The Hollywood Reporter has learned that the Netflix anime adaptation, Cowboy Bebop, has been cancelled after only one season and less than a month on the streaming service. Cowboy Bebop joins a long list of Netflix shows cancelled after only one season like Jupiter’s Legacy, Cursed and more.
Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop was the live-action adaptation of the Cowboy Bebop anime. The show, starred Jon Cho as Spike Spiegel, followed a ragtag crew of bounty hunters chases down the galaxy's most dangerous criminals.
The first season has 10 episodes and received not very positive reviews with the Rotten Tomatoes critic’s score sitting at 46% and the audience score only 10% better at 56%. It seems Cowboy Bebop suffered from what a lot of adaptations do, unable to please the original source material fans while also being unable to capture a new audience with the new take.
Like all Netflix renewal verdicts, the decision was made by balancing the show’s viewership and cost. With low viewership after the first week, high production costs and few hardcore fans cheering it on, Cowboy Behop feel victim to classic Hollywood math.
Cowboy Bebop joins the likes of Jupiter’s Legacy and Cursed, two other high budget Netflix original series cancelled after one season.
I personally haven’t had a chance to check out the first season of Cowboy Bebop yet and with this news I doubt I will now. This classic tactic of Netflix, I have started to consider whenever contemplating checking out one of their new original series. Will this show even get a second season? Will it be left on a cliffhanger never to be resolved due to a cancelation decision less than a month after the premiere of the show?
Netflix claims to want to take big swings with their new originals and have been willing to fork out the initial money to try but they seem hesitant to ever give anything a real chance at finding an audience on their platform. When they add so many different shows and movies each month how can they expect any show to find its fans after only three weeks?
I know, they have tons of data to “back up” their decision but data and reality are very different things. Yes, Netflix knows I didn’t watch it, however they have no way of knowing if I was saving it for another time when I had more time to binge an entire season of a show. Netflix should give more shows more chances to find their audience before pulling the plug and they might actually end up with a sleeper hit.
Sadly, Cowboy Bebop won’t be given this chance and instead will join the ever growing list of Netflix Originals that could’ve been something great but never had the chance to prove it.
Comments