Though I'd watched the show in order from beginning to end at least one full run, I'd forgotten an unusual detail: Ed, the cast's most obvious source of comic relief, only shows up in episode 9 of 26. Not to say Cowboy Bebop lacked humor until then, but it relied on the three more important cast members poking fun at themselves or each other, or bit players in Stray Dog Strut, Gateway Shuffle and Heavy Metal Queen, all relatively lighthearted to offset the heavier installments. You can see this most obviously in Ballad of Fallen Angels, the start of Bebop's core dramatic arc, where it falls to Faye to lighten the mood at least marginally by stumbling around handcuffed with her tits ready to pop out of her marvelously impractical evening gown - and to absorb the punchline. The comic relief's arrival frees the core three to shift toward bleaker plots, with the very next episode, #10, diving into jilted Jet's backstory.
I would certainly expect late arrivals in a longer series. When you're playing with thousands of pages of fantasy epic or decades' worth of comic books, dropping heroes in and out of the adventuring party is expected. Conversely, a formerly minor TV series basking in unexpected success will add to its roster as the seasons wear on. But a show scripted for exactly one season should logically have crammed the main cast into the first episode and most episodes after that, whether to tantalize the audience with the series' full spectrum of possibilities or to maximize their bought and paid for character designs and animation, or just because the cast wouldn't function split off from each other, every character being a flat hero / jokester / love interest / plucky ingenue / mascot / nerd / sex symbol / antihero, all relying on the others to spout their inane catchphrases to form some semblance of conversation.
One result of spacing out the entrances is that Cowboy Bebop's core trio get more time to be goofy, relaxed, and generally at home before they're required to crank up the pathos. They're far more multifaceted than expected, with Hard Luck Woman counting as one of the few times I've ever truly improved my opinion of a fictional character.
Another is that you would never quite be sure (opening credits aside) which new faces are here to stay. I noted the tragic damsel from the very first episode was teased for a good ten minutes as a possible addition. Faye herself looks like a comic relief one-shot in episode #3 and only joins the crew in #4. The eager young martial artist from Waltz for Venus again looks ready to fill the plucky comic relief role exactly one episode before Ed shows up. Spike and Faye are simply left to linger in the audience's imagination as the default power couple until late in the series.
In overall effect, the visible universe is not bounded by the protagonists' adventure. There really is no designated five-man band with fixed roles. Comings and goings are part of life not bookends to it, and the immensity of the world is left to weigh more poignantly upon our semi-competent underdogs. But we'll have to talk about the cyberpunk angle next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment