(Series Review) "Untamed" (2025) - Miniseries

By Vani P Nair -

                          (Series Review) "Untamed" (2025) - Miniseries


Morality is a many-sided compass. When people say “moral compass”, we are, in fact, way off the mark. It assumes that there is only one moral north and south. Though it may sound controversial, I firmly believe that morality is almost always a relative notion. It has a lot to do with the priorities in one’s life. Even the judicial processes fall short frequently while dishing out justice. The system often ends up being a mere frame of reference. It simply is incapable of covering the vast gamut of human depravities. It is scary being reminded of what crimes human beings as a race is capable of committing and to what extent the people at the receiving end can go to ensure that justice is served, even if it is outside of the established institutions. Untamed is a limited series on Netflix, written by Mark L. Smith. Smith is known for writing the screenplay for The Revenant (2015), which eventually won Leonardo Di Caprio his first Oscar for the Best Actor. 

The jaded cop with a dark and seemingly checkered past is a common enough trope in both the long as well as short formats on the celluloid. But there is something sinfully alluring about a fallen human being living a token life, unmindful of societal projections. I must say I was surprised to find Eric Bana playing the National Park Service special agent Kyle Turner, the central character of the miniseries. Evidently, I am not watching enough movies and series, considering he has been slaying different roles for a while now. There was something unexpectedly fresh in his performance. Smith’s delineation of Turner’s character was thrown into relief by Bana’s performance. I could see a lot of untapped potential in him. The series has a tight narrative structure that does justice to the likes of Freytag’s Pyramid, divided into six episodes. The nature is shown to be subtly influencing the course of the plot by hiding and at times revealing various hideous intentions amongst its giant boulders, precipitous cliffs and verdant mosses. It is shown to be silently communing with those characters who are patient enough to let her reach out to them; seeing answers in nature’s designs - almost like apophenia.

Kyle Turner is a figure inhabiting a liminal space. It is difficult to know where his hallucination ends and reality begins. The mystery chasing Turner unfolds amidst the beauty and splendor of the Yosemite National Park. A young girl in her early twenties suddenly falls from the summit of El Capitan. What follows is a layer by layer unveiling of a mystery that lay buried for fifteen years. The personal tragedies of the characters in the story serve as a dark filigree to an already dense tale of betrayal and redemption. The series raises a big question: can those, who have committed crime or turned a blind eye towards it, even if just once, speak of justice and retribution? I guess it is a matter of perspective.


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