While it has been a long time since Firefly graced the airwaves, Netflix’s new space western is a four-hour binge that offers an ideal alternative to the iconic series. There are few one-season TV shows that have quite as long a half life as the short-lived space western Firefly. Firefly’s 14-episode run was met with mixed reviews and underwhelming ratings, but that wasn’t the end of the space opera’s story.
Firefly’s superb DVD sales, as well as the outspoken fan community online, prompted a movie spinoff in the form of 2005’s Serenity. Even though Serenity wasn’t a box office hit, the movie was beloved by critics, and a massive array of subsequent sci-fi shows acknowledged Firefly as a formative influence. There is SyFy’s space opera Killjoys, which often feels like the show Firefly could have been, as well as 2015’s Dark Matter, which was a love letter to Firefly in tone and premise alike.
In 2016, Jonathan Nolan’s Westworld reboot took Firefly’s mix of a futuristic sci-fi setting and traditional western elements and turned these same ingredients into a darker, more austere dystopian mystery box series. More recently, Netflix’s latest high-profile show has blended western and sci-fi tropes in a fresh, original story that has more than a touch of Firefly to it. An animated show created by LeSean Thomas, Bass X Machina takes place in a steampunk wild west where supernatural threats, giant robots, and gunslinging cowboys vie for dominance.
Bass X Machina Is Perfect For Firefly & Space Western Shows
Within this pitiless milieu, Brian Tyree Henry voices the titular Bass Reeves, a bounty hunter and Civil War veteran. Joining Bass is Tati Gabrille’s Dana, a teenage engineer searching for her uncle who has disappeared, and Cree Summer’s Ahni, a magical mystic. With a superb ensemble voice cast including Wayne Knight and Janelle Monáe, Bass X Machina has no shortage of star power.
However, much like Apple TV’s Murderbot, this sci-fi series isn’t reliant on its impressive cast alone to keep viewers engaged. With epic, immersive battles, constant twists, and a wild mix of genres at its core, Bass X Machina is a truly fresh take on the real-life story of Bass Reeves that is unpredictable, inventive, and brimming with the unlikely fusion of sci-fi and western plot elements that made Firefly so memorable all those years ago.
On the big screen, attempts to mix sci-fi and westerns have often fallen flat. One need only look at expensive misfires like 2011’s Cowboys & Aliens and 1999’s Wild Wild West to know that, for whatever reason, the pairing doesn’t seem to attract interest from audiences at the box office. Moreover, even the kindest critics would struggle to call these movies overlooked classics.
Bass X Machina Is One Of The Best Genre Mashups In Years
Westerns and sci-fi don’t seem to mix at a practical level when it comes to feature films, at least not on a blockbuster scale. In contrast, Bass X Machina proves that Netflix’s animated series could take the same character who was the subject of a po-faced Taylor Sheridan Western series, Lawman: Bass Reeves, and have him fighting killer machines alongside paranormal mystics in a twisted reinvention of the Wild West.
With stunning imagery that calls to mind Netflix’s earlier genre blender Blue Eye Samurai, Bass X Machina admittedly makes a pretty dramatic visual contrast with Firefly’s deliberately low-tech vision of the far future. However, fans of Firefly’s fast-paced action, sharp dialogue, themes of found family, and truly original mix of the two genres will find plenty to love here.
Only time will tell if Bass X Machina will receive a second season, or if the show will suffer the same ignominious fate as Firefly as well as sharing its atypical mix of genres. However, for now, Netflix’s Bass X Machina is an ideal substitute for any Firefly fans who still miss the influential show.
- Release Date
-
2026 – 2026-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Writers
-
Chad Handley
Cast
-
Janelle Monae
Glory (voice)
-
Brian Tyree Henry
Bass Reeves (voice)
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
