Seldom has the Wild West seemed so distressingly, violently wild as in American Primeval. Netflix’s new six-part TV show, created by The Revenant screenwriter Mark L Smith and directed by Friday Night Lights’s Peter Berg, was released last week and, despite mixed reviews, has immediately taken viewers by storm. A gory, grounded take on what must be, at this point, the most pored-over slice of US history, American Primeval situates itself in the dust and gunsmoke of the western genre. It follows a mother (GLOW’s Betty Gilpin) and her son (Preston Mota) as they travel across the state, encountering religious fanaticism and brutality.
In the world of cinema, westerns have become a dicey financial proposition; consider, for instance, Kevin Costner’s lavish four-film-franchise Horizon: An American Saga, which released its first entry in cinemas last year, only to be met with paltry interest. (The planned release of the already-filmed second entry was aborted as a result, with a new date yet to be announced.) But away from the big screen, the genre has continued to thrive in pockets – the Costner-fronted neo-western Yellowstone has been one of the biggest shows on television, while period westerns such as Netflix’s Godless, or BBC One’s The English, have shown there’s still life in the old west yet. American Primeval, currently sitting at No 2 in Netflix’s Most Watched charts, makes this yet more evident.
