‘Untamed' review: Eric Bana investigates a Yosemite murder as an agent for the National Parks Service

Chicago Tribune

18 hours ago

In Netflix's 'Untamed,' Eric Bana plays a rugged, no-nonsense special agent for the National Parks Service working the mystery of a woman's death in Yosemite. The six-episode series isn't doing anything new, which tends to get a bad rap these days. The streaming era has prioritized breaking from, or at least playing around with, TV norms, but these kinds of meat-and-potatoes offerings can be as satisfying as shows with wilder ambitions.
That said, 'Untamed' suffers from some object permanence issues; nothing about it stayed with me after watching it. But while it was on in front of me? A good (enough) time.
A lot of that has to do with executive producer John Wells, whose vast array of credits include everything from 'ER' to 'The West Wing' to 'The Pitt.' He doesn't have a recognizable style like fellow super-producers Shonda Rhimes or Ryan Murphy, but he understands television in ways that have become increasingly rare. Here he's working with show creators Ellie Smith and Mark L. Smith (the latter of whom was the screenwriter of 2024's 'Twisters').
The series opens with two climbers ascending the vertical rock face known as El Capitan. Suddenly, a woman's lifeless body comes hurtling past them from above, getting caught in their ropes and nearly taking them down with her. The circumstances of her death become the show's driving plotline.
When Bana's Kyle Turner arrives at the summit on horseback, a park ranger says with a mixture of envy and annoyance: 'Here comes Gary Cooper.' Turner is haunted by past mistakes, a broken marriage, a dead son and a tendency to find solace at the bottom of a bottle. 'What's with you tonight?' someone says. 'You're extra serious even for you.' That sums up his personality. The ranger assigned to assist his investigation is a rookie and that's because Turner has burned through everyone else with his stubborn insistence on doing things his own way. When an Indigenous character shows up, it's because Turner (and Turner alone) has befriended him.
These are common tropes that can be tedious in the wrong hands — the dead child has become overused as a shorthand meant to add sympathetic texture to a character's backstory — but 'Untamed' is made with enough talent and skill that these pieces feel right, instead of hacky. Credit that to Bana's performance, which doesn't belabor the guy's issues nor his stoicism. The Gary Cooper thing isn't too far off.
Lily Santiago plays Naya Vasquez, the inexperienced park ranger with whom he's paired. She's from the city and therefore not thrilled with the idea of jumping on the back of a horse to explore the area for clues, but Turner won't budge. 'This park's the size of Rhode Island. It's got five separate highway entrances bringing over 100,000 people a week,' and going off the trails, on horseback, is better than going in his truck. That she will eventually come around to him, and he to her, is a foregone conclusion. Sam Neill and Rosemarie DeWitt round out the cast as the seasoned head park ranger who looks out for Turner and Turner's amiable ex-wife, respectively.
The series' premise is better suited to a movie. But at six episodes, it doesn't overstay its welcome. The wide open spaces and the occasional appearance of (CGI?) wildlife are as picturesque as you'd expect — it's one of the show's selling points — although filming took place not in California-based Yosemite but in British Columbia. I suppose one soaring, mountainous forest looks like another.
The park rangers are stuck wearing unflattering uniforms, but Turner has too much swagger for that and is outfitted in jeans and a sand-colored work shirt worn with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The show's subtitle might as well be 'Untamed: Eric Bana's Forearms'
Where other shows try to leverage the sex appeal of their male lead by having him doff his shirt within the first 20 minutes, 'Untamed' takes a different tack, and I like it. Hollywood has never really understood the appeal of a good pair of forearms. Now's as good a time as any.
'Untamed' — 2.5 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Netflix