Two mountain climbers scale the sheer cliffside of Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan in the opening moments of Netflix’s new murder mystery miniseries, Untamed.
This alone is enough to make me squeamish. I don’t like heights. I’ve never understood the appeal of repelling up a mountain, only a dizzying drop to certain death below. Of course, this is no ordinary ascent. As they grapple their way up, a young woman topples down. She’s caught in the rope, almost bringing the two climbers down with her. It’s a harrowing moment. Light spoilers follow.
What looks like a possible suicide is quickly revealed to be something far more sinister, and an investigation kicks off led by taciturn Investigative Services Branch (ISB) agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana). Turner is a man of few words, the sort of grizzled, stoic mountain man that prefers a horse to a truck, and animals to people. He’s also very good at his job, just as comfortable interrogating suspects as he is navigating perilous wilderness terrain.
He’s joined in his investigation by rookie National Park Service ranger Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago) who left her police job in Los Angeles – and a bad relationship – behind to start a new life with her young son. Vasquez is as green as they come, but she’s a quick learner. Turner doesn’t really like working with people, but he’s given no choice. Chief Park Ranger Paul Souter (Sam Neill) makes sure of that.
From here, the investigation leads our heroes down an increasingly dark path, first to identify the young woman and then to find out if foul play was involved. Of course, peeling back the truth of the woman’s death leads to many other unpleasant revelations. These involve illicit activity in the park as well as Turner’s tragic backstory involving his now ex-wife Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt) and their son, who died several years earlier.
The series reminds me a lot of other shows like The Killing, though it’s able to fit the entire story into an economical six episodes instead of the 26 that make up that show’s first case. In this sense, there’s little new or innovative about Untamed. In fact, if The Killing and Taylor Sheridan’s (excellent) movie Wind River had a baby, Untamed would be it.
Much of the appeal here is in its two main leads: Eric Bana and Yosemite itself. Perhaps the series should have taken a page from Sheridan’s biggest hit, Yellowstone, and used Yosemite for the title. It’s mostly filmed in British Columbia, but it’s gorgeous to look at regardless. The rich forest terrain, the stunning mountains, all that wilderness hiding so much of humanity’s darkest secrets.
Bana, meanwhile, really channels Pedro Pascal, or at least Pascal’s performance in The Last Of Us. Like Joel, this is a man who lost a part of himself when he lost his child. He’s turned to booze and solitude and his work to distract himself from the pain and grief of that loss. I kept imagining Pascal in the role, though I’m glad we got Bana instead. Both are fine actors, but Pascal is simply in too many things these days, and Bana is terrific here, tapping into that rugged mountain man exterior while at the same time revealing a much more emotionally charged interior world.
Untamed also made me wish that we’d get another season of True Detective from its original creator, Nic Pizzolatto, set in this kind of rugged wilderness. All three seasons of Pizzolatto’s True Detective did such a great job of creating a sense of place (whether or not Season 2 worked all that well, the southern California it gave us was remarkably bleak in a way I’ve never really seen before or since). Seasons 1 and 2 captured the deep south and the Ozarks in grim splendor, making the places come alive in a way that few other shows have ever been able to achieve. Untamed never quite makes Yosemite feel like a real place, no matter how gorgeous the scenery.
What it does do is give us a compelling, if not particularly original, mystery in a tight six-episode run, filled with good characters that are easy to root for (or against) and some nice twists and turns to keep us on our toes. This isn’t an action-packed series. It’s much more about following the clues down whatever mineshaft they lead. There are some moments of tension and even a couple good gunfights, but this is more detective work than shoot-em-up, which I appreciate.
Is it groundbreaking? Not at all. Is it a bit too predictable? Absolutely. Is it still a fun watch with some good detective work and emotional beats that keep you invested in the main characters. I certainly thought so. No, this is not on the same level as True Detective, Mare Of Easttown or Happy Valley, but it’s a solid watch that doesn’t outwear its welcome. Give it a shot.
P.S. It’s kind of funny that Turner is an ISB agent, because when I think of ISB agents I think of these fine Imperial Security Bureau employees, just doing their best to maintain order in the galaxy:
