Bass Reeves has an outlaw on a rampaging bull mech to deal with, and he looks every bit as worn out by it as you’d guess. Brian Tyree Henry nails that weariness, and it’s the first clue that Bass X Machina, the new animated Western on Netflix, has a clear sense of how far into absurdity it can go.
Taking down that bull requires some complicated teamwork. The opening theme is one of the best since Cowboy Bebop. Put simply, it slaps.
A historical marshal with a magic-bullet arm
The real Bass Reeves escaped slavery and went on to serve as a deputy U.S. Marshal in Indian Territory. His life is said to have inspired the Lone Ranger.
That history was remarkable enough by itself. The series holds onto it and adds a cybernetic arm that fires magic bullets. The criminals on his trail get even larger upgrades, and now and then the stakes reach properly ludicrous heights.
The show comes from LeSean Thomas and Studio Mir, who both worked on The Legend of Korra. It shows.
Bass starts out as a bounty hunter chasing one final job. Then he’s offered steady work as a lawman, on one condition: he has to track down Eugene Starr (Nick Thurston), a missing engineer capable of building remarkable technology.
Dana Starr, Eugene’s niece and a tinkerer, refuses to stay behind. Tati Gabrielle (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, The Last of Us) plays her.
A sidekick who works against the odds
Dana looks like the comic relief and the audience stand-in, the one Bass has to explain things to. Once the fighting starts, she keeps earning her place, producing handy gadgets from what feels like a bottomless stash.
Her silly, Inspector Gadget-style combat and her nonstop sermons about nonviolence in a brutal world could have worn thin quickly. Gabrielle’s sincere performance keeps it working, along with a character arc that goes deeper than her early scenes suggest.
Benders, with more blood
Like Korra, Bass X Machina combines steampunk and fantasy. Its TV-MA rating changes things, though, and the fights get far gorier than anything Avatar Korra had to face.
Bass clashes with the Holy People, women of the Choctaw Nation who control the elements much like the benders in Avatar.
When they join forces to spin up cyclones and hurl icicles, Studio Mir gets to flex its skill with flashy animated choreography. Throw in lots of gunfire and some ridiculously powerful war machines, and these battles are the high point of the series.
That’s why the ending disappoints. In the final two episodes, Studio Mir relies on 3D animation that doesn’t have the crisp style of the earlier episodes, and the climax pays for it.
Watch the intro every time
Janelle Monáe plays Glory, Bass’ wife, and wrote an original theme for the show. It plays over a detailed intro animation that you won’t want to skip.
Roman GianArthur and Nate Wonder composed a dynamic score that takes the familiar rhythms of a Western showdown and speeds them up to match the anime-style action.
The Mandalorian, darker
The story takes place just after the Civil War. Confederate veterans loyal to the twisted General Rivenbark (Currie Graham) are a serious danger.
A bounty hunter facing the evil remains of a beaten army should ring a bell. It plays like a darker take on the early seasons of The Mandalorian.
In tone, it sits closer to Fullmetal Alchemist, with its attention on the horrors of science and war alike.
Two graves, one country
The Western genre is packed with stories about how violence damages the soul, and with revenge quests that begin by digging two graves. Bass X Machina applies those ideas to one man and to the nation, tracing America’s cycles of brutal violence from the Trail of Tears through the Civil War to the outlaws of the Wild West.
It also faces racism head on. White characters cheat and belittle Bass, and U.S. troops carry out several horrific massacres of the Five Tribes.
One idea runs through the whole show: forgiving past sins is hard, and the only way to break the cycle of violence is to build a better future.
Few people on screen have been wronged as badly as Bass. In true Western style, he wants revenge, and he also understands that getting it would wreck the fragile peace he has fought so hard to build.
Six episodes feels short
At six episodes, the season could have used extra room to develop its cast. A few more of the episodic bounty-hunting missions that power the first half would have gone a long way.
The struggle inside Bass mirrors the fight over America’s soul. It can come across as a little trite in places, but on the whole it makes the series surprisingly moving.
Across those six episodes, the story is satisfying and full of twists, and it leaves space for many more adventures.
Bass Reeves served as a lawman for 30 years in real life. This blend of history, fantasy, science fiction and big action looks capable of carrying a few more seasons. Bass X Machina is streaming now on Netflix.