Singing Potatoes
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Monday, 10 February 2003
Just Damn Spooky

I've been watching the Cowboy Bebop DVDs that Darren lent me, and enjoying them thoroughly (though the "ending" of "Toys in the Attic" left so many loose threads it wasn't funny — it was a "Bill Ending", for those in the Sinister Posse).

Tonight, I watched the episode "Wild Horses", and it was thoroughly disturbing in light of what happened nine days ago.

Towards the end, one of the main characters was entering the Earth's atmosphere in his out-of-fuel fighter, with damage to his left wing. At one point, the "camera" showed a contrail in the blue sky, separating into several trails as bits of debris fell off.

A guest character, an old engineer named Doohan (ha), came to the rescue in an antique spacecraft. And not just any antique spacecraft, either. To make matters worse, at one point, Doohan uttered the line, "Most of the heat-resistant tiles have peeled off."

Too fucking freaky.

Posted by godfrey (link)
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Comments
Wow, I had forgotten which shuttle they used to rescue Spike and the Swordfish. That is really eerie.

Glad you're digging the series.

My favorite episodes are "Jamming with Edward" (9), "Mushroom Samba" (17), "Hard Luck Woman" (24), "Black Dog Serenade" (16), and of course the finale, "The Real Folk Blues" (25 & 26).

Hands down, the most disturbing episode for me is "Pierrot Le Fou" (20).
Posted by Darren on 11 Feb 2003 06:07
Well, I've gotta say, I find Edward a trifle annoying.

And kind of malicious, too — after hearing that guy scream at the drug dealer for selling his brother a mushroom that killed him, and seeing the effect it had on Ein, she cheerfully laid out 'shrooms for the other crew members to eat, and just watched them.

And, of course, she let the bounty head go. How do they manage to survive, anyway? I think I've seen them collect one bounty in nineteen episodes...

Posted by Godfrey on 11 Feb 2003 09:31
The mushrooms didn't harm them really, just sort of screwed with their hang ups - I think Ed didn't think that through, rather than intentionally being malicious. "Mushroom Samba" is also an homage to the incredibly bad '70s blaxploitation films. Oddly enough, Ein is my favorite character. Ed's probably a close second (followed by Jet).

They do get the occasional bounty, but they always seem to end up blowing all the woolongs between episodes. Heck, Faye usually blows her cut in the casinos.

There is a Cowboy Bebop drinking game we invented:
Take a drink whenever Faye is in the bathroom or shower
Take a drink whenever Spike gets injured
Take a drink whenever Jet is pruning his Bonzai
Take a drink whenever we see the Swordfish pre-launch prep.
Take a drink whenever Ed refers to herself in 3rd person

You end up drunk pretty fast.
Posted by Darren on 11 Feb 2003 10:05
Add in "Take a drink whenever someone complains of being hungry" and you could end up with alcohol poisoning!

And I'd just like to say that "blowing all the woolongs" sounds incredibly rude.

Posted by Godfrey on 11 Feb 2003 10:13