American Primeval

19

Man, those Mormons were evil. Certainly not the besuited young blonde boys who show up to your door asking you if you’ve heard the good news. Or however that goes. Nope, they are murdering pieces of shit, for real. Set way back when during the time of wagon trains and whatnot, this show has lots of battles with Native Americans and settlers heading out west. There are so many killings and so many dumb white dudes who constantly take off their hoods just in time to be recognized by dying of fleeing witnesses it gets silly. That honestly seemed like a real flaw in the storytelling. Betty Gilpin is good as usual and Taylor Kitsch continues to be a weirdo — albeit a decent weirdo. I’m not really certain who this show was for — and definitely seems like it was green-lit as a passion project of someone at Netflix who maybe hates BYU. I dunno, it was a bit muddled at times, but was interesting filmmaking and a decent watch if you’re into the whole Western thing. Still, though, I imagine the LDS folks are pretty unhappy with the portrayal of their church and its original leaders.

This was my original “capsule” review when I thought this show took place in 2024 and not 2025 and was included in my usual TV Catch-Up from 2024, where I do short recaps of shows I didn’t have time to do full reviews about. And it remains pretty accurate. But then I was doing this whole schtick in my Task review about how I can’t tell Tom Pelphrey and Taylor Kitsch apart (still can’t) and realized that this series took place in the year of our lord 2025. It’s still a little unclear if this was always planned as a miniseries, or if it was quietly canceled after one season and then retroactively retconned into something always meant to be a one-and-done. But, as it stands, this is all the American Primeval we’re ever going to get. And, frankly, it’s all we need. The story of a woman in 1857, Sarah (Gilpin), traveling across the country with her young son on her way to Utah to meet up with her husband. And all the horrors and absolutely smelly dudes she encounters. It seems that in the mid-1800s, life was brutal and short. Everyone wants to murder you or capture you or generally harm your body in some unspeakable way. There are bounty hunters everywhere and unscrupulous scammers galore. Along with the aforementioned bloodthirsty Mormons and very territorial tribes of Native Americans willing to massacre the hell out of anyone who crosses them. It’s all very violent. And, as mentioned, very smelly. Though, somehow, our focus couple – for lack of a better term — manage to not completely repulse each other despite definitely needing a shower.

So, in classic Western fashion, Sarah works her way toward her goal, doing anything and everything she can to protect her son along the way. Seems an attractive — or any, really — woman traveling alone in the wild west is a target for all sorts of chicanery. From bodily harm to general money scams. Everyone is a creep and nobody is trustworthy. That is, until she comes across your absolute Western trope of the haunted white man, Isaac Reed (Kitsch), who lives a solitary and hermetic life in the mountains after living amongst and learning from the Shoshone. An individual who is seemingly more animal than man. But, of course, is mostly traumatized and hardened by a personal loss that pushed him to be this way, and in Sarah sees a chance to save what he once couldn’t save. They fight, she resists, she’s not trusting, he’s not warm and fuzzy. He will stick an axe in some dude’s head or shoot a dude in the face without flinching. But in the pursuit of eventually, but reluctantly at first, protecting Sarah and her son. Eventually a trust and a bond is formed — despite the two constantly falling out and arguing due to them both having pretty acerbic personalities — and he agrees to be her guide and bodyguard on her way to her ultimate destination. A destination that we, as the viewer, are always a little dubious about. Turns out Sarah isn’t the innocent flower she’s pretending to be. And there are bounty hunters on her ass, who have been tracking her from the East Coast. So, between the general danger of being out on a plains and the persistent threat of these bounty hunters, we are constantly watching people coming at her and mostly ending up with cracked skulls.

Going on all around this main narrative is something called the Utah War. It’s not a thing I was aware of, but it was essentially the US Government soldiers fighting against a Mormon militia. Yes, those same nice folks who don’t drink Coke because caffeine is just too-too, and like to leave bibles in the side table drawers of two-star hotels, were some real pieces of work. I won’t go into it too much — I’m sure there are books and YouTubes about it — but suffice it to say that they really stirred up some shit by putting on masks (yes they’re the dummies who kept taking off their masks so as to be identified by those they assaulted) and massacring about 120 men, women and children in cold blood as they crossed through Utah territory on their way west. And, in classic white-guy fashion, blamed the massacre on the Indians. Issue is, one witness escapes and becomes the target of their ire. As if the Federal troops investigating the giant pile of dead bodies couldn’t tell the difference between a bunch of people murdered by a bunch of white guys and the local Native population. Nobody was very bright back then, apparently. But, yeah, this show didn’t cut the Mormons any slack. They really made them look like absolute monsters. Especially Brigham Young, who I should have known was a really horrible dude after seeing him portrayed in the same way in Under the Banner of Heaven. Dude should not have a university named after him. Though wouldn’t be the first awful white man to have that honor.

Ultimately, there may be one too many scenes of Kitsch running full speed at another assailant with some sort of sharp object in his hand, and one too many moments of Gilpin’s son in peril. But, if you’re a fan of the Western genre, it’s pretty well made. If you’re squeamish, I would tell you to beware, however. Dane DeHaan’s character — who is also a survivor of a massacre being gaslit by his own Mormon crew — walks around the entire series with his brain basically exposed. He’s terrifically sad-looking and is great, but it’s really hard to look at him. You may also need to turn on the captions to work through Shea Whigham’s mumbling drawl and watch through your fingers as Saura Lightfoot-Leon‘s character always seems on the brink of some brutal bodily violation. Which, again, goes to the question of who this was made for. It’s a little too nasty for someone just looking to learn a little history. And maybe a little too involved for those who might want an action drama. I imagine the filming of this thing was probably as brutal as the surroundings it portrays. Well, maybe not, but everything was outside in the elements and clearly in the middle of nowhere. So, someone — presumably Mark. L. Smith — must have sold this difficult, niche entertainment to someone at Netflix on the pretense of a foaming viewership just clamoring for this dark, violent Western. It did look good, but was bleak in a way that didn’t exactly leave you wanting to recommend it for fear your friends would down a bottle of pills and blame you in the note. Sorry, that was uncalled for, but you get what I mean.