Westerns are filled with stories about the toll violence takes on the soul and quests for revenge that begin with digging two graves. Netflix’s new animated Western Bass X Machina leans into those themes on both a personal and societal level, tackling America’s cycles of brutal violence from the Trail of Tears to the Civil War to the outlaws of the Wild West. It also adds in mechs, magic, and one of the best opening themes since Cowboy Bebop.
Created by LeSean Thomas and Studio Mir, who both worked on The Legend of Korra, Bass X Machina is a reimagining of the story of Bass Reeves (Brian Tyree Henry), an escaped slave who worked in Indian Territory as a deputy U.S. Reeves’ real life was extraordinary, and is said to have inspired the character of the Lone Ranger, but Bass X Machina also gives him a cybernetic arm that shoots magic bullets. The criminals he fights get even bigger upgrades, and the stakes can at times escalate to truly ludicrous levels.
Henry does an especially great job expressing exasperation as Bass faces plenty of absurd foes, like an outlaw in a rampaging bull mech that requires complex cooperation to take down. At the start of Bass X Machina, Bass is a bounty hunter hoping to pull off one last job. Then he’s offered stable employment as a lawman if he can find Eugene Starr (Nick Thurston), a missing engineer capable of building incredible technology.
Eugene’s tinkerer niece Dana Starr (Tati Gabrielle of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and The Last of Us) insists on tagging along. Dana serves as comic relief and an audience surrogate Bass can explain things to, but she also proves herself repeatedly in combat with an endless supply of useful devices. Her goofy Inspector Gadget-like fighting style and constant preaching of nonviolence in a brutal world could easily become grating, but Gabrielle’s earnest delivery and the surprising depth of her character arc make the odd dynamic work.
The Legend of Korra combined steampunk with fantasy, and Bass X Machina does the same, though its TV-MA rating means the fights are far gorier than anything Avatar Korra ever experienced. Bass finds himself at odds with the Holy People, a group of Choctaw Nation women with the power to channel the elements like Avatar’s benders. Battle scenes where they work together to create cyclones and huck icicles demonstrate Studio Mir’s mastery of showy animated choreography, especially when there’s also plenty of gunfire and absurdly powerful war machines in the mix.
Unfortunately, the 3D animation Studio Mir leans on for the final two episodes lacks the sharp style of the rest of the work and detracts from the show’s climax. Another highlight is the music. Janelle Monáe plays Bass’ wife Glory and penned an original theme with a rich intro animation you will never want to skip.
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