I was dying to see this when I first saw the hint of Le Fou in the opening theme. This was another villain lifted straight from the original with Le Fou.
I was wondering how they'd pull of the very cartoon villain of Le Fou (i.e. Flying evil clown!), but it really worked.
Firstly, the casting. Josh Randall did a spectacular job here. I can't believe this is the same guy that played Marty's business partner in the pilot of Ozark. The transformation from that to this was incredible and looked like it'd be so fun to play. He hit this role out of the park.
The only nitpicks about this episode is the whole justification for Le Fou and how he was stuffed into the plot. The fearsome aura of the anime Le Fou was that he was unstoppable. He was the Anton Chigurh of the Bebop universe. If he put his target on you, you were gone. Spike was only targeted by happenstance, because he saw his face.
This episode suffered by stuffing Le Fou amongst too many other plot points which didn't give him chance to breathe. I get that in a 10 season arc, you have to stuff as much as you can and every episode has to advance the overall arc (i.e. Vicious' taking over of the Syndicate). I think Le Fou would have been better off included in another episode.
Firstly, the anime Le Fou worked because he didn't have an origin story that was part of the plot. When you see him, he's already an established killer. Tying him as an assassin for hire from Vicious and then tying that to the first time he's out in the open (yes, I get it so that the A and B plots can run in tandem) really blunted his credibility. So for the live-action Le Fou, his first job ends up a failure. I get the writers were killing 2 birds with one stone here, but it just ended up taking away from one of the most iconic villains from the source material. The reason Anton Chigurh gives us the shivers, is because you see him doing his thing, not screw up the first time.
Secondly, because there was already so much going on in this episode, there was no time for more Le Fou scenes. His unstoppableness would have benefited more scenes, against other people who did not have plot armour. Even the scientist killed at the beginning was done by Viscous and not Le Fou.
That being said, I wasn't butthurt as the other Bebop purists. This was still a fun episode overall. I'm really loving the interchanges between the 3 leads. The bowling scene was fantastic and definitely gave the same buddy buddy feel from the anime.
I really love the "rehearsal" of the final scene on the Bebop and Jet's insistence on how it was rehearsed. Something not from the anime but another example that the writers understood the feel of the characters and successfully brought this to screen.
Vicious was unexpectedly evil, although a bit cartoon evil. Though that really is true to the source material. I had hoped something could have been done more with the character.
I had hoped that with a legendary actor like John Noble, more could have been done with his lines. His scenes were a little anti-climactic.
Ein (i.e. E1N) has MORE of a backstory here than on the anime. Interesting tie in with Le Fou. One rare example where tying that in actually worked.
Overall I am at least glad that we got to see Le Fou brought to life. Better like this than have it earmarked for a Season 2 that turned out to never have been.
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