Netflix's Bass X Machina Is An Enthralling Mix Of Westerns & Anime | Review

Netflix's Bass X Machina is a glorious mixture of old-school Western thrills, steampunk anime, and an outright thrilling soundtrack and score.

Published Nov 3, 2026, 3:01 AM EST

Grant Hermanns is a TV News Editor, Interview Host and Reviewer for ScreenRant, having joined the team in early 2021. He got his start in the industry with Moviepilot, followed by working at ComingSoon.net. When not indulging in his love of film/TV, Grant is making his way through his gaming backlog and exploring the world of Dungeons & Dragons with friends.

Thanks to the likes of Taylor Sheridan, Quentin Tarantino, and the Coen brothers, the Western genre has enjoyed quite the roar back to life over the past two decades, with the former currently reigning supreme with the Yellowstone franchise. While old-fashioned rolling tumbleweeds, one-on-one showdowns, and riding across the plains can make for some fun, when a storyteller looks to actually do something with their genre outing, it instantly makes the proceedings more engaging.

That's part of what immediately makes Bass X Machina such a treat. Created by The Boondocks and Yasuke's LeSean Thomas, the six-part Netflix series offers a very different twist on the legend of Bass Reeves, the escaped slave who went on to become one of the first Black Deputy U.S. Marshals west of the Mississippi River. Instead, Reeves is now a Civil War veteran with a cybernetic arm, grafted onto him from a tragic past, while working as a bounty hunter.

Co-written and executive produced by The Righteous Gemstones' Chad Handley, Bass X Machina is a series practically bursting at the seams with genres, balancing its classic Western aesthetics with a steampunk world and supernaturally-powered characters, all set to a mixture of hip-hop and classic Western tracks. But what Handley and Thomas smartly never lose sight of is the thematic storytelling driving their plot forward, keeping the show engrossing as much as it is exciting.

Bass X Machina Layers In Heavy Conversations Amid Its Action

Set in an unspecified alternate history version of post-Civil War America, Bass X Machina introduces Reeves as a bounty hunter keen to leave the job behind and retire in order to better care for his family. Offered $1,000 and the chance to become the first Black U.S. Marshal if he successfully brings back a missing scientist, Bass sets off across the country, reluctantly allowing the scientist's niece, Dana, to join him in the search.

Much like Charles Portis' classic True Grit novel, a fair amount of Bass X Machina's journey is spent with both its titular gunslinger trying to caution his young ward about the harsh means of survival in the Old West, as much as her trying to show him new ways of dealing with foes and other obstacles. In some ways, these beats lead to some emotionally rewarding moments, though other times, they can't help but feel a little too familiar for the Western setting.

...the show never lets viewers forget just how cruel and indifferent white people were towards people of color in the era.

However, where Thomas and Handley's writing really soars in Bass X Machina is the thematic conversations had around cycles of violence and racial identity. Even with its more fantastical trappings, the show never lets viewers forget just how cruel and indifferent white people were towards people of color in the era.

This, in turn, finds Reeves and other POC characters in Bass X Machina frequently grappling with the debate between how much to push back against the system that almost universally holds them down, and how much to work with it in order to have a less-troublesome life. In particular, the show confronts the difficult moral quandary of whether to follow in the footsteps of their oppressors by retaliating with violence.

Another fascinating way the Netflix show explores the concept of racial identity is through mixed-race characters. Following nicely in the wake of Rebecca Hall's Passing and Ryan Coogler's Sinners, Thomas and Handley make part of one character's journey an insightful glance at the feelings of disconnect and isolation that come from belonging to two different worlds.

The Series Really Needed A Few More Episodes To Feel Complete

Arguably, Bass X Machina's biggest problem is one many TV shows face these days: not quite determining the perfect length to tell their stories. The first half of its six-episode season moves at a nice pace, meting out bits of wider world lore and character beats appropriately while also keeping things moving with plenty of shootouts and explosive action each episode.

However, as we go into the show's back half, Thomas and Handley's concepts for Bass X Machina ultimately can't help but feel like they're overcrowding each other. In particular, one character's shift toward a more villainous path feels so rushed that we hardly get a moment to actually process their reasoning for it.

Moreover, Bass X Machina's ending feels like one in which the creator and his primary co-writer and executive producer simultaneously wanted it to be a one-off series as much as leave the door open for the future. The fact that one character goes from being on the verge of unconsciousness one minute to suddenly racing into another story just moments later also can't help but raise the question of why they didn't consider at least one or two more episodes to serve as an epilogue and give better closure for the threads it's set up.

Studio Mir Delivers Some Of Their Most Stylish Work To Date

Even when the story begins to falter in parts, the one thing that keeps Bass X Machina feeling plenty alive is the animation from Studio Mir. The Korean animation house has established itself as one of the best in the anime genre, giving Netflix some of its best-looking projects with the likes of Devil May Cry, Skull Island, and The Witcher animated films.

That said, Studio Mir has topped themselves yet again in the way they expertly balance the new show's various aesthetics cohesively. The various machinery and gadgets in Bass X Machina blend nicely into the otherwise Western environment, while the gunfights are a good mix of the speed of the genre's classic set pieces and the more explosive for its anime stylings.

From The Music To The Cast, Bass X Machina's Culture Is Beautifully Worn On Its Sleeves

The other thing that truly makes Bass X Machina feel like one of the best mixes of anime and Western I've seen in a long time is the way it embraces its African-American culture in almost every layer of its production. The score, composed by brother duo Roman GianArthur and Nate Wonder from Janelle Monáe's Wondaland Arts, intriguingly blends multiple genres and samples some thematically impactful tracks into the scenes, namely Kendrick Lamar's "The Blacker The Berry" and Charles Bradley's "Ain't It A Sin."

Moreover, the opening title track for the series is performed by Monáe, who also has a recurring role as Reeves' fictional wife Glory. Set to a twangy guitar that builds into an energetic mix of jazzy trumpets and a solid drumbeat, the song immediately establishes the same cultural fusion as Jeymes Samuel's score for the undersung Netflix title The Harder They Fall.

...one can only hope Netflix finds a way to make another season in order to better flesh out some of its more under-developed ideas.

The cherry on top is Bass X Machina's cast, led by Emmy nominee Brian Tyree Henry and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina alum Tati Gabrielle. Henry brings such a strong sense of gravitas and soul to his iconic titular character, while Gabrielle so delicately walks a line between an over-enthusiastic young character with no worldly knowledge and someone with enough of her own emotional baggage to keep us hooked on her journey.

From its opening set piece, Bass X Machina immediately proves one of the most exhilarating and stylish mixes of the anime format and a variety of other genres. Given how much it did ultimately rush some of its arcs, and the unique world that Thomas and his writing team have laid out with the series, one can only hope Netflix finds a way to make another season in order to better flesh out some of its more under-developed ideas.

Bass X Machina arrives November 3 on Netflix.

Cast

• 

  Janelle Monae

  Glory (voice)

• 

  Brian Tyree Henry

  Bass Reeves (voice)

Bass x Machina, released in 2026, is set in a lawless Steampunk West where a father navigates a landscape infested with outlaws, machines, and supernatural terrors. He becomes judge, jury, and executioner to protect his family, though each act of justice threatens to take away those he loves.

Pros & Cons

• The core plot offers intriguing discussions of cycles of war and racial identity.
• Studio Mir's animation remains plenty stylish and gorgeous.
• Brian Tyree Henry and Tati Gabrielle make an excellent pair in their vocal performances.
• The music from Roman GianArthur, Nate Wonder and Janelle Monáe heightens the show's style.

• The show needed a couple more episodes to let its characters' arcs breathe.