Netflix’s brutal western American Primeval is not for the faint-hearted ...Middle East

In one chilling scene in American Primeval, a Native American of the Shoshone tribe asks a white migrant in her camp a disturbing question: “Why do you people have so much hunger to kill?” The response? “Fear.”

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.

Tales of brutality in the West are nothing new, though the most recent resurgence is largely thanks to Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe. American Primeval promises something more neo-noir and violent, and, written by the same man behind 2015 film The Revenant, Mark L Smith, it has the same gritty visuals of its Oscar-winning predecessor. In forest scenes I half-expected Leonardo DiCaprio to appear from behind a bush.

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.

This is most clear in a frankly horrific migrant stop massacre, which kicks off in the middle of the opening episode. A spectacular tableau of raw, unflinching savagery, with those responsible killing everyone without mercy. There are only four survivors.

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Sara (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.

Newly married devout Mormons, Jacob and Abish Pratt (Dane Dehaan and Saura Lightfoot-Leon), also survive. Jacob adores his wife, but Abish? Not so much. Still, it’s God’s will they be together, apparently. Separated in the catastrophe, Jacob vows to find her, while Abish relies on her wits to survive.

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.

American Primeval soon becomes suffocatingly overpacked, with at least six major storylines and 17 main characters demanding attention. That’s far too many.

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.

Dehaan’s portrayal of a man having a crisis of faith on all levels is phenomenal to watch, if at times horrifying. Similarly, Leon stands out as Abish finds a sense of self amid an unapologetically manipulative world. Kitsch and Gilpin, as incredible as they are, lead a tale that feels like a puzzle-piece jammed into a more complex story.

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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