American Primeval: "There is no safe haven in these brutal lands."
January 10, 2025 10:30 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
This six-episode limited series follows the gritty and adventurous exploration of the birth of the American West, the violent collisions of cults, religion, and men and women fighting for control of the new world.
curious how it measures up to a series like Deadwood
for its time, Deadwood was as good as it gets
posted by ginger.beef at 12:18 PM on January 10 [2 favorites]
for its time, Deadwood was as good as it gets
posted by ginger.beef at 12:18 PM on January 10 [2 favorites]
how is it when it comes to indigenous folks? i find it really curious that there's been a surge in Westerns right alongside the impending real-world fascism.
posted by kokaku at 2:20 PM on January 10 [4 favorites]
posted by kokaku at 2:20 PM on January 10 [4 favorites]
This is a good question
There was a time when showing gritty realism in westerns was making a point: deflating the myth of the noble gunslinger or virtuous sheriff who singlehandedly brings law to a lawless frontier town. Bringing the violent reality for so many women into focus instead of obscuring it or outright erasing it. Trying to depict people and a predicament (tragedy) instead of savages noble or otherwise. There used to be a point and there's still a point, so what is the point now?
posted by ginger.beef at 10:44 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]
There was a time when showing gritty realism in westerns was making a point: deflating the myth of the noble gunslinger or virtuous sheriff who singlehandedly brings law to a lawless frontier town. Bringing the violent reality for so many women into focus instead of obscuring it or outright erasing it. Trying to depict people and a predicament (tragedy) instead of savages noble or otherwise. There used to be a point and there's still a point, so what is the point now?
posted by ginger.beef at 10:44 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]
TW: sexual assault
Not too surprised to learn from this post that this is the same dude who wrote The Revenant. The way he screenwrites multiple rapes in these films really gives me the ick - it’s a goddamn pattern of his now. Second movie of his where a Frenchman rapes a woman, with a lot of bystanders. Recall that this is the same dude who wrote it, but then somehow failed to grasp the bear attack in The Revenant was a rape metaphor as well. What is this writer’s deal? JFC.
Anyway. If you hate the French and the Mormons and (of course) especially women, this one’s for you. I wish I had not watched.
posted by edithkeeler at 11:41 AM on January 12 [5 favorites]
Not too surprised to learn from this post that this is the same dude who wrote The Revenant. The way he screenwrites multiple rapes in these films really gives me the ick - it’s a goddamn pattern of his now. Second movie of his where a Frenchman rapes a woman, with a lot of bystanders. Recall that this is the same dude who wrote it, but then somehow failed to grasp the bear attack in The Revenant was a rape metaphor as well. What is this writer’s deal? JFC.
Anyway. If you hate the French and the Mormons and (of course) especially women, this one’s for you. I wish I had not watched.
posted by edithkeeler at 11:41 AM on January 12 [5 favorites]
I ended up appreciating American Primeval. It is the same story, with similar intentions, as the first season of Peaky Blinders. A pretty blonde with steely nerves and a secret past meets a deeply disturbed man. They are pressed together by desperate circumstances, have bloodcurdling experiences together and fall deeply in love with one another. But, tragically...This is good, high pressure melodrama.
American Primeval and Peaky Blinders dress this basic story in different clothes. Peaky Blinders références the trauma of WWI, of the Irish rebellion, sectarian conflict, class conflict, police corruption, international Communism and grinding poverty to put the two lovebirds, and the audience, under emotional pressure.
American Primeval references the Wild West, fading Indigenous peoples, Mormons, mountain men, settlement of the West, the US Army, monsters, the dream of California, lawlessness, bounty hunters. It also references Tarantino-esque ultra violence and the chaste old Western love stories.
The writing is good enough within its genre. There only so much you can say when you are busy slaying all the time. The mise-en-scene is however contemporary. Of course the Indigenous characters are cardboard cutouts, but so are the Mormons, the mountain men, the soldiers, etc...They are all pawns in the game of winding up the tension for the melodrama. Yet the relations between these cardboard cutout characters is not prejudiced or bigoted, as you might find in a 40 year old Western.
American Primeval's flaw, in my view, is the rule that even anti-war movies glorify war. From the US Army Captain's voice over, you understand that Utah at that moment had descended into anarchy under the assault of greedy and cruel men. He earnestly predicts that only love will redeem the situation ( it is a melodrama). So the series tries to end with at least a partial victory for love. But the series evidently relishes depicting lots of ultra-violent and ultra-cruel scenes in great style. So are the writers for love or for mayhem?
What frightened me most was wondering whether the series is trying to prepare and console us for the next 4 years. Do you think the series was that subtle?
posted by SnowRottie at 7:30 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
American Primeval and Peaky Blinders dress this basic story in different clothes. Peaky Blinders références the trauma of WWI, of the Irish rebellion, sectarian conflict, class conflict, police corruption, international Communism and grinding poverty to put the two lovebirds, and the audience, under emotional pressure.
American Primeval references the Wild West, fading Indigenous peoples, Mormons, mountain men, settlement of the West, the US Army, monsters, the dream of California, lawlessness, bounty hunters. It also references Tarantino-esque ultra violence and the chaste old Western love stories.
The writing is good enough within its genre. There only so much you can say when you are busy slaying all the time. The mise-en-scene is however contemporary. Of course the Indigenous characters are cardboard cutouts, but so are the Mormons, the mountain men, the soldiers, etc...They are all pawns in the game of winding up the tension for the melodrama. Yet the relations between these cardboard cutout characters is not prejudiced or bigoted, as you might find in a 40 year old Western.
American Primeval's flaw, in my view, is the rule that even anti-war movies glorify war. From the US Army Captain's voice over, you understand that Utah at that moment had descended into anarchy under the assault of greedy and cruel men. He earnestly predicts that only love will redeem the situation ( it is a melodrama). So the series tries to end with at least a partial victory for love. But the series evidently relishes depicting lots of ultra-violent and ultra-cruel scenes in great style. So are the writers for love or for mayhem?
What frightened me most was wondering whether the series is trying to prepare and console us for the next 4 years. Do you think the series was that subtle?
posted by SnowRottie at 7:30 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
P.S. Like all good Westerns, the series has amazing landscape shots. You can bliss out on the shots of sunsets over the prairies fringed by the Rockies. A lot of the filming was done in the golden hour, so the light is beautiful.
posted by SnowRottie at 7:45 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
posted by SnowRottie at 7:45 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
it's ummm ... kinda ridiculous (record breaking levels of plot armour for certain characters). But I like it anyway. It looks good. It sounds good. It never stops charging forward narratively speaking. Nobody will ever accuse this of being a "slow burner"
I described it to a friend as somewhere between Little Big Man and Jeremiah Johnson and something recent and successful and not near as good.
posted by philip-random at 11:13 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
I described it to a friend as somewhere between Little Big Man and Jeremiah Johnson and something recent and successful and not near as good.
posted by philip-random at 11:13 PM on January 15 [1 favorite]
I guess I’m glad Betty Gilpin got a paycheck, but otherwise this is pretty much irredeemable trash.
Fire up Hulu and watch Prey instead.
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:24 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
Fire up Hulu and watch Prey instead.
posted by FallibleHuman at 10:24 PM on January 18 [1 favorite]
yeah, I'm rethinking my previous comment having gotten deeper into things (episode three) and finally just started fast-forwarding. I suppose it wants to be Game Of Thrones in the old west but it's a hell of a lot easier to say that than actually pull it off.
Bottom line, my overall review would be short and to the point:
Yet another example of the dark side of the streaming model. What might have been an excellent two hour feature film gets stretched out way too far accommodate the demands of the market (ie: six one hour episodes) with ultimately absurd amounts of plot contrivance jammed in to feed the beast.
posted by philip-random at 9:53 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]
Bottom line, my overall review would be short and to the point:
Yet another example of the dark side of the streaming model. What might have been an excellent two hour feature film gets stretched out way too far accommodate the demands of the market (ie: six one hour episodes) with ultimately absurd amounts of plot contrivance jammed in to feed the beast.
posted by philip-random at 9:53 AM on January 19 [1 favorite]
Hilariously brutal.
posted by From Bklyn at 9:47 AM on January 20
posted by From Bklyn at 9:47 AM on January 20
I watched a preview of this a year ago and remembered it being pretty racist towards Native Americans, but kind of hoped it had managed to improve during reshoots. I take it that's not the case?
posted by dinty_moore at 6:32 PM on January 30
posted by dinty_moore at 6:32 PM on January 30
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posted by Atreides at 11:58 AM on January 10