Going into Cyberpunk Edgerunners, I knew it was going to be sad. There are plenty of genre conventions, and occasionally they are subverted, but for cyberpunk as a genre (as opposed to Cyberpunk as a specific world/universe/fictional setting for video and tabletop games) one of the pillars is that the ending is going to be some flavour of sad.
Completely soul-crushing, lightly depressing, a very temporary happiness with crushing oppression looming… “happy” just doesn’t really factor into the genre. And, on the one hand, I’m kind of okay with that. I mean, well done cyberpunk is one of my favourite genres ever, full-stop. It’s great when it’s great.
The show is fantastic. A little over-the-top with the violence and blood, but again, genre appropriate and more “cartoony” in most cases than really horrifying (although there are a few exceptions). The tone and pace are perfect, the characters are interesting, and they avoided most (although, again, not all) of the trope-heavy traps that often befall good sci-fi and cyberpunk work.
It was a joy. Even knowing I was going to be sad about how it ended, it still landed that amazing “sudden but inevitable” that I, and many other media consumers, love so dearly. You could see it coming. You knew it was coming. And it still managed to land with the emotional impact of a rocket launcher to the face.
Bravo, Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Bravo.
Hope everyone out there is staying safe and healthy!