American Primeval (Netflix-2025)
At about the halfway point of this blood drenched 6 episode western series, we thought, "This show contains every known method of violence and carnage possible......in fact, just about everything except a pack of wolves yappin' at the characters' heels......
We spoke too soon. At some point , along came the wolves......attempting a full scale home invasion of a wood cabin.....
Return with us, those who dare (and hopefully with strong stomachs) to the Wyoming Territory of the mid 1850's. Mormon Big Cheese Brigham Young (portrayed here by Kim Coates like a scary, creepy Bond villain) supposedly rules the land like a sanctimonious, theocratic Godfather.
We say supposedly because the Territory, brimming with abused, enraged indigenous tribes, U.S. Cavalry, assorted outlaws, bounty hunters and travelling settlers, is a seething hellscape of random violence, sudden death and free flowing blood. Anybody can die at any moment.......you only have to wait a few minutes before someone's lifespan comes to an abrupt end, via bullet, arrow, ax and plain old fists.
Writer Mark L. Smith and director Peter Berg took their inspiration from the Robert Redford's 1972 wilderness epic 'Jeremiah Johnson'. True enough, from the look of the series, and it also brought us recollections of the other equally bloody, cruel and spare 'revisionist' Westerns that permeated the 1970's
We follow the perilous odysseys of mountain recluse Issac Reed (Taylor Kitsch) and fugitive Sarah Holloway (Betty Gilpin), with a bounty on her head for murdering her husband. The fiercely determined woman is travelling with her crippled son Devin, hoping to reunite them both with Devin's real father. (Also along for ride - Two Moons, a mute, runaway Native American girl (Shawnee Pourier) )
In a parallel plotline, young Mormon Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) has barely survived the infamous Mountain Meadow Massacre, in which Mormon Militia and hooded Native tribesmen. slaughtered 200 settlers (including Mormons like Jacob). Now obsessed with vengeance and horribly scarred from a scalping, Jacob's determined to find his beloved wife Abish, who's been abducted by feared and fearsome Shoshone Chief Red Feather (Derek Hinkey).
Meanwhile, the forbiddingly sinister Brigham Young tries using his oozing insincere diplomacy to buy a fort established by legendary Frontiersman Jim Bridger (Shea Wigham). But the wily Bridger stands unintimidated by Young's polite, veiled threats.
To say that non stop nauseating butchery bedevils all these characters every step of the way would be putting it way too mildly. So prepare for catastrophic levels of violence in every episode.
While we admire Mark Smith and Peter Berg's dedication to making their show the most unflinching, realistic brutal experience imaginable, their conception of Betty Gilpin's Sarah Hollway is constantly problematic. We're asked to believe this iron-willed woman, as ferociously protective of her son as a Mama Grizzly, makes one stupid decision after another, putting herself, her son and Issac in dire peril. Her sheer stubborn stupidity quickly becomes an unintentional running joke throughout the series. Memo to Smith and Berg : Not a good look, guys. Doesn't make sense......
Tough stuff, if you can take it, with excellent performances all around. But don't look for historical accuracy here.....this show's out to make you gasp, not teach you history. (And we can't image the Mormons were too pleased with it).
3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2). For those who thought "The Wild Bunch" had too low a body count.......
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