Critic Reviews

It all adds up to an enjoyable feeling of anything-goes delirium. At a time when popular sci-fi has gone gritty and self-consciously “dark”, the caffeinated fever dream of Cowboy Bebop feels like a loving distillation of the original and a breath of fresh air.

The pilot of Cowboy Bebop, which is based on a beloved anime series, is acceptable. ... But as Cowboy Bebop figures itself out, it proves to be an excellent vehicle for star John Cho’s charisma and range. ... The last few episodes are sensational, blending action and character development with a lyrical noir sensibility and the moody tension of an idiosyncratic thriller.

The live-action “Bebop” is at its best in episodes three through eight where the bounty-of-the-week stories build camaraderie among the Bebop crew and their adopted Corgi, Ein.

As a live-action adaptation of a hugely popular series, it's often jauntier and funnier than the root stock, the violence even more outlandish and cartoonish. Hardcore fans of the animé series may be disappointed by the liberties taken but a much wider audience — the one that never __watched animé — probably won't be. Flat-out entertaining.

If you’re able to watch it with eyes unencumbered by comparisons, it’s a hoot.

It’s a hangout show as much as it is a thriller, a space opera, and so on. And it’s good at nearly all these things. Every time it seems as if none of these elements should make sense together, especially in live action, Cowboy Bebop goes sprinting off a cliff, refusing to look down at the void, and just keeps moving forward.

Somewhere between affection and disappointment sits the willingness to commit, helped along by Kanno's infectious score. The dancing jazz swells alone are enough to persuade diehards to saddle up through its 10-episode mission, such as it is.

The new Cowboy Bebop will probably excite anyone who's never seen the original anime, and those who have might be tickled by all the homages and recreations. But in each case, it'd be more fulfilling to move Netflix's cursor one spot over and check out the original series.

As much as the live-action Cowboy Bebop attempts to create its own identity and take on its characters and universe respective to the Cowboy Bebop anime, the strongest parts of the show are not what it adds in, but rather what it lifts wholesale from the original.

[Cho] has the unique ability to ground an absurd premise but also rise to its ludicrous demands, and his duality is the most rewarding component of the uneven, much-awaited Netflix adaptation of Cowboy Bebop. ... In this new form, it flirts with being just another Netflix action series, with accompanying mid-season bloat, liminal dialogue, and sexless sex scenes.