The Wilderness Keeps Its Secrets

Read Time:9 Minute, 13 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Untamed: The Complete First Season
–

Genre: Mystery, Drama, Thriller
Year: 2025, 2026 DVD
Runtime: 6 episodes / approximately 4h 48m
Creator(s): Mark L. Smith, Elle Smith
Director(s): Thomas Bezucha, Neasa Hardiman, Nick Murphy
Writer(s): Mark L. Smith, Elle Smith, and others
Cast: Eric Bana, Sam Neill, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lily Santiago, Wilson Bethel
Where to Watch: available October 20, 2026. Pre-order your copy here: www.moviesunlimited.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: Yosemite National Park draws millions of visitors yearly to admire its waterfalls, towering cliffs, and spectacular landscapes. Kyle Turner spends his time dealing with the things those visitors would rather never think about. He knows how quickly someone can get into trouble in the wilderness, how hard it can be to find a missing person, and how little the surroundings matter when something goes wrong. UNTAMED takes a place most people associate with vacations and turns it into the setting for a murder investigation where the landscape presents almost as many obstacles as the people involved.

UNTAMED understands that contradiction immediately. Yosemite is so beautiful that almost every exterior shot could sell a vacation, yet the series keeps finding ways to make the same wilderness feel isolating and threatening. When a young woman falls to her death from El Capitan, what initially looks like another tragedy inside an unforgiving landscape begins revealing details that don't fit. Turner, an agent with the National Park Service's Investigative Services Branch, quickly becomes convinced there is considerably more to her death.

Eric Bana is exactly the kind of actor this character needs. Turner isn't especially talkative, doesn't volunteer much about himself, and carries the familiar television-detective burden of a painful history he has never properly confronted. None of that is particularly new, but Bana is good enough at holding things back that Turner rarely feels like nothing more than a collection of genre traits.

The silence matters with him. Turner can communicate distrust, exhaustion, irritation, and grief without the series constantly explaining what is happening behind his eyes, and Bana gives the character a physical comfort in the wilderness that makes his discomfort around people even more noticeable. Turner knows how to read the land better than he knows how to talk about himself.

That's also why pairing him with Naya Vasquez works so well. Lily Santiago plays Vasquez as someone capable enough to challenge Turner while still being inexperienced in this particular environment. She comes from a very different law-enforcement background, and her unfamiliarity with Yosemite lets the series explain how investigations work inside the park without making Turner suddenly lecture people about a job he's been doing for years.

Their relationship avoids becoming another grizzled-investigator-and-rookie partnership built entirely around arguments. Turner can be dismissive, and Vasquez occasionally pushes too hard, but their gradual respect feels earned. She learns the territory from him while bringing investigative instincts he occasionally needs, keeping her from existing only as the audience's way into his world.

Sam Neill brings a different energy as Paul Souter, Yosemite's longtime chief park ranger and one of the few people who understands Turner well enough to challenge him. Neill and Bana share an ease that suggests years of history before the series begins. Rosemarie DeWitt is equally effective as Turner's ex-wife, Jill, especially because their relationship isn't reduced to resentment or the easy possibility of reconciliation.

UNTAMED eventually makes it clear that the murder investigation and Turner's personal history aren't separate stories. That's where the series becomes more interesting, but it's also where some of its weaknesses become harder to ignore. A damaged investigator confronting a case that echoes his own unresolved trauma is one of the most dependable structures in television crime drama, and UNTAMED doesn't completely escape the feeling that we've traveled some of these roads before.

Dead child, broken marriage, self-destructive investigator, younger partner, old case that refuses to stay buried—none of these ingredients are especially surprising. The setting does a lot of work separating UNTAMED from countless other detective series because the investigation couldn't simply be relocated to a generic city without changing its personality.

The park affects practically everything. Evidence is harder to reach, distances matter, communication isn't always simple, and people can build lives far outside the version of Yosemite tourists experience. UNTAMED is particularly interesting because it explores people living on the park's edges and the vast territory visitors never encounter.

Creators Mark L. Smith and Elle Smith seem more interested in those unseen spaces than the famous landmarks themselves. The wilderness offers some characters freedom, others refuge, and a chance to disappear for those who don't want to be found. Nature isn't presented as evil, but it doesn't care what happens to anyone walking through it.

That atmosphere carries the middle portion of the season, when the investigation begins accumulating suspects, symbols, old information, and connections. UNTAMED occasionally mistakes adding another possible direction for deepening the mystery. Six episodes should create a reasonably tight investigation, yet there are stretches where Turner and Vasquez seem to move through possibilities primarily to delay the answer.

The season isn't boring, but its mystery isn't quite as sharp as its surroundings. Some discoveries seem enormously important before becoming less consequential than expected, while other information arrives late enough that the eventual explanation has to work harder to connect everything. The series maintains curiosity better than genuine tension.

A second story about Vasquez and her young son also gives Santiago more to do away from Turner. Her desire to rebuild her life and protect her child helps explain why someone accustomed to Los Angeles would choose such a radically different environment. At times, though, that storyline feels like it's competing with a murder investigation that already has several layers of its own.

UNTAMED generally handles those personal stories better than the mystery mechanics because grief connects most of these characters. Turner isn't simply investigating a dead woman; he is someone who has allowed an earlier loss to determine almost every part of the life he has left. Jill has to find her own way forward, while Turner remains attached to memories he doesn't know how to let go of.

Bana sells those moments without pushing for sympathy. Turner can be difficult, reckless, and convinced that his instincts justify ignoring boundaries, and the series doesn't pretend his suffering makes every decision acceptable. His refusal to let things go makes him an effective investigator while simultaneously making it nearly impossible for him to heal.

That contradiction gives the final episodes more emotional weight than I expected from the opening murder. Unfortunately, the answer to the mystery itself isn't quite as satisfying. Without getting anywhere near spoilers, the resolution depends on connections that are thematically appropriate but don't land with the force the buildup suggests.

There's a difference between an ending that makes sense and an ending that feels completely satisfying. UNTAMED reaches an explanation that ties together its ideas about family, secrecy, guilt, and protection. I was more affected by what the investigation does to Turner than by learning exactly what happened to the victim.

Maybe that's intentional. The creators have described the series as much a character story as an investigation, and viewed that way, the season works better. The dead woman becomes the event that forces Turner toward something he's spent years avoiding, rather than simply the center of an elaborate whodunit.

The six-episode length helps considerably because UNTAMED never reaches the point where its familiar elements become exhausting. There are enough turns to sustain the investigation, enough time for Bana and Santiago to build their partnership, and enough attention to Turner outside the case that his emotional progression doesn't feel tacked on at the last minute.

It also looks terrific. The scale of the landscapes repeatedly makes the characters seem insignificant, which fits a series about people trying to impose human rules on a place that existed long before they arrived. Even though much of the production wasn't filmed in Yosemite, it doesn't diminish how convincingly the show builds that world.

That visual scale occasionally exposes another issue, though. UNTAMED has access to one of the most distinctive settings imaginable, yet the story itself can remain surprisingly conventional. I kept wanting the investigation to match the environment rather than repeatedly returning to familiar crime-series territory.

Conventional doesn't automatically mean ineffective. Bana gives UNTAMED a strong center, Santiago proves to be much more than the obligatory new partner, and Neill and DeWitt add weight without overwhelming the story. Most importantly, the series understands that Yosemite can be breathtaking and frightening at the same time.

UNTAMED isn't the great reinvention of the murder mystery its setting initially suggests it might become. Its investigation takes a few unnecessary detours, the eventual solution isn't as strong as the questions that lead to it, and Kyle Turner arrives with plenty of baggage we've seen other television detectives drag around before.

What keeps the season comfortably above average is how confidently it uses those familiar pieces. Turner belongs in this environment, Bana understands him, and the park gives an otherwise recognizable mystery an identity that would disappear almost anywhere else.

By the time the case reaches its conclusion, the deadliest thing in Yosemite hasn't necessarily been the wilderness. It's what people carry into it, what they hide there, and how long they convince themselves those secrets can remain buried.

Please visit https://linktr.ee/overlyhonestr for more reviews.

You can follow me on Letterboxd, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also find my social media accounts on most platforms by searching for 'Overly Honest Reviews'.

I’m always happy to hear from my readers; please don't hesitate to say hello or send me any movie questions.

[photo courtesy of WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY HOME ENTERTAINMENT ]

DISCLAIMER:
At Overly Honest Movie Reviews, we value honesty and transparency. Occasionally, we receive complimentary items for review, including DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs, Vinyl Records, Books, and more. We assure you these arrangements do not influence our reviews, as we are committed to unbiased, sincere evaluations. We aim to help you make informed entertainment choices regardless of our relationship with distributors or producers.

Amazon Affiliate Links:
This site also contains Amazon affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may receive a commission. This affiliate arrangement does not affect our commitment to honest reviews and helps support our site. We appreciate your trust and support as you navigate these links.