.
General Quality & Changes
The marketing behind this show was very deceptive, banking on a sense of authenticity to the source material. We saw stills of the characters in promotional shots, and to their credit, much of it looked great. Then we got the new Tank intro, and it did some pretty cool stuff while staying true to the original. Then we received a promotional teaser that had some pretty clever choreography and effects, even if Faye’s lines were a bit iffy. It seemed promising enough. When the show eventually came out, we learned that it was only authentic on a very superficial level. I’m not even necessarily talking about the changes to the characters, but the core philosophy of what makes a show like the original Cowboy Bebop. While I tend not to hold anything in media sacred and very much believe that things can be approved upon, even on its own, the Netflix adaptation just does not hold up on its own even when not compared to the original.
Normally, I would complete something before I review it, but I have no will to watch more of this show without any friends past the first three episodes. Whether this counts as a review or not is entirely up to you.
I think to start off, I should address the elephant in the room: the changes from the original. I also want to highlight why those changes are still obtuse even when divorced from comparing it to the source. To start off, the original show was 24 episodes that were 22 minutes long each. It adopted an “adventure of the week” format that helped keep each adventure concise and short, moving on to the next big catch next week. It doesn’t linger too much on anything, and for the most part, most of the stories were pretty small in their scale as well.
With the Netflix adaptation, you have 10 episodes that are on average 52 minutes long. If we convert the original and the live action versions into raw minutes, that’s approximately 520 minutes for both. This is just for the first season of the show, that honestly only feels like it covers around a third of the source material within that time frame. That’s a ton of unnecessary stretching, and with each episode only covering one story at a time, it makes it worse. There’s so much unnecessary dialogue thrown in, unnecessary additional plot changes that don’t work and only serve to pad for more time, including the main story being far more central and in-your-face. In my opinion, even in the original, it was much less interesting than the day-to-day adventures these characters would have and the growth they went through as individuals.
Why is it so important to learn about the specifics of the drug ring the Syndicate runs? Why are we spending time on the factories Vicious is in charge of overseeing? The specific drug in question is only relevant in one episode in the entire show, and should have been only relevant once here as well, but it’s ballooned into a much greater deal than it needs to be. If this were Breaking Bad where drugs were actually much more central to the plot, fine; but Breaking Bad this is not, because this is a story about space adventures, how various cultures colonized space and how said cultures have adapted on their new havens.
I definitely would have rather had more of that time be spent on the bounty of the week in each episode, seeing more of those characters and learning about them as people. We do get that with the first episode, but beyond that, the show just doesn’t seem all that interested in the rich cast of dubious neerdowells it sports. It’s so strange how this show is so slow with its pacing and how I would have fell asleep if not for my friends talking about other things to keep me awake as I watched with the subtitles on. Furthermore, what’s up with all the excessive nudity in this show? I guess it must be the new trend for live-action shows, which I have very limited experience with, but it’s quite perplexing seeing so much of it in a show where it was hardly ever present in originally.
Through all the stretching, you’re also introduced to a wealth of new characters, all of whom simply serve to assist the hero as well as assist the writers in padding the show even further. They’re generally not that offensive, except when there’s a stray line here and there that just extends a hand out of the TV, grabs you by the throat and shakes you hard. These lines are abysmal in how awful they are, and while they aren’t all that common, there has at least been one of these lines in the show and it completely takes me out of the show while also forcing me to wince in embarrassment.
One episode I was highly looking forward to was the one involving Abdul Hakim. Having an anime represent an Egyptian character is such a huge deal to me, and one with ancestry for regions in the country that are explored far less, those being anywhere outside of Cairo and Alexandria, but more specifically Luxor, Aswan, and other governorates on or close to the Egyptian-Sudannese borders. Abdul Hakim is technically a villain, but hey, depending on the context, even villains can make for good representation, and for a show like this to pull this off at a time when authentic representation was not a priority, I’ll take it.
I’m not going to sugarcoat it, but the way this adaptation handled Abdul Hakim pissed me off. The entire time, he was using a device to disguise himself as a white guy, and we only get 3 minutes in a 52-minute episode where we see him as he really is. He doesn’t even speak when his disguise is down; only when he’s disguised as a white guy does he talk. His story got expanded from what I remember to just being a very dangerous badass crook dog-napping for profit, to one attempting to off the dogs of rich people as revenge for leaving his family to die when, I don’t know what happened, that lead to them not having escape pods. I’m usually all for intriguing “eat-the-rich” politics in fiction, but this seems so unnecessarily complex when honestly even the original story could have been used to drive that point home. A black person from a historically-oppressed country who’s down on his luck, trying to make a living off of illegal dog trafficking to survive in a hyper-capitalist authoritarian future space dystopia? It works perfectly. Even beyond that, the way Abdul Hakim dies is used as a joke. All it serves is to further the story’s distaste for rich people and authority. There’s no grace in his death, no meaningful end or even just desserts to it.
Instead, the show is more focused on a side plot about a stupid doll and a strip club, which it doesn’t take all that time to properly build-up or make it seem more interesting. There’s even a bit of a not-well-known microaggression when the German BDSM mistress Abdul Hakim visits makes the claim that he’s a cheap-ass. Egyptians already are discriminated against by other nationalities in the MENA region, and one of the cited reasons is due to greed people of that nationality exhibit. Couple that with a character using an Islamic name being very much into being whipped is, well, considering the Islamic history around it and even its relevance in the current modern day, not great. There is room I feel to tackle Muslim characters being associated with whips with more nuance, but currently, we really don’t have enough of those in fiction, or even enough Muslim writers in meaningful places to have a say in the matter, to draw the lines for what is or isn’t okay. In the end, while I felt somewhat seen by the anime’s version of Abdul Hakim, the live action’s version comes off as slightly discriminatory but still highly offensive and shallow. Both actors who played him did excellent, and it’s really sad to see their efforts squandered on such a terrible script regarding their character.
Sure enough, a common thing this show does is it likes to squander its villain of the episode. My memory of the original show is fairly vague and spotty, and I didn’t want to rewatch it because the point I wanted to make is how bad this adaptation is on its own without necessarily comparing it. That said, with so much more time being put into these episodes, you would think they would take advantage of it to better flesh out the rogue gallery, but it doesn’t happen. Episode 1 is the exception that does expans on Enrico and his partner a fair bit, but it very much is the rule for episodes 2 and 3. There was no specific method to each villain’s madness most of the time in the original from what I remember, but when we’ve got nearly an hour of runtime, there has to be something to fill in that time, and what fills in is just padding instead. There’s no substance to them that makes them more intriguing; even the way they’re killed is so off-putting, by being tossed away for a gag without even a satisfying “reap what you sow” end to it.
One of the changes that I’m not really that hung on is Gren. Many of my peers have pointed it out as one of the worst examples of the changes made by this show. To tell you the truth, I can see why, but I am more positive about things like this. That said, even with my positivity, my feelings about Neo Glen are fairly mixed, due to the fact that I feel I need to watch more episodes of this show (which I have no plans of doing so) in order to get a better feel with what they’re attempting to pull off with this character.
Originally, Gren identified as a man, albeit with certain traits that broke traditional gender norms that I won’t really spoil for anyone who has yet to see the original Cowboy Bebop. In the Netflix show, Gren is straight-up non-binary and is referred to with they/them pronouns. While I do appreciate them striving for better character diversity, I do wonder how much of Gren’s story remains the same, and if it would be done justice in the live-action adaptation given how wild the change here is. Bear in mind that I do live in a third-world country that has almost no interaction with other gender non-conforming individuals, and while I do think Gren looks good here, I am told that this is an inaccurate representation of a non-binary person that is essentially the stereotypical design various bigots use to complain about both trans and non-binary people. I cannot verify how accurate that statement is given my own inexperience, and so I think it would be best that I stay neutral over Gren.
With that said, I do think there is some good here in regards to this show, and it’s not all terrible. For starters, in the same way the original took advantage of anime as a medium, so too does Netflix’ adaptation. There are several wide lens shots that do look sort of good, with great camera cutting and fight choreography between the characters. Yoko Kanno’s soundtrack from the original has been retained here, so you could make an argument that the music is good. There are even newer tracks composed by her included in this version of Cowboy Bebop. The sets are filthy and dirty in their retrofuturism, which is incredible to see, though every now and then you’ll see something off like an Android phone slotted into what should be a place for a mini monitor of sorts.
Main Cast – What Stayed And What Changed
We haven’t yet covered the most important of changes in the show, those being the ones associated with our main cast: Spike, Jet, Faye and Vicious. Surprisingly, not all of these changes are actually bad, with some even being welcome. Starting off with Spike, he’s still his aloof self, although he does tend to eat dirt slightly more often here when compared to the original, which is fine in my opinion. He’s still quippy and knows how to throw a punch.
For the most part, Jon Cho played his role as Spike really well. Even his chemistry with Jet is super interesting. It’s great watching them shout at each other, only to make up right after and laugh it off, which gives the impression of how close they are. They even do this stereotype between partners which I really enjoy, where the partners are so close that they’re able to understand what they’re each thinking about doing without having to say it, which gives them quite the edge over some baddies they run up against. Both seem to show a genuine concern for one another, and will even risk their own lives and even money to save one another from peril.
By far, Spike seems to be the one element they nailed incredibly well. There may be some differences compared to the original anime’s version of the character, but ultimately I am going off by what I vaguely remember from the show, in addition to my point being more focused on judging the show on its own rather than waiving it off for not being 100% faithful to the original. Needless to say, Spike here made all the slow and boring parts of the show just slightly more palatable.
Moving on, we have Jet, who’s played by Mustafa Shakir. I’m personally happy with the way he looks in the Netflix adaptation over the original’s, as he embodies the spirit of Jet perfectly. As I explained before, his chemistry with Spike is also spot-on, and makes a lot of the slower parts of the show a bit more tolerable.
One personal gripe I have with Jet is that, well, they gave him a family. One of the bits I remember about Jet is that he didn’t have a family, but when the crew had everyone on-board from Spike and Faye, to Edward and Ein, he took them in and treated them as his own family. He was the physiological dad of the group, and it’s part of what made Jet so compelling, not to mention you can see hints of his gentleness with the way he’s into botany. When you give Jet a family completely divorced from the adventures he goes on, and likely shows no growth, or said growth happens off-screen, you get a much less impactful Jet as a result.
So no; I take back what I said about the Netflix Jet being better. It’s a shame, because Mustafa absolutely nailed this role. It’s unfortunate that he was given this script to work with and how it made his character less interesting as a result. I suppose this is the sacrifice we had to make in order to receive a much more talkative and snappy Jet.
By far the weakest element among the cast in the show has to be Faye. Not only is she such a strong contrast from the original, but this character simply doesn’t work. What made Faye so interesting is despite her status as a femme fatale thief, she still had depth in her self-searching quest as she attempts to reclaim her past.
What you get here is your average quirky snarky lead woman character with blue hair and pronouns. I kid, but no for reals, this new Faye just sucks. Everyone in this show is far more quirky than they were in the original, so when you have a character whose entire characteristic is being that, well, she doesn’t really stand out. Faye was cool for hardly ever getting her just desserts and being able to maintain a cool air around her, all of which is absent here. On top of all this, much of Faye’s lines are just terrible.
Her new design looks good though and I do appreciate her yellow jacket being underneath her brand new jacket as a homage to her original design. Needless to say, I genuinely dislike the new Faye.
Furthermore, what is up with Hollywood completely swerving away from femme fatales? If it’s out of fear of upsetting people for presenting a misogynistic character, well, that’s not the case. You can have femme fatales who absolutely rule and people still love for years, as is the case with DC’s Catwoman, Marvel’s Black Cat, SEGA’s Rouge the Bat, and even the original Cowboy Bebop’s Faye Valentine. It’s what you do with the character’s archtype that counts, rather than the archtype ever being inherently misogynistic, which is not the case here.
Moving on to our final character is Vicious. This change is so bad it’s hilarious. It’s as if we went from the mainline Vergil from Devil May Cry, to DmC Vergil. You have a character who was once a complete edgy badass, to a hard-ass Uchiha try-hard that fumbles every step of the way. The show WANTS to show you just how cool he is, but when he winces and whines like a baby, and gets furious at every little thing, it’s impossible to.
I personally enjoyed this new version of Vicious, while my friends had nothing but disdain for him. Though my enjoyment was more out of ironic enjoyment rather than him being a genuinely good villain. I didn’t care all that much for the original Vicious, so this new one just gives me something to laugh at every now and then. He also seems to be far more ever-present in the show compared to how it was like originally, which does slow things down quite a lot, especially when a lot of it goes into the least interesting parts of the story, such as how he runs his Red Eye drug factory.
Also, just look at him. That wig. The lack of a companion crow. He’s the perfect edgy dork.
Conclusion
I admit I’m not the best when it comes to reviewing this show, seeing as I don’t engage with live action TV shows all that often. Needless to say, I think Netflix’ Cowboy Bebop is fairly terrible. It tried to bank off of nostalgia on a superficial level, attempting to hide the ugly beast underneath. Why or how it decided on this is beyond me. I consider Cowboy Bebop one of the easiest and most feasible anime to adapt, and yet here we have a botched attempt.
After both Death Note and this, I think it’s safe to say that anything Netflix touches and tries to “Americanize” is most likely not going to end well. I would stay away from both of those, as well as from the upcoming One Piece live action adaptation. Netflix will have to work hard to seriously impress everyone if they ever want any eyeballs on their project.
There are better things you could be watching on Netflix. Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure – Stone Ocean has been out for nearly a week. Aggretsuko and Beastars are even great selections for those furries out there (even if you aren’t a furry, these are still wonderful shows). Anything but this. Your time on this earth is precious, and you should spend it on something fun instead.
Article written by Kimo Force. Screenshots taken by myself over Netflix. Cowboy Bebop 2021 is property of Netflix and Sunrise Productions. All screenshots used here are under fair use.
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