A new name has joined the list of Netflix cancelled shows for 2021: Cowboy Bebop, Netflix's live-action version of "Cowboy Bebop," which, after months of publicity, made a less-than-glowing debut.

The show, which launches November 19, 2021, is an adaptation of one of the classic animated series and boasts high standards; the Hollywood Reporter broke the news, noting that Netflix's current renewal rate for scripted series with more than two seasons is 60%.

The current renewal rate for scripted series is 60%.

Cowboy Bebop is currently ranked #9 out of 10 on Netflix's Top 10 Sites list (for the week of November 29 through December 5), with 15.26 million viewer hours. This is a significant drop from the previous week's (Nov. 22-28) No. 2 ranking of 36.95 million hours. The previous week, the first three days on Netflix had 21.63 million hours watched. If you're thinking about what to watch this weekend, just know that you don't have to rush to finish watching "Cowboy Bebop".

Usually, fans of the series stand up and petition to protect the show. That may not be the case this time. I have seen a few people frustrated by such an early termination, but I feel that more people started the show and were outraged by the lack of quality compared to the original. Netflix initially seemed to want to pull out all the stops to attract such viewers, including casting John Cho as Spike Spiegel and Yoko Kanno, the composer of the original anime. However, the series was heavily criticized by critics and fans alike (with a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer average of 46% and a viewer score of 55%) for, among other shortcomings, poor chemistry.

While I personally enjoyed the film, I watched it at a slower pace, which undoubtedly played a part in the problem. Netflix, with its emphasis on audience numbers, wants shows to be devoured, and while I recommended the show enough to put it on Netflix's list of best shows (Daniel Pineda did a great job as Faye), it was not popular enough with viewers for the show to survive. The survival of "Cowboy Bebop" may have satisfied viewers, but the opportunity to use potential S2 budgets for new projects gives Netflix a chance to give us another reason to keep it on our best streaming services list.

On our timeline last night, we saw many of the same reactions that Tom's Guide senior editor Marshall Onoroff had on Slack: "We had no other choice. There was no other choice. We spent a lot of money on something that didn't work at all." Like me, Marshall felt no great pressure to finish the show and has only seen the fourth episode.

And while I love seeing Netflix tackle ambitious projects, and the live-action adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" is definitely one of those, it seems like a live-action adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" was not necessary. This definitely falls into the "who asked for this?" category. - Other than executives who lack original ideas and just want to farm out new versions of existing intellectual property.

Come to think of it, the end of "Cowboy Bebop" reminds me of Netflix's biggest failure of 2021, but it's not. It's "Jupiter's Legacy," Netflix's $200 million debacle adapting Mark Millar's comic book. Say what you will about the flawed script of "Cowboy Bebop," the episodes being twice as long as the original, and the push for character development that wasn't in the original, but its low-budget set pieces had a kind of charm (and no more than "Jupiter's Legacy likely didn't cost Netflix as much); Netflix's budget for "Bebop" does not appear to have been reported.

Finally, here is a quote from Shinichiro Watanabe, director of the original "Cowboy Bebop" anime. When asked in an interview about making a sequel to Bebop, he replied I don't think we should just keep making sequels to Cowboy Bebop. I think it would be more in the spirit of Bebop to stop while people want to see more. Don't you think?"

As for what to watch next, check out our preview of "Yellowstone" Season 4 Episode 7 and the "Succession" Season 3 finale (a show that won't be cancelled anytime soon, as Season 4 has been renewed). And for something completely different, check out the UFC 269 live stream.