Cowboy Bebop (2021)
This live adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" is four episodes in and is still finding its footing. We get a little closer to them kind of getting in a groove here as they introduce and reintroduce key characters. Let's get to it.
"Session Three: Dog Star Swing"
Spike Spiegel: "Hey, slow your roll, big guy. No reason to ditch out of Tharsis so fast. I'm sure we could find it here on the black market."
Jet Black: "Sure, and I already found a hookup. Chad. Says he knows a guy who knows a guy. He also said it's going to cost me more woos than retail. Barely 45 Gs in the kitty. It means we'll be choosing between food and fuel."
Spike Spiegel: "You could sell your arm."
Jet Black: "I could put my fist up your ass."
Spike Spiegel: "True. And it would feel really good, but would it solve anything?"
Jet Black is desperate to find a Walking Sally doll for his daughter Kimmie's birthday. He hopes that this gift will help make up for him being mostly absent from her life for the past seven years. Spike convinces Jet to go after a bounty named Hakim to try to make the money to buy the doll off the black market which leads them to a lot of kidnapped dogs. Spike's wanting to stay on Tharsis isn't entirely altruistic as he also wants to send a message and deliver an ultimatum to Vicious.
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| Ein! |
I never thought that an episode of "Cowboy Bebop" would focus on the hunt for this universe's version of a Tickle Me Elmo. I did think the commercial for Walking Sally, a sort of warped Cabbage Patch Kid was funny, but that is kind of where my investment in this storyline ends. I appreciate the show trying to give Jet a past and some character development and an estranged wife who is shacking up with his former partner and a fractured relationship with his daughter is an easy way to do that, but it feels pretty cheap and there doesn't seem to be a lot of depth to it. The whole plot of Jet buying the doll and then it immediately getting basically destroyed is extremely predictable. And it's not necessarily bad because it's so predictable but because the show doesn't do anything to make it unique. I feel like this could have been played satirically but instead it just feels like a hackneyed sitcom plot that I probably saw multiple times across several TGIF comedies throughout the early '90's. It doesn't help that there doesn't feel like there's any repercussions for Jet when it comes to Kimmie. She doesn't get the doll and is fine when she thinks she's getting Ein, but then Ein is taken from her but she's fine with that because she assumes it will be Jet's dog. Alls well that ends well?
It seems like the writers of this episode, Christopher Yost and Sean Cummings, don't really have a solid grasp on what makes "Cowboy Bebop" what it is. One of those things is the bounties that the team goes after. They are usually quirky and weird and their backstories and interactions with our favorite cowboys is part of the charm of the show. This episode completely misses that. Hakim doesn't even get name checked until the episode is half over. And did anyone think it was weird that we got the title card like 22 minutes in. Was that entire first half the cold open? By making Hakim kind of one note and focusing on the gag with the face changer, the episode removes a lot of what made the show charming.
One thing the show had going up to this point were the fight scenes, but I have to say, I wasn't thrilled with the main fight between Spike and Hakim on the roof. The other fight scenes have been really fluid and felt really well choreographed but here it felt really stiff and disjointed and not fun. The stuff with Vicious and Spike is also falling flat to me at this point. I didn't really see the point in the scene with Vicious killing the naked people with their eyes sewn shut manufacturing his Red Eye. Like, it just seemed weird for weirds sake or like a way for the show to say, look we can show naked people.
It probably feels like this episode is a slog or I hated watching it, but I didn't. I do think the show is pretty watchable. I am still really digging the chemistry between John Cho and Mustafa Shakir. They have a great rapport and chemistry. It feels really easy and there are a lot of interactions between them that feel like they could have been pulled directly from the anime particularly the scene with Jet's informant, Woodcock. I loved that and it was a lot of fun.
I loved the visits to the two brothels: Betty Boop and Betty Bottoms. It was something else that felt very "Cowboy Bebop" and I would have loved a little bit more time there. It was a moment where the show felt like it was really letting loose and embracing some of the absurdity that making a show based on an anime affords it. The scene where the boys are chatting with Mistress Greta is one of my favorites of the series so far and is another instance where we see Cho really shining as Spike Spiegel.
Oh, and we get Ein on the Bebop. I will say it feels kind of shoehorned in and I think they could have found a way to introduce him to the show a little more smoothly, but I'll allow it. You can't have "Cowboy Bebop" without Ein.
Grade: B-
"Session Four: Callisto Soul"
Jet Black: "Ah, I love this place. You know they have bidets in the bathroom?"
Spike Spiegel: "Mmmm."
Jet Black: "Damn things are addictive."
Spike Spiegel: "Please tell me you're talking about the bread."
Jet Black: "Bidets. Quite therapeutic. You know, that gentle warm water really eases the stress while washing out the nooks and crannies."
Spike Spiegel: "Stop. I'm begging you."
Jet Black: "Next big score, I'm getting one for the ship. Maybe two. One for each foot."
Spike Spiegel: "Foot? Jet, a bidet is a toilet that cleans out your asshole."
Jet Black: "What?"
Faye Valentine is after the man who awakened her early from cryo sleep. She confronts him at the opera and gets him to call the woman who posed as her mother and stole her belongings but things go awry when a group of eco-terrorists, the Callisto Liberation Front, show up and kidnap him and steal her ship after turning a lot of the partygoers into trees. Faye goes to the Bebop crew for help, but can they trust each other long enough to stop the CLF or will the double crossing cost them all?
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| Fuck you, fuckers. |
In the last recap, I was just complaining that so far the live action was having a difficult time capturing the spirit of the anime and lo and behold, we get the first episode that really feels like "Cowboy Bebop."
I really felt it in the climax of this episode. I feel like they really did a great job of capturing that controlled chaos that "Cowboy Bebop" does so well. This felt like something you would see in the anime. Jet and Spike trying to stop the missiles from down below. Faye in the air in her ship but initially looking like she's going to abandon them to go after the woman who stole from her and screwed up her life. Only for her to fly in and make the last minute save. It's great. And its very "Cowboy Bebop." It is definitely a sequence I felt could feel right at home in the anime and I really like that. It's what I have been missing from the show since it started.
Danielle Pineda returns this episode as Faye Valentine and I think she does a really great job. I wasn't completely sure about her when she showed up in the pilot but any doubts I have are completely erased here. I think she really captures what makes Faye great from the anime while at the same time making her feel like more of a well rounded, real person. She has so many really standout moments in the episode. She's great threatening Mark Manley. Her scene with Spike and Jet in the diner is stellar. I laughed out loud when she steals the Swordfish and has Ein in her lap, mouthing "fuck you, fuckers" to the boys. Double crossing them before they have a chance to double cross her. The three of them have real chemistry which I enjoy and I think that Pineda just really injects Faye with a lot of awesomeness from her swagger to her vocal inflections. That final scene where Faye officially becomes part of the crew is great and Pineda pulls off some wonderful face acting and you all know I love some good face acting.
The women in this episode are really bringing it. I enjoyed Adrienne Barbeau as Maria Murdock. I know Barbeau as the voice of Selina Kyle/Catwoman in "Batman: the Animated Series." Murdock and the Callisto Liberation Front are pulled directly from the anime and unlike the other antagonists they have brought over, this, for me, is the most successful so far. The keep the spirit of this alive and Barbeau does an amazing job shifting from menacing terrorist to frustrated, exasperated mother, tired of her children continuously embarrassing her. My only grip here is that I could have used more of her.
The only negative about this episode is the Vicious/Julia stuff. I appreciate that they are telling a more serialized story than the anime but we don't need to check in with Vicious and Julia every episode. The brief scenes with Julia and Vicious talking about staging a coup and then Julia going to Ana to get a meeting with Mao Yenrai don't feel important or necessary. Why did we need this. They steal momentum from an episode that is pretty fast paced and the whole time they are happening you just want to get back to the crew.
Overall though, my favorite episode so far and a glimmer of hope that this will be a worthwhile watch.
Grade: B+
Next up, while Jet's away Spike and Faye will play and Faye is left in charge of the Bebop's repairs.
What do you all think? Do you agree that "Callisto Soul" is the best episode so far? Are you kind of over Jet's family drama? Are the serialized elements kind of a drag? Let me know in the comments.
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