This perfectly sums up Netflix’s new six-episode western, tracking multiple factions through a merciless 1857 Utah, where a philosophy known as “manifest destiny” is driving a violent bloodbath of a civil war with murder, rape and scheming in the name of righteousness. For Mormons, Utah is their Zion; for the US, property its been celestially decreed to expand; and for Native Americans, their invaded homeland.
Preston Mota as Devin Rowell, Taylor Kitsch as Isaac and Betty Gilpin as Sara Rowell (Photo: Matt Kennedy/Netflix)
But American Primeval, like its characters, knows when to use violence. We’re thankfully saved rape scenes, although they’re heavily implied, and cruelty comes in quieter, more calculated moments. But when the characters let loose? Boy, do they go for it.
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Read MoreSara (Betty Gilpin) and son Devin make it out thanks to Issac (Taylor Kitsch), a brooding, gun-handy man who lives in the woods. Sara’s a city girl travelling to reunite with her husband in a town called Crooks Springs. She’s also hiding a deadly secret, and her sheer stubbornness to do anything other than get to her destination – despite it being over a mountain – is nothing but an annoyance to Isaac, suffering his own haunted past. Cue the inevitable sparks.
It’s these tales through which we navigate this world. At least, that’s the intention. Running into Mormon militia (led by Kim Coates’ fantastically chilling version of leader Brigham Young), a kindly Native American Indian nation separated into factions, US Army soldiers and outlaws, the series feels like multiple vignettes: all interesting stories on their own, but watered-down when they’re smashed together.
Derek Hinkey as Red Feather (Photo: Matt Kennedy/Netflix)I ended up gravitating towards one or two stories, and got annoyed when the action kept yoyo-ing between the others. Jacob and Abish more succinctly capture the era’s horrors, religious zealotism, ego and community within each faction than Sara’s familial quest alongside a hunk with chequered history. In contrast, Sara and Isaac’s story feels surplus to requirement, even if the most visually stunning as they hike their way through snowy mountain terrain on horseback.
American Primeval could have had better legs as an anthology with loose connective threads. But if you hitch yourself on this bandwagon, this is a wild ride that captures a historical turning point in a relentlessly unflinching watch.
‘American Primeval’ is streaming on Netflix
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