Cowboy Bebop (Live Action): Season 1 Finale

  

Based on: Cowboy Bebop by Hajime Yatate

Developed by: Christopher Yost

Starring: John Cho (Spike Spiegel), Mustafa Shakir (Jet Black), Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine), Elena Satine (Julia), Alex Hassell (Vicious)

Oh man, that Ed! 

I'm so glad that she made an appearance in the show. I knew she would, based on headlines that had swamped Facebook around the show's premiere. And I liked it! Her appearance and behavior were even more unorthodox in live action than in animation (which is saying something), but I think that's a good thing. 

Overall, I found the season to be excellent. I really enjoyed the adventures where the show took its primary three characters and I thought that each episode taught us a bit about the world and about each character. Especially the final four episodes, which had focus on Faye's history and then the shared history of Spike, "Vicious," and Julia. These were excellently done and made me care a lot about the latter three. 

I scrolled through the news related to the series and was dismayed to see that it got very panned by critics, and I skimmed a few articles to determine why. They have legitimate claims: revealing too much about characters meant to remain mysterious, comedy that worked better in animation than live, and abandoning a strong sense of darkness and 'loneliness' that brought the anime crew together. I agree that the live action changes all that and perhaps it would have been better if they'd kept it. But my thought is: it all still worked, at least for me. I didn't need this series to recreate all the exact magic of the original anime because I know they're different. I still fell in love with this show, probably for separate reasons than I enjoyed the anime. (Which, again, I've mostly forgotten 😅)

There's only one thing that frustrated me. The character Julia never displayed any interest in syndicate life through the whole series, at least none that I picked up on. Yet, at the end of the final climax, she's free to join Spike (her lover) and leave syndicate life behind. But she ends up choosing to step in as head of the syndicate instead, taking underground power over a life of freedom and love. I thought this completely reversed what she'd been wanting up until then and it made no sense to me. 

But perhaps that's something they'll explore more. Season 2 hasn't been greenlit at this point, but hopefully Netflix recognizes they've got something quite nice and allows it to continue a bit longer. Plus, I want to see more Ed!