Television Cowboy Bebop (Netflix, November 19), update: aaaaaaaand it's been cancelled

[Jason]

12 minutes ago, Dre801 said:

Netflix is full of "one and done" shows.

 

Which would be fine if they were explicitly created as one and dones. But this one joins a long list of others that weren't intended to be. 

[Derek]

1 hour ago, Dre801 said:

Netflix is full of "one and done" shows.

They probably do this to get a new group of subscribers and then cancel the shows because they knew they were too expensive, while still maintaining a handful of the new group of subscribers that didn't bother to cancel.

[Brian]

This is why I don’t bother with most shows on Netflix. If it wasn’t for Peacock and Paramount+, I would rate Netflix as the worst streaming platform. I only have a sub due to my brother. 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Just now, ManUtdRedDevils said:

This is why I don’t bother with most shows on Netflix. If it wasn’t for Peacock and Paramount+, I would rate Netflix as the worst streaming platform. I only have a sub due to my brother. 

 

You're really not far off from my sentiments as well.

 

If it wasn't for its foreign-language and animated shows, I probably would've dropped Netflix a while back.

[Dre801]

I'm legitimately  annoyed that they didn't give Teenage Bounty Hunters a second season.  True story.

[Ghost_MH]

6 minutes ago, Commissar SFLUFAN said:

You're really not far off from my sentiments as well.

 

If it wasn't for its foreign-language and animated shows, I probably would've dropped Netflix a while back.

 

That's literally all they're really good for these days. Along with the foreign-language stuff they can't cancel on a whim, they'll pump out seasons of animated shows like nobody's business and release some legitimately great animated movies.

 

I really think series like Cowboy Bebop would have done better on a weekly release schedule. Instead, the just sxpect folks to binge the series and then cancel them when people don't do that within a few weeks.

[skillzdadirecta]

Pretty sure Amazon commits to at least two or three seasons for their shows. Gives the show time to build an audience. I don't know wtf Netflix is doing. I almost feel like this show was cancelled before they even put it out.

[Ghost_MH]

19 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Pretty sure Amazon commits to at least two or three seasons for their shows. Gives the show time to build an audience. I don't know wtf Netflix is doing. I almost feel like this show was cancelled before they even put it out.

 

That's because the cast was doing the whole media circuit boosting the show within the last ten days.

[skillzdadirecta]

I can totally see Netflix going the way of Blockbuster in the next couple of years. 

[Dre801]

I don't fire up Netflix anywhere near as much as I used to.  

I keep it so that I can rewatch Foresnsics Files and Twilight Zone, lol   

 

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

11 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

I can totally see Netflix going the way of Blockbuster in the next couple of years. 

 

Looking at their debt load, that's not an unrealistic proposition.

[Fizzzzle]

Netflix still puts out some great stuff. Midnight Mass was awesome. The Forgotten Battle was one of the best war movies I've seen in a long time. The outpost was really good. Cowboy Bebop was good. Arcane was really good. I'm still hopeful for their Avatar show.

[Keyser_Soze]

Tiger King got a second season so your show just has to be good to get a second season. That's it!

[Dre801]

Tiger King was a surprise smash hit and become a phenomenon.  I hate that we got more of it(I wish the whole Tiger King thing would just fucking die), but I'm not at all surprised that Netflix gave us more.

[Ghost_MH]

47 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Tiger King got a second season so your show just has to be good to get a second season. That's it!

 

Netflix brings shows back based on their perceived ROI. That means sci-fi like Cowboy Bebop is already at a disadvantage compared to documentaries, reality TV/game shows, and foreign language license deals.

 

Teenage Bounty Hunters and Dark Crystal were both cancelled after a single season. That is in spite of rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

 

At this point in time, I just don't trust anything Netflix with even a moderate budget outside of stand alone films. I doubt I'll continue watching The Witcher for this reason. The problem with Netflix is that even if a series goes for a few seasons, it can still end like Glow where it randomly gets cancelled out of nowhere leaving fans and plot threads up in the air.

[Jason]

7 minutes ago, Ghost_MH said:

Netflix brings shows back based on their perceived ROI. That means sci-fi like Cowboy Bebop is already at a disadvantage compared to documentaries, reality TV/game shows, and foreign language license deals.

 

Teenage Bounty Hunters and Dark Crystal were both cancelled after a single season. That is in spite of rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

 

At this point in time, I just don't trust anything Netflix with even a moderate budget outside of stand alone films. I doubt I'll continue watching The Witcher for this reason. The problem with Netflix is that even if a series goes for a few seasons, it can still end like Glow where it randomly gets cancelled out of nowhere leaving fans and plot threads up in the air.

 

Plus as mentioned above I really do think they're screwing their own shows by sticking with the binge release model since it prevents the shows from having sustained buzz. The more people hear about a show over a longer period of time, the likelier they are to actually start watching it. Even the wildly successful stuff like Squid Game quickly stops being talked about.

[Ghost_MH]

3 minutes ago, Jason said:

Plus as mentioned above I really do think they're screwing their own shows by sticking with the binge release model since it prevents the shows from having sustained buzz. The more people hear about a show over a longer period of time, the likelier they are to actually start watching it. Even the wildly successful stuff like Squid Game quickly stops being talked about.

 

That's why, when they can, they try to pump out seasons as quickly as possible. When Voltron was a surprise hit for them, they wound up pumping out eight seasons in TWO, TWO fucking years. They know that their binge models leads to fast death, so they try to ride that high as much as they can before they dump and move into something else.

 

Netflix basically lives on viral hits and inexpensive TV.

 

Cowboy Bebop, I think, would have faired better with a bit more space. Squid Game would have eaten all forms of social media for months with extra space. Instead, they're perfectly ok with even they're biggest hits being nothing more than a flash in the pan. I don't think they realize how much this is going to hurt them in the future, similar to how people are very scared of trusting Google with Stadia.

 

I never even finished Cowboy Bebop because I didn't have the time to, but I would have. I doubt I will now, though.

[skillzdadirecta]

14 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

Tiger King got a second season so your show just has to be good to get a second season. That's it!

And who watched the second season? Nobody.  That show was a fluke that had the benefit of timing,  it came out right at the start of the pandemic and Netflix was hoping to cash in with a quick follow-up season when it really didn't need one.  I have yet to talk to anyone who actually watched Cowboy Beebop who didn't enjoy it. My stepfather was legit disappointed when I told him it was canceled. I didn't even know he watched it and he for damn sure had never watched the anime.

[Jason]

17 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

I never even finished Cowboy Bebop because I didn't have the time to, but I would have. I doubt I will now, though.

 

It's still worth finishing IMO. While it ends in a way that it's clear they thought they were going to get another season, it still ends in a way that works as a conclusion. From what I recall of the anime they also more or less got through the main arc of the anime and were going to have to largely move into telling their own stories.

[skillzdadirecta]

‘Cowboy Bebop’ Tops Variety Trending TV Chart as Cancellation Leaves Twitter Abuzz

VARIETY.COM

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'Cowboy Bebop's' foray into live-action may have been over faster than it started, but that didn't stop fans from tweeting about the show.

 

Quote

“Cowboy Bebop’s” foray into live-action territory may have ended faster than it started, but that didn’t stop fans from flocking to Twitter to chat about the show’s debut on Netflix — or its swift cancellation. The series topped Variety‘s Trending TV chart for the week of Dec. 7 to Dec. 13 with more than 28,000 engagements by fans who were shocked by the streaming service’s decision to axe the ambitious show less than a month after it debuted.

 

[TwinIon]

Ended up re-watching the anime with the wife so we only just watched the first episode, and I disliked it so much I doubt I'll continue with it.

 

For one, the show looks terrible. It suffers from a bad case of "establishing shot syndrome" common to Sci-Fi TV where the big establishing shots of space ships and what not seem to have eaten the whole budget, leaving the sets (where most of your time is spent), feeling both cheap and disconnected.

 

More than that though, I felt like when the new pilot strays from the original, it does so for the worse.

 

A very small thing that feels emblematic is a tiny interaction at the bar. In the anime, Asimov's "pregnant" wife orders a double bloody mary and sips on a beer. In the adaptation, she orders water, is presented with Tequila, and refuses it. If anything, the interaction in the live action says more about the bartender than the character that actually matters in this episode. In the anime, we get a hint as to her real condition and a nod that maybe she's not trying too hard for appearances sake.

 

Again, that is a terribly small moment, but I note it because it's indicative of the million tiny decisions that add up to a show becoming special in the way the original is. When they're already adapting so many things so directly, when you do decide to deviate, those changes should make the sequence better than what we had before, not just different.

 

In general, I prefer adaptations changing things as they see fit, but that first episode feels like it only changes things for the worse. A more significant change is in the opening, where we see Spike killing a bunch of goons. It's a stark contrast to the anime, where Spike himself doesn't even shoot at anyone until the chase at the end, and definitely doesn't kill a bunch of guys he doesn't actually want to kill. Maybe they're going in a different direction with Spike, but that wasn't really the impression I got from the rest of the episode.

 

Maybe I'm just being too harsh because I love the source material.

[Keyser_Soze]

@TwinIon Are you describing the remake or the anime. I'm confused.

[skillzdadirecta]

20 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

@TwinIon Are you describing the remake or the anime. I'm confused.

Quote

 

 

Maybe I'm just being too harsh because I love the source material.

 

It's pretty clear he's talking about the remake.

[Keyser_Soze]

4 hours ago, skillzdadirecta said:

It's pretty clear he's talking about the remake.

 

It's not clear which is why I asked, he opens with

 

On 12/16/2021 at 1:42 PM, TwinIon said:

Ended up re-watching the anime with the wife so we only just watched the first episode, and I disliked it so much I doubt I'll continue with it.

 

How is that clear he's talking about the remake? Sounds like he hated the first episode of the anime and didn't continue.

[skillzdadirecta]

13 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

How is that clear he's talking about the remake? Sounds like he hated the first episode of the anime and didn't continue.

Sounds like you just read the first sentence of his post and didn't continue... I mean he clearly clarified what he was talking about

 

On 12/16/2021 at 1:42 PM, TwinIon said:

A very small thing that feels emblematic is a tiny interaction at the bar. In the anime, Asimov's "pregnant" wife orders a double bloody mary and sips on a beer. In the adaptation, she orders water, is presented with Tequila, and refuses it. If anything, the interaction in the live action says more about the bartender than the character that actually matters in this episode. In the anime, we get a hint as to her real condition and a nod that maybe she's not trying too hard for appearances sake.

 

Again, that is a terribly small moment, but I note it because it's indicative of the million tiny decisions that add up to a show becoming special in the way the original is. When they're already adapting so many things so directly, when you do decide to deviate, those changes should make the sequence better than what we had before, not just different.

 

[Keyser_Soze]

12 minutes ago, skillzdadirecta said:

Sounds like you just read the first sentence of his post and didn't continue... I mean he clearly clarified what he was talking about

 

 

I did read the rest, which is why I was confused. 🤷‍♀️

[Kal-El814]

Well well well.

 

Shinichiro Watanabe On Making ‘Cowboy Bebop’ And What He Thinks Of The Live-Action Adaptation

WWW.FORBES.COM

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One of the most successful directors of anime is that of Shinichiro Watanabe. Known for his work on the original and entirely peerless 'Cowboy Bebop', I was more than happy to catch up with him and discuss his long and eventful career.

 

Quote

“For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and check. It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very tough for me to continue. I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene. It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop. I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”

 

You don’t say.