#TheAverageViewer - Untamed Review
Dear Viewer,
Looking for something a little different. Netflix’s Untamed might just fit the bill. This series has climbed its way into the Global Top 10 and already locked down a second-season renewal—proof that audiences still crave mysteries set far from city streets.
Special Agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) of the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch is dispatched when an unidentified woman plummets from Yosemite’s El Capitan. What begins as a routine inquiry turns into a reckoning with the park’s darkest secrets—and Turner’s own.
Though set in California, the series leans on British Columbia’s North Shore—Port Moody, Squamish, Mount Seymour, and Murrin Provincial Park—to double for Yosemite’s granite cathedrals and mist-soaked forests. The locations feel both majestic and menacing, making the park a character in its own right.
Writers-showrunners Mark L. Smith (The Revenant and American Primeval) and Elle Smith open strong with an atmospheric Act I, but the middle episodes wander. A potentially searing betrayal-and-revenge thread surfaces only to fizzle, and underwritten side plots drain momentum. By the finale, tension returns—but that sagging mid-section blunts the overall impact.
Eric Bana grounds the series with weary gravitas; his Turner, a functioning alcoholic, is painfully self-aware. Lily Santiago brings earnest resolve as rookie ranger Naya Vasquez. Rosemarie DeWitt and Sam Neill maximize their limited screen time. No one feels miscast, yet supporting rangers remain archetypal, and the antagonists’ motives are frustratingly opaque.
Parental grief reverberates through Turner’s encounters with Jane Doe’s family—his outrage at her origin story and whispers of his own guilty involvement cut deep. Equally affecting is the fragile tether between ex-spouses united by shared loss. Even when subplots meander, these raw veins keep you invested.
Wildlife sightings, looming cliffs, and faint echoes of The Deer Hunter lend a haunting mood to the production. Still, Act II’s deliberate pace may test binge-watchers craving rapid twists.
Looking Ahead, Season 2 moves Turner to a new park and a fresh case, setting up an anthology of wildland thrillers. I’ll return—provided the plotting tightens and the next landscape proves just as formidable, shaping characters at every turn.
Dear Viewer, my final verdict: 3 out of 5 cups of your favourite brew. Spectacular scenery and credible performances carry Untamed, but a tighter plot and fuller-bodied supporting characters would brew a stronger blend. Here’s hoping Season 2 keeps the drama as sharp as El Capitan’s cliffs.
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