So the Cowboy Bebop thread has generated quite a bit of good discussion, including some great analysis of beef economics and prospective future beef economics.
For next week we can continue to discuss CB if people are still following it, but I'd like to choose another piece of material to focus on.
Suggestions:
The Expanse (on amazon prime): I don't know anything about it so perhaps francopoli can pitch it?
Jodorowsky's Dune: my suggestion this week. Check out the trailer. It's totally wild and entertaining and a great trip into scifidom.
Other suggestions?
Shoutouts:
Trombone kleinbl00 JakobVirgil mhr OftenBen plewemt elizabeth blackbootz Meriadoc minimum_wage Tiger_the_Lion _thoracic johnnyFive tehstone rthomas6 War Dala OftenBen bhrgunatha kantos francopoli anatomygeek Purple_Ruby
I wouldn't mind watching another three or four episodes of Cowboy Bebop. If I could make a suggestion on something to watch, Samurai Jack is on Hulu and Episode VII, Jack and the Three Blind Archers is probably one of the best episodes of the whole series. It's more fantasy than sci-fi, even when you factor in the robots, but it's an amazing short story and wonderfully executed. Or Frankenstein. I don't think Frankenstein has been done yet even though it's on the list. Mary Shelley's writing has aged very well and the whole book is very poetic, both in language as well as the story as a whole.
I would also rather give CB at least a few more. It's unfair to judge a series by a couple episodes, particularly the first two episodes. The whole thing only ran 26 episodes; maybe we don't need to hit them all but I at least would like to get to the point where I'm supposed to appreciate the genius. I think everybody on this page has taken a stab at the first couple before. I don't wanna do Frankenstein. Ever. I know that makes me a terrible person but every time I download an Audible of something more than 100 years old, it grinds. I do this for fun and Frankenstein has too much of a "take your medicine" vibe for me.
Yeah. I think my enjoyment of dated literature probably colors my perception of Frankenstein a bit. That's fair. That said, I'd at least like to watch CB enough to figure out where the "western" part comes in. It feels much more like a gangster/heist series to me than western. Edit: Might also give Firefly another shot, cause that definitely had a western feel.
I would vote for The Expanse. I've read all but the most recent books, and have seen the first season of the show (am into the second one now). It's a near(ish) future space opera with some interesting geopolitical background. Basically you have Earth and Mars as the major powers in the solar system. Meanwhile, there's a separate ethnicity of a sort called Belters, who are people that grew up in space and in small asteroid colonies. Because they don't have the technology for artificial gravity, Belters tend to be taller, skinnier, and have relatively brittle bones. They're also seen by Earth and Mars about the same as Roma are by the rest of Europe. They have a very mixed culture, representing the fact that folks from all over were the original settlers. Earth is Earth, while Martians sound like Texans because that was who the first settlers were. (In the show, they look physically the same, but tend to have lots of accents. The show did do a good job of capturing the Belters' patois, though). So you have some Cold War-style tensions between the planets, plus the Belters stirring things up since they're getting sick of being treated as second-class citizens. Then a bizarre Science Thing happens. So imagine the Cold War, only neither side discovered nukes themselves, but sort of found one lying around in the Sahara. The show does a good job of adapting the books. It's well-acted, and the special effects are what-not are great.