Creator Mark L. Smith's six-episode examination of scruffy, vicious people traversing the Utah Territory in 1857 also stars Taylor Kitsch and Dane DeHaan.

The first reviews for Netflix's brutal Western are out, and the critic response thus far has been mixed, to say the least.

Set during 1857's Utah War, 'American Primeval' lays out a world where love conquers little and indifference is the only path to survival. [REVIEW]

The 19th-century American West of American Primeval is a land of unyielding brutality, though nothing about this six-part Netflix series, premiering Jan. 9, is as violent as Peter Berg’s belligerently over-the-top direction.

You'll recognize quite a few faces The post ‘American Primeval’ Cast and Character Guide: Who’s Who in Netflix’s Western Miniseries? appeared first on TheWrap.

Obsessed with the bad and the ugly of life on the frontier, this blood-soaked, violent drama is – surprisingly – anchored by strong women

The Western can be a deeply romantic genre with white hats and black hats, dusty streets and beautiful sunsets. Great films and TV series have broken with our rose-colored expectations of the American frontier,

In Netflix’s new limited series, “American Primeval,” written by “The Revenant” scribe Mark. L. Smith, audiences are thrust into the viciousness of the American West, specifically the Utah Territory in 1857.

Peter Berg directs an epic six-part drama about the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which more than 100 settlers were murdered by militant Mormons.

However, it saps anything resembling wistfulness from its Hollywood Western roots, complicating its chances of cornering the post-Yellowstone market (alongside the latter's many spin-offs). What's left is the husk of a beloved genre,