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Netflix’s new animated series Bass x Machina reimagines the Old West as a thunderous steampunk landscape. The show centers on a legendary lawman reworked into a larger-than-life figure. It mixes pulpy action, moral dilemmas and rich cultural threads with a bold anime-influenced look.
What Bass x Machina is — and who made it
The series springs from the imagination of creator LeSean Thomas, known for Yasuke. Studio Mir, the South Korean studio behind The Legend of Korra, handled animation. Actor Brian Tyree Henry gives the lead character a thunderous voice and also serves as an executive producer.
Netflix’s Bass x Machina steampunk western wows: a crackling blend of fantasy and reality
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- Platform: Netflix
- Format: Animated steampunk western
- Episodes: All six episodes are now on Netflix
- Key creatives: LeSean Thomas (creator), Studio Mir (animation), Brian Tyree Henry (lead voice, EP)
Historical inspiration and imaginative departures
The show borrows its title figure from Bass Reeves, a real 19th-century U.S. Marshal who escaped slavery and became a celebrated lawman. But the series takes wide liberties.
Set after the Civil War, Bass x Machina keeps only a few historical anchors from Reeves’ life. The rest is a crafted alternate history where steam-driven machinery and elemental powers reshape the frontier.
Characters who drive the story
The cast blends historical echoes with inventive new figures.
- Bass — A former bounty hunter and marshal-in-waiting with a mechanical left arm.
- Dana Starr — A bright, young engineer chasing clues about her missing uncle. Voiced by Tati Gabrielle.
- Lighthorse — Bass’s Choctaw ally and a reminder of Indigenous presence on the frontier.
- Ahni — A powerful lightning wielder, voiced by Cree Summer, who challenges Bass’s choices.
- Glory — Bass’s wife, voiced by Janelle Monáe, who also performs the show’s theme song.
- General Rivenbark — A brutal Confederate commander, whose experiments created Bass’s mechanical arm; played by Currie Graham.
- Etta — A Native inventor who rigs defenses with electrified orchards and sharp wit.
Visuals, tone and genre fusion
The series blends anime aesthetics with Western motifs. Expect towering mechanical bulls, guns that squirt viscous substances, and characters who command lightning.
Designs often read like hand-drawn action panels come alive. A building sprouting legs and walking across a landscape becomes an unforgettable set piece.
- Steampunk devices and industrial-age wonder
- Anime-style motion and theatrical framing
- High-contrast action sequences and set-piece spectacle
Core themes: race, law and personal responsibility
Under its wild visuals, the show engages in ethical questions. It asks what it means to enforce laws in a system that devalues some lives.
A striking detail: bounties on Black fugitives fetch half the reward of those for white targets. Small facts like this thread through the plot, setting up moral tension.
Key confrontations force Bass to choose between violent retribution and a steadier pursuit of justice. His wife warns against letting anger turn him into someone worse than those he hunts.
Law versus resistance
A train robbery on a high-tech monorail with segregated cars sparks a debate. Should you dismantle an unjust order by breaking its rules? Or is the danger of becoming what you fight greater?
Representation and reclamation
The series foregrounds Indigenous characters and Black heroes as integral to American history. Their technologies and spiritual practices are framed as knowledge, not exoticism.
Etta’s inventions are described as science — not magic. That line reframes how the series treats its visionary women and Native creators.
Plot engine and pacing
The narrative kicks off when Bass accepts one final bounty and heads into the Badlands. Dana Starr joins him, eager for invention and answers.
Episodes balance introspective moments with explosive action. A grisly wartime experiment links Bass to a still-active Confederate figure bent on causing chaos.
Comparisons and cultural context
Bass x Machina recalls other recent animated shows that revisit past eras through modern lenses. It shares a lineage with Blue Eye Samurai in revising mythic history to include overlooked perspectives.
But it carves its own path. Where some period stories tinker with race in subtle ways, Bass x Machina makes representation a core feature of its worldbuilding.
Why the series matters now
As streaming platforms broaden what counts as a western, this series offers a fresh blend of entertainment and commentary. Its visual thrills are matched by questions about justice, identity and memory.
The show is both a blast of genre fun and a prompt to rethink familiar stories from the frontier.
