‘American Primeval’ Review | A Vicious History Creates Western Glory

2024 was one of the best years in memory for the Western genre. There were underrated masterpieces like The Dead Don’t Hurt, The Settlers, and The Thicket, expensive, bloated epics like Horizon: An American Saga, fun genre-benders like The Last Stop at Yuma County and Place of Bones, and interesting true stories like End of the Rope and The Night They Came Home. It seems like the trend is continuing, with the first great series of 2025 being a barn-storming historical Western with unforgettable performances. American Primeval is a phenomenal Netflix series with enough action, intrigue, history, and artistry to please nearly everybody.

Feeling like a mix between The Searchers, The Revenant, Deadwood, and A Fistful of Dollars, American Primeval has a large cast spread out across multiple storylines that all intersect in fascinating ways. Jacques Jouffret’s cinematography oscillates between brutal intimacy with the series’ characters and staggeringly beautiful compositions of nature, which iterates one of the show’s main themes — how violence and civilization are connected. People say January is the throw-away month of the year, where films and television go to die, but American Primeval will surely remain one of the best shows of 2025.

The Silent Taylor Kitsch and the Suspicious Betty Gilpin

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A mother and son fleeing from their past form a found family while confronting a harsh landscape of freedom and cruelty in the American West.

Release Date

January 9, 2025

Network

Netflix

Cast

Taylor Kitsch
, Jai Courtney
, Dane DeHaan
, Betty Gilpin
, Nick Hargrove
, Kyle Bradley Davis
, Derek Hinkey
, Saura Lightfoot Leon
, Preston Mota
, Shawnee Pourier
, Joe Tippett

Seasons

1

Pros

• A brilliantly constructed narrative that connects various members of the great ensemble to tell a distinctly American story.
• Surprising and vicious action that’s filmed and choreographed with precision.
• Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, and Kim Coates are specifically excellent in unforgettable roles.
• A fascinating study of the intersections between religion, civilization, culture, and morality.

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American Primeval begins with a simple quest — Sara Rowell (the inimitable Betty Gilpin) and her son Devin (Preston Mota) are traveling through the turbulent frontier to reconnect with her husband. Her first guide is murdered, and the next one, an enigmatic loner named Isaac (Taylor Kitsch), turns down her offer at first. Sara and Devin eventually team up with a caravan of Mormons headed to Utah, a territory which the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints (LDS) has taken over under the leadership of Brigham Young (a terrific Kim Coates). Unbeknownst to them, a mute young Indigenous girl named Two Moons (Shawnee Pourier) has snuck into their wagon, running away after killing her sexually predatory father.

The choice to ride with the Mormons will catch Sara and Devin in a vast web of death, lies, and politics. It’s 1857, and tensions are rising between the rebellious Mormons (seeking territorial autonomy) and the American government, leading to the Utah War. Unfortunately, Sara and Devin joined the wagon train headed to a temporary settlement that would become the location of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. American Primeval follows the few people who survive this awful incident (filmed with visceral gusto) — Sara, Devin, and Two Moons; Jacob Pratt (Dane DeHaan) and his soon-to-be-captured wife, Abish (Saura Lightfoot-Leon); and Isaac, who sees it all and helps Sara, Devin, and Two Moons escape.

Taylor Kitsch Paints the Snow Red with Blood

Kitsch is honestly badass in the kind of role we’ve seen before (a solitary man of few words, with a mysterious past, incredible fighting skills, and surprising connections), but he brings a ton of soul and anger (and eventually vulnerability) to the role of Isaac. His journey with Sara and Devin makes up some of the most thrilling parts of American Primeval, taking them through snowy forests, hidden caves, vast plains, and Native American villages. Every action scene he’s in is fantastic.

A Fascinating Study of Religion and Civilization

Betty Gilpin matches his intensity with a sly, emotional performance of great gravity. Sara, too, has a mysterious past, one which quickly compromises and threatens Isaac’s life, binding them together. Gilpin does fierce physical work here, and manifests the very kind of desperation for survival that American Primeval Captures so well.

American Primeval begins streaming on Netflix today, Jan. 9, 2025. Watch it through the link below:

Watch American Primeval

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