American Primeval (season 1)

Netflix isn't known for its concern over historical accuracy. Does it get American Primeval right?
79/10091909
Starring
Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Dane DeHaan
Creator
Mark L. Smith
Rating
TV-MA
Genre
Action, Drama, Thriller, Western
Release date
Jan 9, 2025
Where to watch
Netflix
Overall Score
Rating Overview
Story/Plot
Visuals/Cinematography
Performance
Direction
Non-Wokeness
Rating Summary
Watching Netflix generated content has always been a toss of the dice. For every Better Call Saul, there are five Rebel Moons and countless forgettable barely mid-ranged streaming-fodder best used as background noise. American Primeval falls somewhere between the latter and Saul.

Much of American Primeval stands on the shoulders of the greats. The cinematography, dialogue, and characters are a contrived hodgepodge of "Western" tropes pieced together by filmmakers who are fans of the genre but who lack a definitive style of their own.

That said, even knockoffs can be entertaining.
Audience Woke Score (Vote)
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American Primeval delves into the early days of the American frontier, exploring the lives of settlers and American Indians and the conflicts that arise as they navigate the harsh and unforgiving landscape.

American Primeval (S1:E1-3) Review

If you were hoping for a wholly original take on the American Frontier genre, American Primeval may not be for you. Everything from its washed-out and gray-blue color palette to its archetypal characters has been done and done. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s terrible.

Rather, the first three episodes of American Primeval do a decent job of entertaining despite, and even possibly thanks to its reliance on what came before. Although it’s relatively clear that director Peter Berg, best known for his character roles in a slew of films and TV programs over the last 40 years, doesn’t have a strong stylistic vision of his own, he makes a fair approximation of those others who do.

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It’s such that, while you may not be particularly surprised by the narrative or wowed by beautifully framed vignettes that are beautifully framed because they are beautiful instead of meaningful, episodes are easily digestible with enough Cowboys and Indians to keep action fans happy, including a handful of surprisingly well-done action sequences, and sufficient interpersonal drama and spur rattling for the Western aficionados to enjoy, all wrapped up in well-paced 48-60 minute packages.

The cast also does a very nice job with the material, especially considering that the been-there-done-that-script doesn’t exactly scream “groundbreaking.” Often, with a program of this caliber, the “talent” is peppered with the noticeably weak and inexperienced, but the casting directors for American Primeval should be applauded. The least skilled performer(s) still manage to maintain a distraction-free focus while the program’s leads sell their repeated blunders or tough posturing with aplomb in excess of even the shakier scripted moments.

Betty Gilpin, who plays the lead female role, as well as the two children “in her care,” are arguably the strongest performers, never over or underplaying the sometimes inconsistent script. However, Taylor Kitsch is most surprising as the quiet and damaged stranger. Like the rest of the program, he doesn’t give us anything that we haven’t seen before, but strong, brooding, and mostly silent seem to be his sweet spot.

All in all, while the first half of American Primeval isn’t going to usurp the great Westerns like Lonesome Dove and Unforgiven, and there’s still plenty of time for everything to go South, there are certainly a lot worse things one could watch.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Big Heepum BS
  • A Shoshone Chief, a secondary character who only appears for a few brief scenes, happens to be a woman.
    • Even for the Shoshone, who was known for allowing women to hold significant roles in decision-making, this is pushing it. What’s more is that the scale of the incongruity is only magnified by its being the series only conceit to wokeness (at least for the first three episodes).
  • There is one short scene that depicts what might be construed as an attempt of the writers to dip their toes into the stereotypical one-sided, anti-white, pro-American Indian narrative loved by the Left. However, to me it seemed less a commentary than a bit of clichéd and unimaginative writing.
Mormon Bates
  • While the program could attempt to lay waste to the Mormon faith, it instead does a fair job of indicting the evil Mormon characters as evil despite their faith rather than as a symptom of it. That said, any real-world historical ambiguity about Brigham Young’s possible role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre is Left for scholarly debate elsewhere. In this, he is an evil man motivated by his twisted perspective of his religion.
    • Whether or not this constitutes being woke is debatable. On the one hand, aspects of Mormonism divert so sufficiently from both Catholicism and Protestantism that the Catholic Church has declared Mormon baptisms to be non-Christian, and many from both groups believe that far too many LDS beliefs are incompatible with historic Christian Faith. Where the debate falls is in whether or not the writers knew of this schism. If they did, then it is possible that they believed they were not falling back onto the woke trope of portraying those of Christian Faith as the villains.
      • One last thing. So far, the program has also contained “good” Mormons.
  • The only surviving “good” male Mormon seems to have lost his mind a bit.
What’s Not Woke
  • There are good guys, villains, and the gray depicted in mostly equal measures from the various demographics represented in the program.

 

American Primeval (S1:E4-6) Review

The second half of American Primeval neither drops the ball nor course corrects to become the next American Western Classic. It is more of the same sometimes north of middling by-the-numbers Manifest Destiny Era drama as the initial three episodes, held together by generally excellent pacing, not quite A-list onscreen talent, and well-delivered tension judiciously broken up by cathartic above-average action sequences.

Unfortunately, some continuity issues and a general lack of attention to detail, like a character who is referred to as a lieutenant in one scene and sergeant in the very next and a crippled leg that never appears to be crippled, resulted in us lowering the overall series score. Likewise, we penalized some ham-fisted tropes like an artificially generated romance forced into the show’s final act in a schlocky effort to provide extra oomph to an expectation-subverting “twist.”

Having said that, if you can forgive these and a completely unearned optimistic ending (were the cameras to keep rolling, the protagonists would be dead within three days), you’ll likely be able to enjoy American Primeval.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Pale Face Firewater Wampum Many Moons Andrew Jackson
  • Well, it didn’t take long after the third episode for the series to stop the show, get out its soapbox, and needlessly preach of the White man’s never-ending and unmatched bloodlust while painting, if not all Indians as noble savages, at least the Shoshone.
    • Even Red Feather, who in earlier episodes unceremoniously slit the throats of bound and unarmed women, is painted as a tragic figure all but forced into war by the white man’s love of death.
    • In one exchange with the female chief, she asks the white woman, “Why do you think your people have so much hunger to kill?” She answers, “Fear, I think, of what they don’t understand- of you.”
  • In another scene featuring the captain of the local military garrison and the erstwhile kidnapped Mormon woman, the two look meaningfully in the direction of Red Feather and his warriors, who are superheroes posed on a ridge, and say the following. She reiterates that the Shoshone weren’t responsible for the earlier massacre, to which he responds that it doesn’t matter and his superiors will attack and kill them all anyway because “…this country decided these lands don’t belong to them. These tribes just stand in the way.”
    • It’s not that he’s entirely wrong, it’s that the chances of two completely random people from such different walks of life and have had such different life experiences yet share a rather radical (for the time) belief (especially when one was recently kidnapped by and saw everyone she knows murdered by Indians) happen to come together by a series of unbelievable coincidences at the perfect cinematic moment to lament their belief that the Indians are blameless.
Imagine There’s No Heaven
    • Whereas the program mostly restrains itself from painting any one type of people as a monolith, it does clearly have a perspective on not only Mormonism but religion as a whole.
      • In one scene, the kidnapped Mormon woman, while talking to Red Feather, says, “Your gods tell you to kill the Whites. The Whites’ God tells them to kill you. Perhaps the gods are playing a game with all of us to see who can kill the most.”
        • Rather than dismissing this concept, Red Feather takes it to heart and chooses to treat peacefully with Whitey thereafter.
        • From this point on, Brigham Young is frequently shown proselytizing and praying over his flock. It is always done at a skewed camera angle to drive home his crooked nature. Furthermore, he preaches in rather generic and innocuous Christian vernacular rather than obviously wrong or even some of the Mormons’ more controversial beliefs, which would at least be an indictment of them specifically instead of all of Christianity and the Christian-adjacent as appears to be the intention.

ADDENDUM

Debate
Rebuttal

James Carrick

James Carrick is a passionate film enthusiast with a degree in theater and philosophy. James approaches dramatic criticism from a philosophic foundation grounded in aesthetics and ethics, offering insight and analysis that reveals layers of cinematic narrative with a touch of irreverence and a dash of snark.

9 comments

  • INC3NSUS

    January 15, 2025 at 2:08 pm

    I live in Utah, nice to occasionally see a few Mormons depicted as bad guys, and good guys like the rest of everyone and not on some high horse or some ultra bullshit to paint them all with one brush.

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    Reply

  • H8Woke

    January 19, 2025 at 9:03 am

    I genuinely enjoy this site, as it’s rare to find platforms like this. However, one thing I dislike is the promotion of woke or “wokish” movies and TV shows. These should never be endorsed here. When users see the “Worth It” category, they might assume all the shows listed are “based” and not woke, but that’s not always the case. The whole point of reaching out to sites like this is to get away from all the woke nonsense. In my opinion, a woke or “wokish” movie or TV show can never truly be “Worth It” to watch and should never be a placed in a category deemed “Worth it”.

    5
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    Reply

  • Ktuff_morning

    January 20, 2025 at 11:21 am

    An untold story about radical fundamentalist Christian militias in early America. Observe how the actions of the violent Lutheran cult are in direct contradiction to their own avowed moral principles. Truly they are the most savage tribe of all.

    A timely subject. Like modern Republican Christians their true principles are satanic; lying, stealing and violence. I make my case with but three single words: the orange sleazeball.

    Oh god the violence. The violence is so extreme it makes me wonder how much worse it can get. How jaded is the Netflix audience? That’s one kind of woke I’d like to see more often; moralizing against the ever-increasing amplitude of grotesqueness in the depictions of violence in mainstream culture. Not a problem for Christian shocktroopers like you though, right J. Carrick? Your writing mirrors the savagery of the violence. Got hate? I’ll say. You set a fine example and you’re making the world kinder and just./sarcasm

    But is it woke? Is there some kind of moralizing run amok? Not so far. The usual Hollywoke scheme is the demonization of straight white males and the lionization of females, blacks and jews. Well, they somehow managed not to shoehorn a black actor in there, we’ve only seen hints of female godhood and no jews in this old west (if you want to see the most woke jewish western of all time check out The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs-such pure hostility towards christianity in the traditionally Christian western genre that even I will admit is over the line) but I’ve only seen the first episode so give it time.

    Who dat lady? I reconize her from somewhere. That’s Liberty Belle from GLOW! What a great series. A glorious resurrection of the un-PC 80s albeit with some minor obligatory woke. Mark Maron was a welcome breath of fetid chauvinist air (who happens to be an itinerant liberal btw -respect).

    …where’s the woke in your review? What exactly is the point of this website? Your review was nothing more than a bad-vibing of the project with some grudging concessions you hold out with two fingers. Hollywood is outside your “tribe” so you’re at “war” with it. I’m telling you you have a manifest hostility towards the art form of film and TV. You need to learn about the art form. Yes, I’m aware of your degree but you didn’t really learn. You clung to your ideology like a comfort blanket. You didn’t try on any other suits. Like most Republicans you simply refused to evolve unlike liberals. You truly are a savage.

    Reply

  • Ktuff_morning

    January 20, 2025 at 11:26 am

    @INC3NSUS Look who doesn’t like generalization all of a sudden. Disgusting. You’re all the same.

    Reply

  • Ktuff_morning

    January 21, 2025 at 9:15 am

    Kindly let me explain what I mean by trying on other suits.

    Edward Norton said acting is just “playing dress-up”. It was a self-deprecating reductive statement. Funny. But also profound. Actors wear many costumes but they also adopt the thinking and emotions of others. They examine the worldviews different than their own. They practice empathy. Empathy is a trait of higher mammals. Socialization. Higher-order thinking.

    Each and every actor you see in every show you watch demonstrates higher-order thinking. There’s a reason they tend to be liberal: “Liberal: willing to respect or accept behavior or opinions different from one’s own; open to new ideas.”

    Conservatives on the other hand exhibit lower-order thinking. Somewhere in their early development they chose to live as reptiles instead of a mammals; a self-centered un-empathetic existence. They ignore the points of view of others and their minds are closed to new ideas. Most likely this reptilian psychology is rooted in organized religion.

    Organized religion teaches two things: compartmentalization and tribalism.

    Compartmentalization is being comfortable holding simultaneously contradictory beliefs (like dinosaur bones and the bible) AKA being comfortable with hypocrisy. Endured prolonged contradiction leads to psychological scarring and retards psychological development.

    The tribalism of church teaches fear and distrust of “the other” and to ignore and reject unseen the worldviews of others.

    These two traits of compartmentalism and tribalism are tailor-made precursors for racism; the very heart of conservatism.

    Conservatism is deeply immoral. Contradicting their own professed value systems when it suits them is the most glaring evidence. Another is the Republican party is the undisputed home for racists. Another is how conservatives try to turn concepts of decency like “liberal”, “critical race theory”, “diversity” and yes “woke” into bad words.

    Conservativism is a mental illness. The traits most predictive of conservatism according to the study “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition” Jost, et.al. are: “death anxiety, system instability, dogmatism/intolerance of ambiguity, closed-mindedness, low tolerance of uncertainty, high needs for order, structure, and closure, low integrative complexity, fear of threat and loss, and low self-esteem.” The researchers conclude “the core ideology of conservatism stresses resistance to change and a justification of inequality.” In addition, fMRI scans of the brain consistently show conservatives have higher activity in the brain related with fear and disgust.

    Yes, I’m a liberal and yes I’m better than you. I’m absolutely better than you. I always will be better than you. You’ll never catch up because you never grew up.

    But it’s not too late for you to slither across the finish line of life with some evolution. Maybe you can pass along some of that evolution to others.

    #1 Leave the church. The bible is fiction. Reject the tribal identity. Throw away your symbology. Live by the ten commandments and influence others by example. Keep your stinking fear to yourself.

    #2 Read.
    “When Anger Hurts” by McKay and Fanning
    “Please Understand Me II” by Keirsey Bates
    “Conservatives Without Conscience” by Dean
    “Authoritarian Nightmare” by Dean
    The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov and the writings of modern-day Hari Seldon Paul Krugman.
    “Disaster Capitalism” by Naomi Klein
    “Sapiens” by Harari
    “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Price
    …anything under “liberalism” at fivebooks.

    #3 socialize with others outside of your tribe.

    I hope this lesson isn’t lost on you. Ignorance is no excuse and neither is asking a fictional cartoon character for forgiveness. You have been told.

    And now you can see why a conservative writing movie reviews is quite pathetic.

    Reply

  • [email protected]

    January 23, 2025 at 11:28 pm

    Not accurate. Hollywood
    Slowly rewriting history to meet the agenda.

    Reply

  • Ktuff_morning

    January 26, 2025 at 1:59 am

    @[email protected]
    A pithy comment wrapped in extra creamy mint? Depends.

    Reply

  • Ktuff_morning

    February 10, 2025 at 11:14 am

    American Primeval glorifies despotic political violence. Brigham Young viciously and violently uses his position to torture and kill his political enemies, to cement and broaden his power all the while grotesquely using christianity as a justification. This is a virtue signaling of the negative sort. Negative virtue signaling run amok. This is right wing woke.

    This is an extremely dangerous glorification of political violence in the name of christianity that mirrors the Trump catastrophe.

    Trump openly calls for violence at his campaign rallies and on his social media posts. He incited one of his supporters to beat Nancy Pelosi’s 80 year old husband in the head with a hammer. She stepped down as Speaker for concern for her husband and Trump STILL mocks her.

    “Part of the problem … is nobody wants to hurt each other anymore.”
    “Try not to hurt him. If you do, I’ll defend you in court, don’t worry about it.”
    “I’d like to punch him in the face.”
    “I love the old days. You know what they used to do to guys like that when they were in a place like this? They’d be carried out on a stretcher, folks.”
    Speaking approvingly of an extra-judicial killing of a suspect by police in Portland, OR: “That’s the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.”

    Trump called for his private army the Proud boys to invade the White House to try to overthrow the election. Six police officers died and many beaten. 1500 magats were arrested and convicted by jury trials and Trump set them all free.

    The message is crystal clear; the United States president wants violence on his behalf and he will set you free.

    Dear reader, do you “proudly support Trump”?

    Trump mocked Taylor Swift being booed at the Superbowl. He tweeted “I hate Taylor Swift”. The president of the United States actually tweeted “I hate Taylor Swift”.

    Will it bring you joy to see Taylor Swift fear for her life? Will it bring you joy to see her killed?

    How do you rationalize this? What possible justification can you have for ignoring this behavior?

    How does this fit in with your value system?

    Your value system cannot possibly be christian.

    Exactly how evil are you?

    Reply

  • Ramvicious

    February 10, 2025 at 8:57 pm

    “Trump called for his private army the Proud boys to invade the White House to try to overthrow the election. Six police officers died and many beaten. 1500 magats were arrested and convicted by jury trials and Trump set them all free. ”

    Spread more lies. You realize this is recent history and not something you can rewrite to make people believe? Which 6 officers died because of jan 6th?

    Reply

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