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Netflix Steampunk Western ‘Bass x Machina’ Is a Crackling Mix of Fantasy and Reality: TV Review
Netflix’s animated Western “Bass x Machina” reimagines real U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves in a steampunk frontier, blending elaborate inventions and action with questions about racism and justice. The review says the series uses its alternate history to explore how a Black lawman might serve a social order that fails to protect him, while remaining entertaining.
Voiced by Brian Tyree Henry, Bass has a robot arm gained through a Confederate experiment during the Civil War. He takes one last bounty job with Dana Starr, a young aspiring engineer, and encounters segregated train cars, Choctaw characters and others whose lives challenge familiar Western portrayals. The six-episode series also features Janelle Monáe as Bass’s wife, Glory, and is streaming on Netflix.
In short
- Netflix reimagines Bass Reeves in a steampunk Western.
- The series pairs inventive action with questions about racism and law.
- All six episodes are streaming now.
Explained simply
Bass Reeves was a real Black lawman who served as a deputy U.S. marshal in the American West after the Civil War. The series places a fictionalised version of him in a frontier filled with steam-powered machinery, while drawing on the era’s racial divisions and debates about law and justice.
In the story, Reeves works alongside Dana Starr, a young engineer, and meets people whose experiences complicate familiar Western tales. His role as a lawman raises questions about how someone can uphold a legal system that offers unequal protection.
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