"Cowboy Bebop" (2021)
It only took until episode 7 of its first and only season, but the "Cowboy Bebop" live-action series has finally shown why it maybe could have existed and gone on longer. Let's get to it.
"Session Seven: Galileo Hustle"
Faye Valentine: [reading a Playboy] "You ever heard of a double dinner?"
Spike Spiegel: "Does it involve two dinners?"
Faye Valentine: "Or three."
Spike Spiegel: "Sounds like one two many dinner guests to me."
Faye Valentine: "Life's short. Why not throw a dinner party?"
Faye Valentine is ambushed by Whitney Haggis Matsumoto, the woman who lied about being her mother in order to get her out of cryosleep and then basically fleece her. Faye is ready to turn Whitney in for the large bounty on her, but Whitney blackmails her in to helping, using Faye's Identikit as the bait. Even after finding out the truth, the crew decides to help Faye so she can learn about her past. Things become even more difficult when they learn that Whitney is being pursued by galactic arms dealer, the Iron Mink. At the same time, Vicious is getting even closer to putting his plan to take the Elders out into action. But Julia may have other ideas.
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| "Mothers" and "Daughters" |
One of the things that I really appreciate about the live-action "Cowboy Bebop" is the character development with Faye. I love the anime, but it sometimes feels like out of the three main characters, Faye can be the most one note out of all of them. The live action version has made a lot of strides in these first few episodes to remedy that. I love how in the beginning of the episode, Faye is sitting back and reading vintage pornography. She goes from Playboy to a men's leather magazine. She ruminates on whether she likes butts or boobs. She says that she really likes bubble butts, but she determines that she really likes boobs. It's great and it feels like an extension of her character.
The show really tweaks Faye's backstory. The female Whitney is the male counterpart of the character of the same name from the anime. Rather than have this guy be the reason that Faye is in debt, we get this woman who pretends to be Faye's mom. She then swindles her out of her money. I like this change. I think that it sort of enriches Faye's story more. Due to her amnesia, Faye is desperate to know about her past and yearns for family. I think changing the person that conned her to someone claiming to be her mother is much more impactful. It also fills in a lot of Faye's backstory since she woke up and joined the crew without a lot of needless exposition. Meeting Whitney and knowing that Faye spent a lot of time with her, you see a lot of reasons for why Faye is the way that she is.
Sometimes what a series needs is an infusion of new blood and I think that Whitney really brings a really great energy to the show. Christine Dunford is great as Whitney. She is charming and has great chemistry with the three leads. Spike likes her right away because she's kind of dunking on Faye a little bit. Jet likes her too and definitely appreciates her new dumpling recipe. But while Spike is sort of blind due to his infatuation with "mommies," Jet is noticing that something isn't right with Faye and Whitney. He grills them and notices cracks in their story right away.
Dunford and Danielle Pineda are great together. The scene with Whitney and Faye where they con the valet person into giving them a stranger's car is one of my favorite scenes of the series so far. You definitely see in this scene and then again in the warehouse fills in so much backstory. And its a great example of a script letting actors tell this story through nuances in dialogue and body language rather than a lot of unnecessary dialogue. The button on this story is that this whole chase between the Iron Mink and Whitney is just an extended kink role play scene. It made me laugh and it feels very "Cowboy Bebop."
One thing that the episode keeps from the original is the VHS tape, which is what Faye finds when she opens the locker that is supposed to contain her Identikit. She watches it back on the Bebop and you see Faye's younger self talking to her. I know I've praised Pineda a lot here, but she kills it as she watches this tape. Just the raw emotion on her face, the tears in her eyes when she realizes that the woman recording the video is her real mother. It's a really great ending to the episode.
This episode even takes stuff that I haven't loved about this series and made it more palatable. You all know that I haven't really been digging the whole Jet has a daughter and estranged wife boning his old co-worker storyline, but this episode shows that in the right context, even that can work. A great scene in the episode is when Jet is watching his daughter's recital in a store while outside Spike is fighting off the Mink's goons. The juxtaposition of Spike whaling on these guys while Jet is mimicking the dance moves of his daughter worked really well for me. And Mustafa Shakir is a delight to watch in this scene.
We do have our routine check-in with Vicious and the gang. Vicious and Mao meet with Santiago who agrees to the plan to remove the Elders from power. Mao and Santiago will bring Vicious in under suspicion of betrayal and Mao will kill him with his own katana. But at the last minute Vicious will break out and the three of them will take the Elders out. Santiago demands 3% rather than the 2% Vicious initially suggests. Also, Julia confronts Ana about her not telling that Spike was alive. Julia goes to Mao about actually killing Vicious to get her out of the Syndicate. I do still feel like these scenes sort of drag the episode down a little bit, but its not as bad because it feels like we are actually going somewhere.
Grade: B+
"Session Eight: Sad Clown A-Go-Go"
Faye Valentine: [singing] "It's my birthday, it's my birthday. [stops] Wait, hold on. That makes me a Virgo. I don't know if that works for me."
Spike Spiegel: "You know, you're right. A typical Virgo is intelligent, practical, reliable. Modest."
Faye Valentine: [while Jet is laughing] "Oh, bit me. I'm a total Virgo."
Vicious is ready to make his move. He frees a deranged assassin, Pierrot Le Fou, from a laboratory and sics him on Spike. While Spike attempts to stop Mad Pierrot and protect Faye and Jet, Vicious puts his plan to take out the Elders and run the Syndicate into motion.
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| Father/Son Issues |
I was talking about changes that this adaptation had made that I really appreciated. Another thing that I really like that this adaptation is doing is making Jet, Spike and Faye more of an actual crew. In the anime, it felt a lot like Faye was just there. A hanger on that was just kind of there. They are definitely trying to incorporate her into this. We got some of it last episode with Faye lying to Jet and Jet getting upset and kind of realizing that yes, Faye did lie, but Spike did point out that Jet was being kind of a dick about it. So, it was really nice to see them having a "family" bowling night. It makes total sense that Jet would love bowling even though he's bad at it, but Spike and Faye would not love it, even though Spike seems like a natural. I loved that they got her a cake and gives her a new birthday. It was really a nice, heartwarming moment laced with the crew's trademark snark.
Pierrot Le Fou is a classic "Cowboy Bebop" villain and so there are high expectations for the live-action debut of this character. I think they really knock it out of the park. From the moment that he appears in the opening moments until his final confrontation with Spike at EarthLand, Josh Randall really kills it. It's honestly like this character jumped right from the anime into live action. I think the changes they make to the character are great. We get a little more of his backstory. Instead of having a fear of cats, he has a fear of dogs due to the barks and howls of dogs that he heard while he was being experimented on. I like that we get a backstory to the clown costume. When he was being experimented on, he would remember his mother telling him to go to his happy place which was EarthLand. Mad Pierrot goes to EarthLand and sees the clown costume on display which is how he got it.
The action with Mad Pierrot is amazing. The first confrontation with Pierrot and Spike is very reminiscent of the anime, but it has tweaks. It feels more brutal in the live-action. I loved the moment when Spike and Pierrot are fighting and we just see their shadows on the brick wall. You can say what you want about "Cowboy Bebop" but I think the visual language of the show is always on point and this is a great example of that.
In a lot of ways, this episode does a lot of setting up for the final two episodes of the series. The show hasn't touched on the fact that Spike is lying to and putting his friends and crew maters in danger by not telling them about his past with Vicious especially since Vicious is now trying to kill him. Spike had numerous opportunities to come clean to Jet, but doesn't. Jet thinks that he has figured it out and that Spike was part of some sort of armed special forces. You just know that this lying is going to come back to bite him, but we will probably have to wait until the finale for that.
I've spent a lot of time complaining about the Vicious/Julia subplot in these episodes, but I have to say it all comes to a head here and it is pretty good. I still don't think that we needed those constant check-ins every episode, but I appreciated what we got here. Vicious duping Mao into beheading Santiago and murdering all the Elders and their bodyguards was pretty cool. I think the show hasn't done a great job of painting Vicious as well... Vicious, but we definitely see sides of that in this episode. He looks truly deranged when he confronts Julia at the end of the episode, covered in blood, tossing Mao's severed head into the fire. My biggest critique here is that I don't think that the Elder, Caliban, needed to be Vicious's dad. It seemed really unnecessary. And this is coming from someone who loves John Noble.
The amusement park fight in "Pierrot Le Fou" is one of my favorite fight sequences in "Cowboy Bebop" and I'm happy to say that the live-action version is just as unsettling. While the anime version, really leaned into the neon, bright lights animatronics of it all, the live-action really leans into the inherent creepiness of a run down, dingy, abandoned amusement park. The end result is something that is just as unsettling as the original, but it its own thing. An impressive feat for this show.
This is hands down the best episode of the live-action "Cowboy Bebop." You really see the potential the show has and it makes you a little sad they couldn't hone in on this from the beginning.
Grade: A-
Next up, we wrap up the series with a flashback to Spike's time with Vicious and Julia and Vicious's final confrontation with Spike.
What do you al think of these episodes? Do you think they are some of the best in the show's short run? Do you still have issues with them? Let me know in the comments.
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