Netflix’s new western series is a dark and bloody affair.

American prehistoric era In its limited run of six episodes, it makes no compromises. Murder, rape, chaos and suicide characterize this relentlessly brutal world. The only thing deadlier than the frontier itself are the men who occupy it: devious Mormon settlers, ruthless Native American tribes, greedy bounty hunters. And a few good men and women struggling to survive amidst all the wickedness and depravity.

It reminded me so much of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s 2015 film The revenant, that I wasn’t the least bit surprised to find out that it was written by the same person, Mark L. Smith. However, the shared DNA between film and limited series is evident in every image The revenant is more focused and poetic and more closely aligned with the caliber of its stars.

“Primeval” refers to a time before history, to the earliest days of humanity, and evokes a certain feeling of raw primacy. It’s a fitting title for a series about the American frontier at its bloodiest and least romantic. I have often thought of the famous quote from Thomas Hobbes Leviathandescribes the world of the show succinctly: “No art; no letters; no company; and, worst of all, the constant fear and threat of violent death; and the life of man, lonely, poor, evil, brutal and short.”

“There’s a difference between civilization and civilization,” Shea Whigham’s character Jim Bridger tells Betty Gilpin’s Sara Rowell as she finds herself at Fort Bridger, surrounded by violent and unpredictable men. “You should go back to Boston where there’s more of both.”

However, Rowell cannot return to Boston. She has a bounty on her head and has traveled west with her young son Devin (Preston Mota) to avoid certain death. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. Bridger introduces her to the lonely miner Isaac Reed. Taylor Kitsch plays this strong and quiet bearded loner and does so with a ferocity and passion that I’ve never seen from the actor, even though he’s had some great roles over the years. It’s everything that makes a great romance. The rugged and weathered reluctant hero. The damsel in distress. But this is not a love story, no matter how much it plays with the idea.

There are two almost completely different stories at play American prehistoric era. The first follows Sara and Isaac on their harrowing flight over the mountains of the Utah Territory, through snowy forests filled with wolves and bandits, accompanied by the young local girl Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) on the run from her own tragic life. Everyone here has a tragic past and most have a tragic future waiting just around the bend in the river.

In the second main storyline, we delve into the violent, bloody conflict known as the Mormon War, which took place between 1857 and 1858 in what is now Utah and Wyoming. In this conflict Sons of Anarchy Alum Kim Coates plays LDS leader Brigham Young, portrayed here as a ruthless, fanatical villain who will stop at nothing to create a home for his people.

The events are loosely based on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in which Mormon militiamen of the Utah Territorial Militia, or Nauvoo Legion, slaughtered at least 120 members of the Baker-Fancher wagon train. In some details the show follows the story pretty closely. The militiamen hire Paiutes and make the attack look like the work of Native Americans. The actual fight that followed lasted days, but on the show it’s over within minutes. In both cases, the militia kills witnesses to cover up the massacre. However, a lot of liberties are taken here, including the appearance of a number of fictional characters who survive the attack. In the show, Brigham Young is the primary architect of all hostilities, while debate continues among historians and scholars about his involvement in the historical record.

Regardless, we are not meant to watch American prehistoric era as a faithful retelling of events, but rather as a kind of parable about the brutality of man, the way prejudices and misunderstandings and fear and greed can bring out the worst and sometimes the best in us.

The Shoshone tribe has its share of violent warriors, but overall they are portrayed as brave and honorable people who just want to be left alone by the white settlers, Mormon or otherwise. Captain Dellinger of the US Army is an honorable man who seeks only the truth and whose writings are full of hope for a better future. Isaac Reed, lost as he is to the world, is a brave and compassionate man who risks everything to help complete strangers. The same applies to two moons. And Whigham steals every scene in which he appears as the affable, suicidal Bridger.

Abish Pratt (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) plays a young Mormon woman who survives the Meadows Massacre and is taken in – initially against her will – by the courageous Shoshone Red Feather (Derek Hinkey). I wish we had explored these two characters more in this short, six-part series. This is a problem of either too much or too little. We don’t have enough episodes to adequately explore each character; Either that or we have too much going on and too many characters to follow.

While American prehistoric era is economical in its running time, of the two storylines running through, only one feels like it has a satisfying ending. And although they each begin in the same place, the two stories end with virtually no connective tissue left. Either would have been a good show or movie, but there’s little reason to have both on the same series. If they had somehow turned around at the end and connected both characters and stories, I would have thought differently. From the looks of it, they have become almost completely different after the massacre. We switch back and forth between the two, but aside from them taking place at the same time in the same general area, there’s nothing left to bridge the gap.

Still, I enjoyed it, even if the whole affair is dark, violent and depressing in its nasty, brutal depiction of the state of nature American prehistoric era much. I’m a fan of westerns. I like stripped down, sparse stories that are as much about the feeling and atmosphere as they are about the characters. Blood meridian comes to mind immediately. The American frontier is as much a character here as any of the speaking parts, much like The revenant. And the attention to detail in the costumes and sets is exceptional. I love how dirty everyone is, full of dirt and grime and living hard in a hard world. I wish more shows would do this.

I’ve complained endlessly about how this isn’t the case on shows like… The walking dead. It’s much more realistic and immersive when characters look wild in the wilderness, their hair disheveled, dirty and scarred. I joked that if I ever filmed a Western or a zombie show, I would send the entire cast and crew on a multi-day backpacking trip in preparation just to feel how dirty you feel being outdoors and lives in secret None of your things will ever really get clean in campfire smoke. I’ve never seen a show that did this so well American prehistoric era.

I’m a little less enthusiastic about the cinematography, although it has its moments. Director Peter S. Berg and cinematographer Jacques Jouffret rely a bit too heavily on shaky cameras and zoomed-in motion shots. In moderation, this can add a sense of hecticness to a scene. Too much and it quickly becomes tiring.

I like the washed out filters that rob the landscape of its color and life. This sets the tone: bleak, desaturated, ghostly; Everywhere you turn there is a makeshift cemetery just waiting for graves; The veil between worlds is a little too thin in this barren place. But I could use some more beautiful shots of snow-capped mountain ranges and sweeping vistas and less dizzyingly blurry cameras. These have their place in the middle of battle, in desperate moments of escape, but it’s an overused technique and one that can almost make a show seem cheaper than it is. At least there is no slow motion (when looking at you). Rebel Moon).

Filming itself lasted 135 days, most of which took place outdoors in extreme weather conditions in New Mexico, interrupted by the Hollywood strikes. “We shot 99% outdoors. We were only on stages for three days,” Berg said in an interview with Forbes last year. “Everyone thought it would be so nice to get on a stage, but we were all in such a wild state mentally and physically that we didn’t want to be inside. It felt good for a second and then we just wanted to get out and in again.” This wild state certainly translates to the screen.

All in all, American prehistoric era It’s a bit of a mixed bag, but I still recommend it, even if the nature of the show will be unenjoyable for many. It’s raw and sparse and violent and atmospheric and kitsch and Gilpin and the other leads do a great job of bringing their characters to life, but it’s oddly structured and its divided focus never quite pays off in the end. The writing also feels uneven at times, and some of the performances can lean towards melodrama. As a cinematic work of art, however, it is exactly what I had hoped for: sophisticated, unusual and independent.

American prehistoric era is now available to stream on Netflix.

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