Netflix’s “Untamed” opens with a terrifying sequence as two men are climbing the sheer face of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. A body comes hurtling from above them, attached to the same line, releasing one from its hook as the other holds on to the trio, inadvertently saving a lot of evidence because it turns out the woman was dead already. Did she take her own life before she tumbled? The bullet the authorities pull out of her leg implies otherwise, starting an investigation that sends skeletons hurtling out of closets in this solidly entertaining thriller, one that thrives on the depth of an excellent ensemble and their ability to overcome convoluted plotting.
While the powers that be try to cover up the death as an accident to keep tourism numbers up, National Parks Service Special Agent Kyle Turner (Eric Bana) works the case with a rookie former L.A. cop, Naya Vasquez (Lily Santiago). Both Turner and Vasquez have secrets of their own—“Untamed” is the kind of show in which everyone has something they’re hiding just in time for creators Mark L. Smith and Ellie Smith’s plot machine to put it to ideal use. Turner’s big one is related to the death of his child, who was taken by a predator and murdered years ago, shattering Kyle and his then-wife Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt). The trauma and the case that followed tore Kyle and Jill apart, sending the former into the bottle when he’s not working and the latter into the arms of another man.
Bana effectively portrays a ghost of a man, someone whose heart only beats when he’s working, and who has to turn to booze to quiet the demons at all other times. It’s an excellent performance, especially in his scenes with DeWitt, the two of them capturing how unimaginable trauma can both unite and tear apart people at the same time. Kyle and Jill share a pain that most people can’t imagine, which makes them life partners, but they also remind one another of that pain, which makes it impossible for them to be together. It’s a relationship both forged and destroyed by trauma. Both performers dig deep emotionally without resorting to melodrama, connecting with their humanity in a way that really grounds “Untamed,” even as the plot spins out of control.
And spin does it ever. The murder investigation sends Turner into a drug trafficking operation in the park, connecting the case to a shady figure from his past, the park’s Wildlife Management Officer, Shane Maguire (Wilson Bethel). As Turner keeps looking under rocks in the region, Chief Ranger Paul Souter (Sam Neill) stands by his side, but danger lurks around every corner, including even Vasquez’s ex-partner, an abusive man whom the rookie ranger fled with their child. Again, everyone is running from something in “Untamed,” and what they’re running from is catching up.
Smith likes to track troubled men through challenging landscapes in scripts for films like “The Revenant” and “The Midnight Sky,” and he brings that skill with setting to “Untamed.” The National Park in which all of this show takes place becomes a character, a place of great beauty and great danger, a place where people live off the grid but rely on people like Turner and Souter to keep them safe. “Untamed” is at its best when it centers character and setting, and how the latter shapes the former.
Sadly, the plotting gets thick and murky as the six-episode limited series picks up steam, before completely turning into mush in the finale with at least one twist too many. The Smiths are reaching for something about children in jeopardy, but it’s just out of their grasp thematically, leaving plotting that can only be called convenient. I’ll just say that there are a few too many last-minute rescues for only six episodes and a final revelation that just rings false.
“Untamed” joins a long line of Netflix series built around the ripple effect of crime, and one wonders how something like this could possibly stand out when the algorithm will probably have crushed it by this time next week. It’s a reminder of how important casting is to distinguish a project like this one. I won’t remember much of the mystery of “Untamed,” but I’ll think about it the next time I see Bana or DeWitt in a project. And if all it ultimately does is remind people, especially casting agents, how good these performers can be, then it’s done some good.
Whole series screened for review. Now on Netflix.
