By rights, they should be elite bounty hunters. His imposing partner Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir) is a tough-as-nails former cop with a metal arm. Spiegel is a gifted sharpshooter and martial arts master. Freelance “cowboys” bring in villains – dead or alive – for a reward, just like in the old west. An excess of outlaws and ne’er-do-wells in these hardscrabble places has made bounty hunting a popular occupation. There are space station casinos and gleaming cyberpunk cities but also countless rickety towns and dusty outposts on far-flung moons (the series was shot in New Zealand and often looks appropriately otherworldly). An unspecified disaster on Earth has pushed humankind out into the local cosmos, creating a new galactic frontier. It is set in a vibrant but messy sci-fi future, precariously built on top of the technological and pop-culture clutter of now. The 2021 version is a fast-talking, visually amped-up space western that feels stylised and swaggering to near saturation, powered by the same jazz freakout soundtrack that helped make the original an enduring cult hit. But even if you were unaware of Cowboy Bebop’s animated origins it might not take long to twig that this 10-part series was inspired by an exuberant cartoon. The outcome involves a frantic foot chase, a rooftop fight and a memorable moment with a gigantic provocative billboard.ĭoing things “the fun way” seems to have been the mission statement for this live-action adaptation of a 1998 Japanese anime series, made with the blessing of its original creator Shinichirō Watanabe. “We can do this the easy way, or the fun way,” purrs Spiegel. The self-amused hero has an ice-cool opening line ready to go. W hile propping up the bar at a gaudy sex club on Mars, a rakish bounty hunter improbably named Spike Spiegel (John Cho) locks eyes with his current target: a murderous, anxious thief.