After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 4: Gateway Shuffle

Faye is out of fuel, adrift in orbit around Jupiter. There are food wrappers floating around her, so she’s a bit of a slob. She comes across a shipwreck and finds a mysterious package…

After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 2: Stray Dog Strut

Spike and Jet watch a TV show for bounty hunters called Big Shot. The hosts, Punch and Judy, are dressed in old west outfits and tell bounty hunters about criminals with bounties on their heads. The bounty this episode is Abdul Hakim, an animal thief and a good fighter. He’s had plastic surgery, so no one knows what he looks like now. Abdul bears a resemblance to Kareem Abdul Jabbar’s character in the Bruce Lee movie Game of Death and one of the fight scenes is lifted from this movie. Spike, of course, is a Bruce Lee stand-in for most of the series. So while last episode was based on a Western, this episode is based on a kung fu movie.

After learning that Cowboy Bebop is getting a live-action remake, I decided to revisit the much-beloved anime series from the 90s (although not aired in the U.S. until the early 2000s). Many people think of it as the best anime series ever, and with good reason. My episode reviews will contain spoilers, so be sure to watch the series before you read this.

Session 1: Asteroid Blues

The opening scene shows Spike chain smoking, waiting for someone who doesn’t show. He drops a rose in the street that he presumably got for a woman. He ends up in a shootout in a cathedral. He smiles as he’s shot by several gunmen. We’re left to wonder if this is a flashback or a flashforward as the opening credits begin to play.

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As we’ve come to expect from Westworld, season 3 brings us more violence for the sake of violence. It felt like every episode had at least one scene in which a robot slaughters half a dozen humans or so. Sometimes, just to mix things up, the robots kill other robots.

We get it. Robots are really good at killing. Also, in case you didn’t realize how cool murder is, they usually play high-energy music during the mass murder scenes. And of course, all the humans have about as good an aim as your average stormtrooper. Continue reading →

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Continuing my Star Trek rewatch, I’ve reached the end of Deep Space Nine season 3. It’s still a bit rocky, which I think is largely due to the awkward transition a lot of TV shows were going through at the time between trying to have each episode stand on its own and also trying to make each episode a piece of a larger overarching plot. Early seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fall into this same category. Continue reading →

I really enjoyed the first season of Westworld, but I was disappointed with the second. Season 1 felt like a complete story by itself. Season 2 doesn’t really add much besides a revenge narrative, which I’ve never cared for. It just felt like violence for the sake of violence. Besides, killing countless robots that can easily come back to life isn’t just boring, it’s also rather pointless. Continue reading →

“Evolution forged the entirety of life on this planet using one tool: the mistake.”

I’ve got to admit the premise of Westworld is hard to swallow. Why go to all the trouble of creating hundreds of realistic robots that need to be constantly cleaned, repaired, cured of infections, and given amnesia, when creating a Virtual Reality version of Westworld would be so much safer and cheaper? Continue reading →