As expected, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop show can’t compete with the original
By Diana Nosa
Episode 2: “Venus Pop”
Cowboy Bebop‘s second episode gets off to a pretty rough start. We meet our characters at a wedding shortly after they take on the job of hunting down the Teddy Bomber. Spike engages in a showdown with a presumed ally of the Syndicate and quickly defeats him, putting three bullets into their body. And here lies the first red flag of the episode: one-dimensional characters.
Spike seems to be hellbent on defeating the Syndicate and seemingly can’t see beyond this. While this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it feels out of sync with everything we know Spike Spiegel to be: strong but aloof, driven but kind, hardwired sometimes, but overall insanely charming. But was this an accidental mischaracterization, or intentional.
Jet Black also has tunnel vision; he’s focused on getting his daughter’s birthday present, with the rest of his character melted away. Seeing him so reduced hurts.
Still, seeing Spike react to a picture of his old lover Julia as watching Jet and Spike shoot the fade like old times was a nice treat. Hopefully, more moments like these will blot out the mistakes made so far.
That said, the second red flag lies in the episode’s vibe in general. “Venus Pop” does not, in fact, pop. The episode has a hushed, slow-burn tone. It felt a bit like filler, if it wasn’t for one pretty decent moment: Vicious and Julia’s relationship is, without a doubt, the most interesting thing to come out of this episode. Their dispositions conflict beautifully. Julia is more of a gentle soul who seems to have wandered from Heaven, whereas Vicious is a cold-hearted man who definitely has roots in the fiery underworld. The series does a great job at playing with these contradictions in a way that we didn’t really get to see in the 1998 series.
Still the idea that the antagonists Julia and Vicious wil be better developed than our heroes may be a pink flag in itself. Perhaps my worry will be in vain. Perhaps not.
The last red flag is Faye’s absence. Her not being in this episode isn’t too strange as her character would probably only get in the way, but after the show introduced her in the first episode, it was expected that she would have more of a role to play somehow, someway. If she didn’t, why introduce her that early?
I wish the series was a bit more intentional with these extremely important characters and not introduce them so haphazardly, but hopefully things will turn around in Episode 3, “Dog Star Swing.”