Forum - View topicREVIEW: Cowboy Bebop Live-Action
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Spoofer
 Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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The show was awful on its own merits, in practically every regard (direction, cinematography, composition, acting, even surprisingly in the music, and certainly most of all in the writing). You don't need to compare it to the original to acknowledge the extremity of these failings, though as others have noted that since the show itself invites the constant comparisons, it certainly doesn't help. Now, as a fan of Western science-fiction, I'm certainly more than primed to forgive weaknesses in one or more of these areas of film artistry, but LA Bebop fails fully across the board, and fails so spectacularly that it's hard to believe anyone could give it more than a just-barely-passable grade at best. The only way I can personally envision anyone appreciating this is in a so-bad-it's-good sort of way, or if they never developed either the recognition or the desire for anything to adhere to the standards of filmic language or worthwhile writing.
As for the Vicious/Julia stuff, it was certainly the weakest and most-deservedly reviled aspect of the show, and was somehow even more trite, cliched, and poorly-written than most every other example within which was already deep in that territory. I've seen it referred to as a dimestore Walter White/Skyler relationship, but it sure seemed like they were going for more of a Daenerys twist at the end with her breaking the shackles of abuse and victimization and instead becoming a female power icon (seemingly not learning anything from the backlash arising from Daenerys' final TV twist either). But this has been done so many times in other media before, the writing to back it up was done so poorly in this incarnation, and it's hard to take the switch seriously when juxtaposed against the LA Bebop equivalent of whiny manbaby Viserys, as opposed to rising up against the entirety of Westeros/Essos or the likes of Walter White. Last edited by Spoofer on Mon Nov 29, 2021 1:09 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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People who complain that the original Bebop wasn't properly fleshed out, or the likes of Julia and Vicious were wasted, do not seem to understand Bebop, and the fact that part of the reason why it endures is precisely because its narrative remains so unique and artistically abstract / intertextual / symbolic. It's a property whose substance existed almost entirely between the lines/panels, which isn't to say it was lazy or didn't know what it was doing and just accidentally stumbled upon such a creation or that the fans are choosing to put in the work to make up for it, but that it deliberately constructed itself to masterfully attain this achievement. The writers thinking that they could correct or improve (or simply fill time) by expanding all the unspoken genius of the original with hours and hours of this cliched middle school-level writing was... both a bizarre choice, and the absolute worst one they could've made for this property.
Still, in spite of all that, could this show have been any good if they focused on reinventing the characters to be traditional Whedon/Marvel stand-ins with semi-witty banter and tried but true manipulative emotional cues? Sure. The Jaws one-upsmanship/shower-bath-shower bonding sess with Spike and Faye wasn't entirely bad, the ep with Faye's mother was the closest the show got to inspired/amusing writing, and the cast ended up sort of gelling even though they were nothing like the original Bebop crew nor were their relationships the same. But it sort of worked? Unfortunately, they were too focused on burning down the entire show down around it for that one decent aspect it actually had going for it to make it out unscathed and to remain standing on its own merits. And even that they found ways to destroy with the old trite chestnut about the season-long secret one character's carrying around getting exposed in the finale, breaking up the gang only for the next season's starter to inevitably bring them all back together. This series in a nutshell: one godawful writing cliche after another, back to back to back, competing to do each worse than any other show out there. With first-draft Whedon-reject dialogue as the continual cherry on top. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18186 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I don't see this as undermining, but rather taking a different tack on the character. "What if Vicious was an actual character, instead of just a ghost?" seemed to me to be the question the series was aiming for, not a replication of what the anime did.
That the two aspects didn't cohere well seemed to me to be deliberate. LA Vicious is a man whose abilities are beyond what his maturity and judgment can handle, and that makes him especially dangerous.
IOW, "if you don't have the same tastes as me, then you have no taste." Riiiight.
And people who act like this is the Worst Garbage Evah seem to have entirely misunderstood that this isn't a case of the LA series trying and failing to be the original. It's trying for a different approach. If you don't like that approach, that's fine; to each his own. But just say so (and some have in this thread) rather than trying to insist that the series is incontrovertibly awful and anyone who doesn't get that is clueless. |
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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The primary reasons why this show fails have nothing to do with the original work, other than it serving as a pretty telling and certainly handy example of what a difference actual talent makes from behind the lens/page.
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enurtsol
 Posts: 14761 |
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Still holding up all week in the worldwide Netflix Top 10 TV shows:
What's also interesting is that its Popularity propped up interest for the original anime amongst all streaming platforms over the month of November, even above some notable shows: 
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Blanchimont
 Posts: 3447 Location: Finland |
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Well, seems it lost its grip, it got cancelled... |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4371 Location: New York |
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I knew after what happened with Jupiter's Legacy that a strong initial viewership wouldn't make up for poor word of mouth and little rewatch value. Bebop got hit with both. I wanted to like it, but mistake after mistake just made me lose any hope in it. Good luck to everyone working on One Piece, because they're going to need it. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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I figured this would happen. The show's visual effects looked very expensive (unlike the wigs) and the reviews were mostly bad, so the only way I could see it getting renewed was if it got huge numbers and repercussion. Instead, most of the chatter I saw online was anime fans tearing it to shreds, and it didn't seem to attract much interest from people who weren't familiar with the source material.
I wanted to like it because I thought they did a good job casting the main trio, the production design looked way more faithful to the anime than it had to be (to the point of being reverential), and they even got Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts to do the score. However, I was very disappointed by the writing, which made some very ill-conceived changes to the characters, especially Vicious and Julia, whose subplot tried to be The Godfather meets Macbeth, but felt more like a bad prime time soap. To be honest, I'd have watched a second season out of sheer curiosity, but it would have probably been just the movie's storyline stretched over ten episodes, with some stories from the original show sprinkled in. |
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animedude1982
Posts: 16 |
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Honestly, this comes to no surprise to me. But the good thing is atleast Netflix knows when they've made a mistake. i'm sure they're gonna be breathing down the neck of the team behind the Gundam adaptation to make sure they don't screw it up
They let the showrunners/directors have the creative freedom they wanted to make the show they wanted to make and this is the result, A 'bad' adaptation. I think this entire situation it's a cautionary tale to be honest. Don't take a 'beloved' anime property and DEVIATE from the source material and change character's so much that it pisses off the fans. it's really that simple. When I read the article on Japan Times. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2021/11/27/tv/cowboy-bebop-squid-game/ I said "uh oh..even the Japanese don't like it" The show runners tried to make the series appeal to the Netflix Subscriber base and certain types of critics by PANDERING hard to them. And Surprise! Even those groups of people they tried to PANDER to to didn't gravitate toward it. They didn't make a show for the fans of the anime which was the first mistake. The anime is basically a fun edgy PG-13 action-comedy in space that teens & kids could watch with their parents. Netflix decided to go HARD R and make this an ADULT show which was their second mistake The Action-Buddy banter between Mustafa Shakir & Jon Cho was just NOT strong. they're friendship/chemistry needed to be the foundation of the show like in the anime and unfortunately many of the jokes and one-liners between Shakir and Cho just fall flat. Spike is basically an asshole and Jet is the frustrated complainer. Faye was annoying and too b***hy and not the lovable sexy con woman from the anime. And no Edward till the last scene??? I mean seriously...WTF. The show was just not good at balancing the comedy with the action. All the 'woke' stuff within the series and the HARD pandering in the show it was just too much. That's not what the anime was. The thing i kept laughing at was the hench 'women' in the show. I mean seriously. this series was TOO woke. Attractive women with nice makeup don't join space pirate gangs and point AK-47s at men that are bigger than them and then get mad when the man they're fighting accidently touches her boob by mistake during the fight. I don't blame the actors. it's NOT their fault. they did their job. Shakir, Cho and Pineda are talented. I blame the show runners/writers/directors. They had alot passion but they messed up. Its embrassing too for the creative team. the headlines "Netflix cancels Cowboy Bebop 3 weeks after the primere" Cowboy Bebop could've been a 2 hr movie with the same cast and directed by a true auteur like a James Gunn or Quentin Tarantino type. And just stay true to the anime. This adaptation was NOT a strong action-comedy like the anime. Netflix did the right thing. Don't WASTE more money...they bit off more than they could chew or PAY for with this and they let the show runners run wild..and this was the result. A mixed bag. the show wasn't 100% bad. Cho was great in the role in terms of his presence/look, Shakir also was great too. Pineda looked the part but the creative team changed her TOO MUCH. So the guy directing Gundam adaptation now has PRESSURE on him I bet. I'll bet both the Sunrise and Netflix execs are breathing down his neck reviewing every storyboard, Script, mecha design. Cause if Netflix manages to also piss off the Gudnam fans too..that's not gonna look good. |
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