Steampunk and Space Opera with Bosh and Brave

“Bosh and Brave” from Black Moor Productions sets up the steampunk world with space opera technology like interstellar travel in a way that might turn listeners off. The audio diary mechanic in the series works best with a character we like. Paige Hopkinson is not that kind of character. While we feel sorry for her situation, there’s little in the way of characterization. She’s an engineer looking to leave her home planet of Flora and the city of Grand Ivorglen’s workers district. A place similar to the 13 districts in the Hunger Games’ series in terms of vibes.

Evil and Fear meets the Bosh and the Brave

The story takes a dark turn in episode two after Paige becomes a survivor in a steampunk post-apocalypse. Imagine a classic Asimov robot story and combine it with mass murder. Unlike Asimov, the villains aren’t the robots inadvertently or purposefully trying to break the three laws of robotics. Instead the automatons killed hundreds if not thousands of lower-class people because the aristocrats wanted to end a family line.

Hopkinson and the heir to the Cadwell fortune learn the truth after overhearing the other aristocrats. Like a rack focus in a movie, you forget about the unquantifiable numbers of deaths when it moves toward the trauma of Edgar Cadwell. It’s subtle enough that you don’t ask questions like why the aristocrats committed genocide on a planet. If a reason is given, it’s not given much attention. While it shows how truly evil the aristocrats are, a moment of reflection makes it seem over the top.

Scene-Sequel Format

If you could boil down Bosh and Brave into a single storytelling concept, it would be the scene-sequel format. Basically this structure can be thought of as action and reaction. Scenes are action and sequels are reactions to the scenes. The episodes switch back and forth between these two Scene” types and end on cliffhangers that the writer recaps in the next installment. To some this will feel like a crutch or cheap trick to advance the story. There were certainly moments where the recap was less interesting than the potential of the action that happened in the background. Perhaps with a more skilled writer(s) or more experience under their belt, the story would flow better. It might even benefit from single episode format collecting all 11 episodes. As it stands, the first season is decently written for a show that came out in 2016.

At the time of this writing, Black Moor Productions might have moved on to other ventures. There website is lacking for updates since 2018. Before that, they were working on a spin-off series called “Captains and Airships” which might answer some of the issues people have regarding the world and characters.

Bosh and Brave Season One Rating

Overall “Bosh and Brave” is a solid steampunk with wonderful performances from Clover Grayson as Hopkinson who nails both the good and bad emotions her character experiences throughout the first season.

8.5/10 Stars