You have seen this series before. There’s no getting around the fact that Netflix’s new series Untamed employs several tropes of the mystery genre. You’ll have seen the series where an older cop with a gift for investigation lives in a remote place due to some past trauma that keeps him isolated from the world, who has a plucky young partner who is very inexperienced but shows great promise and has her own trauma. Then, when a body shows up, they set out to find the killer and uncover a larger mystery at the same time. The key to a series like this is to set it apart in some other ways, such as having a great lead actor or a novel location, and fortunately, Untamed has both.
The series opens with a body, a young girl who plummets off the top of granite monolith El Capitan under unclear circumstances. Kyle Turner ( Eric Bana ) is brought in to investigate and is partnered with Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago), a rookie and single mom. Under the supervision of Turner’s mentor, Paul Souter ( Sam Neill ), they start following the clues and, well, you can probably guess the rest.
The location is the big novelty. El Capitan is, of course, in Yosemite National Park, and using the park as a backdrop adds both scope and atmosphere to the proceedings. It enables characters to transition seamlessly from crowded areas to completely isolated ones, both quickly and believably. It also establishes entire communities of supporting characters, including park rangers and game wardens, transients, and locals. There is also an inherent danger, as the terrain can be treacherous, and one must also watch out for the occasional wildlife. Every episode features b-roll of the actual park, while the rest of production took place in British Columbia. The two locations combine to make one of the most scenic TV series you might watch this year.
Bana is, in a word, great. Turner’s troubled past informs all of his relationships and most of his actions. You can tell this is a man who is trapped in the park, no matter what he says about staying by choice. As the mystery unfolds and his trauma is brought to the fore, we get to see many sides of Turner, and each of them is compelling.
The rest of the cast also works well. Rosemary DeWitt is one of the great TV character actors working today, and as Turner’s ex-wife, they have shared trauma they get to unpack together, and her journey through that history offers some of the series’s more heart-rending moments. Sam Neill’s Paul also shares history with Turner, and it’s interesting to see them take on a father-son type dynamic, which allows him plenty of opportunities to offer advice, sage or sarcastic.
The thing that holds Untamed back is, as noted above, that you will see almost every red herring and plot turn coming. Yes, the initial mystery leads to a bigger mystery and, without spoiling the details, the resolution may not satisfy. Some parts feel rushed, and others feel tacked on, which is frustrating, but neither issue is enough to keep fans of Bana, Neill, or murder mysteries away. Though Untamed might not be the most original of stories, it’s gorgeous to look at and competently executed, and a fine way to waste away a lazy summer evening.
Untamed is now streaming on Netflix.
