[6.0/10] I find Edward pretty annoying, which doesn’t bode well since she seems to be joining the cast. The tone of voice, the speaking in third person, the inane dialogue all get her off on the wrong foot for me. I can see the appeal of having an eccentric hacker as part of the show’s milieu, and her ability to commandeer ships is neat. But between the goofy 1990s on hackers, and her status as a cheesy superfan of the Bebop crew, color me leery of more time spent with “Radical Ed” on my screen.
The episode itself is alright otherwise. Once again, the art shines, as the dogfight through a laser grid in orbit around Earth was kinetic and riveting. SPeaking of which, I think my favorite part of Cowboy Bebop so far is the world-building. It’s neat learning that the Earth was messed up by some sort of “gate incident” fifty years ago, that there’s people who live under the surface there now, and that other humans across the galaxy look down on Earthlings with a bit of derision. I find myself a little lukewarm on the stories and characters of this show, but I still like the setting.
There’s a few other cool things. The sequence of Jet pounding the pavement and getting a series of fish tales about Edward is well done. The notion of a lonely A.I. embedded in an old weather/spy satellite is an intriguing one, that feels like something Star Trek might have done (and kind of did with Nomad). And Spike deciding that hackers are no fun, but piloting manually through a laser onslaught is fun makes for a nice character beat.
All of that said, I’m continually put off at how over-the-top the male gaze is with regard to Faye. Maybe I would have had my eyes pop out of my skull like a Tex Avery cartoon if I’d watched this as a teenager. But for a character they want the audience to take at least a semi-seriously, despite how she’s portrayed like a brat (sorry, “woman with attitude”), they could stop framing the shots for maximum ogling. It’s low-key embarrassing.
Overall, there’s merit to the premise here, but the new addition to the case makes me wary of the mix aboard the ship going forward.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2023-03-29T01:11:16Z
[6.0/10] I find Edward pretty annoying, which doesn’t bode well since she seems to be joining the cast. The tone of voice, the speaking in third person, the inane dialogue all get her off on the wrong foot for me. I can see the appeal of having an eccentric hacker as part of the show’s milieu, and her ability to commandeer ships is neat. But between the goofy 1990s on hackers, and her status as a cheesy superfan of the Bebop crew, color me leery of more time spent with “Radical Ed” on my screen.
The episode itself is alright otherwise. Once again, the art shines, as the dogfight through a laser grid in orbit around Earth was kinetic and riveting. SPeaking of which, I think my favorite part of Cowboy Bebop so far is the world-building. It’s neat learning that the Earth was messed up by some sort of “gate incident” fifty years ago, that there’s people who live under the surface there now, and that other humans across the galaxy look down on Earthlings with a bit of derision. I find myself a little lukewarm on the stories and characters of this show, but I still like the setting.
There’s a few other cool things. The sequence of Jet pounding the pavement and getting a series of fish tales about Edward is well done. The notion of a lonely A.I. embedded in an old weather/spy satellite is an intriguing one, that feels like something Star Trek might have done (and kind of did with Nomad). And Spike deciding that hackers are no fun, but piloting manually through a laser onslaught is fun makes for a nice character beat.
All of that said, I’m continually put off at how over-the-top the male gaze is with regard to Faye. Maybe I would have had my eyes pop out of my skull like a Tex Avery cartoon if I’d watched this as a teenager. But for a character they want the audience to take at least a semi-seriously, despite how she’s portrayed like a brat (sorry, “woman with attitude”), they could stop framing the shots for maximum ogling. It’s low-key embarrassing.
Overall, there’s merit to the premise here, but the new addition to the case makes me wary of the mix aboard the ship going forward.