20 Years Later, Netflix Repeated Fox's Biggest Sci-Fi Fail with Cowboy Bebop

Summary

• Two years after Cowboy Bebop's cancellation, many viewers say the decision was rushed.
• Despite the initial critical reception, audiences old and new find Cowboy Bebop entertaining and deserving of a second season.
• In fact, the show’s calling off echoes a major mistake made by Fox over 20 years ago.
• The similarities between the two cases are uncanny.

If you're a casual viewer, there's a good chance you haven't even heard of this title - Cowboy Bebop? Why? Because Netflix hasn't given you an opportunity to discover it. The show premiered on November 19, 2021, and was canceled just three weeks later, on December 9.

If you're a fan of the space western genre in general, and the Cowboy Bebop IP in particular, you have to agree - the decision was too hasty, and probably a big mistake on the part of the streaming giant.

In fact, this move by Netflix echoes a questionable decision made by Fox over 20 years ago. It seems that studios are not eager to learn from their own and others' mistakes.

Eerie Similarities

Christopher Yost's Cowboy Bebop is based on a wildly popular 1998 Japanese anime franchise. Set at the end of the 21st century in a future where humanity has spread to most of the rocky planets and moons of the solar system, it stars sci-fi veteran John Cho as Spike Spiegel, a skilled martial artist and troublemaker who hunts down criminals with his ragtag team of bounty hunters.

The concept is very similar to another space western, 2002's Joss Whedon's Firefly, which follows the crew of a 26th-century starship as they make money by doing cargo runs, often illegally. The similarities lie not only in the genre and premise of the two shows, but also in the bizarre circumstances of their cancellation.

Both Cowboy Bebop and Firefly were ditched by their respective studios within weeks of their original debuts. And the history of Firefly shows that calling off Cowboy Bebop may have been a big mistake.

Why were the shows canceled?

Firefly aired its pilot on Fox on September 20, 2002, and averaged 4.7 million viewers per episode during its initial run. But those numbers put the show too low in the Nielsen ratings and were apparently not good enough for Fox, just as Cowboy Bebop's ratings were not good enough for Netflix.

Cowboy Bebop earned 74 million hours worldwide in its first week and entered the Netflix top 10. However, according to The Hollywood Reporter's insider sources, the show was railroaded by the system that helps the studio decide the future of their projects based solely on the viewership vs cost rate.

This system is used by the majority of studios and is to blame for the cancellation of many of your favorite shows. What seems to be missing are the many outside factors and future potential of a show.

Cowboy Bebop's premiere schedule was messed up by the COVID pandemic and John Cho's on-set injury, which delayed production. As a result, when the show finally aired in November 2021, with Thanksgiving on the horizon, it had strong competition that drew attention away from it.

The same thing happened to Firefly two decades earlier. The worst possible time slot, lack of marketing efforts, a chaotic release schedule, and strong competition led to a seeming lack of audience interest. As a result, the show was canceled after its 11th episode.

Scores: Critics vs. Viewers

As a result of all the external factors, viewers didn't discover Cowboy Bebop right away, and some chose to ignore it altogether due to its initial poor critical reception: 45% on Rotten Tomatoes and 47 points on Metacritic.

However, those who did tune in found that the story was actually enjoyable and deserved much better reviews. The audience scores are very different from the critics - 60% on Rotten Tomatoes and 6.7/10 on IMDb.

This is somewhat similar to Firefly, which critics gave a less-than-admirable 63 on Metacritic and 77% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, audiences discovered the show when it was released on DVD and over time built a cult following, giving Firefly a near-perfect 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and 9.0/10 on IMDb.

Today, everyone seems to be on the same page: Fox made one of its biggest mistakes by canceling Firefly too soon. The show had the potential to be the greatest sci-fi project of all time.

While Cowboy Bebop is not exactly on Firefly's level of popularity, both fans of the original anime and new viewers find the first season good enough to want to tune in for more. They even started a petition calling for the show to be renewed for a second season and beyond. And over 155,000 signatures prove that this is not just the whim of a few John Cho fans.

Maybe it's time for Netflix to fix its mistake and bring Cowboy Bebop back before it's too late.

Sources: The Hollywood Reporter, Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, IMDb, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Change.org.