To put it briefly, if you heard of Cowboy Bebop as a classic, a masterpiece, and as such you are expecting a coherent plot with well-written characters - you're in for a wave of disappointment.
As with most stories told in an episodic fashion, depth and complexity are often compromised, as the main scope of the show is to provide individual episodes with their own complete stories. But, when done right, these separate encounters can really add to the whole, creating a strong story and interesting characters, while still delivering short stories with their own charm. This is NOT true for Cowboy Bebop.
A main, overarching plot is almost entirely missing. What we do have are maybe 4 episodes worth, all of them being poorly written and shallow - REALLY shallow. It's difficult to truly criticize it without giving out spoilers, but it's just bad. A villain that we don't understand, much less care about, paper thin in every single possible way, made to look "edgy and badass". Kids will love it. Shallow foreshadowing of events of the past, that turn out to be the most generic and uninteresting of stories. Main characters that are more like stylish mannequins rather than actual human beings. All tied to a bunch of inconsistencies and forced storytelling. The "laid-back" atmosphere is done the wrong way, often ignoring and ridicularizing certain plot points, and then later on bringing them back to become relevant plot points that drive the story. A good example is the fact that their ship is constantly getting shot, over and over, and nothing happens. Later on, they trade a few shots with a little group of thugs and "Oh my god, look at the ship, it's all destroyed! Now I need to get it fix and turn this into the driving point of this entire episode". That's just a random example really, what I'm trying to say is that these things happen all the time. It's fine when it's supposed to drive other laid-back episodes, but when this goes into the main plot-line, it's a huge problem. The show tries really hard to make it's characters look "cool", like a 14 year old would try to describe what a "badass" character would be. Spike himself can be described in 3 sentances: "smokes cigarettes", "is troublesome" and "wears big shoes". There's literally nothing else that adds to the character, no more depth than that. Oh, wait, I almost forgot! He has fluffy hair. The anime won't go on for 2 minutes without someone having to light up a cigarette. "Oh, there are people shooting me? Wait a sec, lemme light up my cigg" is what Spike boils down to. He may look stylish and unique - but he's still shallow and forced. I'm not saying these are bad things or that they comprimise the show - just that it's a ridiculously failed attempt to give depth to shallow characters - resorting to forced style. And this is why Bebop is a failure when judged as a whole - it's incoherent, cheap, and, above all, shallow. Cigarettes and jazz won't fix a bad show.
Besides all that, we obviously need to talk about the main thing when it comes to episodic storytelling - the short stories themselves. This is most likely what will determine if you like the show or not, given that the main thing these shows try to acomplish is delivering meaningful episodes that can be watched and enjoyed individually. This is why the previous paragraph doesn't excuse Bebop from being good - it could have been good as a whole, but it doesn't really need to. It's an episodic anime, so we shall judge the short stories as well, as they can and should be the selling point here. This is where it may get a bit subjective - even though I believe in objectivity when reviewing things, when we are talking about humor and attachment, it can get a bit complicated. So, instead, I'll just give my personal opinion - it's atrocious. The comedy wasn't funny, the exagerated facial expressions all the time aren't really my thing. The short stories were meaningless, generic and formulaic. It's Stardust Crusaders S1 levels of bad (don't mind me, I love JoJo regardless). There wasn't a single positive thing that I can say about them, I just didn't enjoy them at all. Actually, I did like one of them - Cowboy Funk. But the rest, argh. My philosophy is that a bad piece doesn't come from the negatives - it comes from the lack of positives. And, really, I just don't see why anyone would ever like these short stories.
With that being said, I still didn't give Bebop a 1, did I? Look, it's a 4. There are two reasons for that. First, the anime is unique and atmospheric. Second, the last three episodes were really well executed (well executed, still poorly written, mind you). If the last three episodes weren't as good as they were, in fact, I'd be glad to give Bebop a 2. Everything was handled in a mature way, the ending is just the way I love endings, there's some emotional build up and resolution, and it's all stylish - really stylish. Don't get me wrong though - those episodes are a resolution on top of bad writing from 23 other episodes, and have to carry the weight of shallowness (how paradoxically poetic, wow!) of all it's characters. In other words, it doesn't fix the show in any way, but gives me the feeling it could have been great had the show been given more depth. Also, all the style in the world won't cover it's negatives and lack of positives. But hey, it did get the show from a 2 to a 4.
I kinda get why someone would like Bebop. If you like the short stories, maybe cause you have a fetish for space cowboys, maybe cause you find it hilarious somehow, maybe cause style is higher in your priority list. Whatever the reason is, if you like the short stories, I can see someone liking the whole. I mean, as I mentioned, it's an episodic series, so having enjoyable short stories is enough to make it enjoyable. That may lead to further attachment to the characters (undeserved attachment that is, cause this doesn't excuse the fact they're shallow, mind you), which may lead to a some overlooking of the show's flaws, which may lead to a biased 10/10 review on MAL. Are you wondering if you'll enjoy Bebop? Just watch a random episode, out of context, and see if you enjoy it. Cause you won't get much more than that. If you like it and look forward to rewatching that through 25 other episodes - go ahead and give Bebop a try, you'll like it. If you find it uninsteresting and lacking, you'll hate Bebop for sure. But, hey, it's a classic - you have no choice here. You have to watch it.
TL;DR: No amount of cigarettes and jazz can fix a bad show.
