After one of many calamities befalls the bedeviled pioneers traversing the unforgiving landscape of American Primeval, we hear these words of cold comfort: “It’s just pain.”
Is it ever. Relentlessly brutal and thus soul-crushingly and mind-numbingly predictable, Netflix’s six-part odyssey into a Western hellhole, from director/executive producer Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) and writer Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), is more a test of endurance than entertainment. Wagon Train (for those with long TV-Western memories) was never like this, though perhaps it should have been. Describing Primeval as the Wild West hardly does it justice.
Deadwood was a Magic Kingdom of escapism compared to this vision of the forbidding Utah territory of 1857. Into this lawless land (filmed on painstakingly authentic location in New Mexico) wanders a woman of mystery, Sarah Rowell (the ever-fearless and excellent Betty Gilpin) and her young son Devin (Preston Mota), en route to a husband who may or may not be expecting or wanting them. Seeking “simple transport” out of the Wyoming territory’s rugged Fort Bridger trading post, run by a hugely enjoyable Shea Whigham as the cagy and unflappable Jim Bridger, the Rowells eventually enlist a taciturn lone-wolf guide and sometimes protector, Isaac (stoic Taylor Kitsch), who was raised by Shoshone and emotionally scarred by tragedy.
With a stowaway young Native girl, the mute Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier), tagging along, this motley crew barely survives a horrible and unflinchingly filmed massacre before embarking on a treacherous trek where any bad thing imaginable is right around the corner. You name it, American Primeval‘s got it: outlaws, bandits, unscrupulous bounty hunters, hostile (though not always) Natives, perilous weather, ravenous wildlife, and — worst of all — marauding and murderous Mormon militiamen on a messianic crusade to slaughter anyone they feel threatens their separatist sovereignty. (Sons of Anarchy‘s Kim Coates fairly chews the scenery as the manipulative zealot Brigham Young.)
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Even John Wayne might have second thoughts about moseying into this unsparing inferno, where anyone with a shred of decency is lucky to make it to the next scene. Don’t say you weren’t warned.
(Pro tip: If you’re looking for a more enjoyable Western to stream, check out 2017’s Emmy-winning Fearless. The only thing it’s missing from its female-driven cast is the remarkable Betty Gilpin.)
American Primeval, Streaming Now, Netflix
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