Review | Netflix drama review: Cowboy Bebop – live-action adaptation starring John Cho completely misses the point of the classic anime original
- Cowboy Bebop’s problems begin with the decision by the writers to deviate from the source and turn the show into a hodgepodge of underwhelming misadventures
- Although lead John Cho was an inspired piece of casting and production design is gorgeously detailed, Cowboy Bebop disappoints in almost every other department
1/5 stars
An interstellar roller-coaster ride packed with bounty hunters, space travel, violent criminals and existential ennui, Sunrise’s 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop is a genre-bending cult classic that has been delighting fans and inspiring science fiction creators for more than 20 years.
So why is Netflix’s new live-action adaptation so lifeless?
Like a lousy wedding cover band half-heartedly butchering your favourite power ballads, André Nemec and Christopher Yost’s inaugural 10-episode season is out of tune, off tempo, and seemingly oblivious to what made Cowboy Bebop so special in the first place.
Dragging the Bebop’s motley crew of flawed yet lovable outliers wildly out of step with their established backstories, discarding major characters entirely while extensively reappropriating others in ways that undermine the tragic struggle of the protagonists, this new incarnation of Cowboy Bebop, if it can even be called that, is so brazenly dismissive of its established fan base that it begs the question: who is this show supposed to be for?