Untamed Netflix Review: A Slow-Burn Mystery Rooted in Grief and Secrets
⚠️ Heads Up: Spoilers Ahead
This Untamed Netflix review dives deep into major plot points including who dies, who’s responsible, and how grief shapes the entire story. If you haven’t watched yet and want to go in blind, hit pause here and come back later. Otherwise, let’s unpack the wild truth beneath Yosemite’s surface.
Untamed Netflix Review: Grief, Justice, and a Murder Hidden in the Pines
Untamed Netflix Review: Yosemite National Park might be the most beautiful place you’ll never feel safe in, at least if you’re watching Untamed.
This six-episode mystery thriller on Netflix weaves grief, guilt, and justice into a slow-burn story that’s less about who committed the crime, and more about what we’re all trying to escape from.
Eric Bana stars as Kyle Turner, a National Park Service agent drawn into the investigation of a woman’s death in the wilderness. What begins as a procedural quickly unravels into a much deeper emotional terrain. With sweeping visuals of Yosemite’s vast cliffs, dense woods, and echoing silence, Untamed becomes as much about inner turmoil as external danger.
Into the Wilderness
The show kicks off with a shocking opener: a body falling from the top of a mountain and landing in the ropes of two climbers. It’s terrifying, visceral, and immediately throws you into the tension. From that moment on, you know this isn’t just another moody detective story, it’s a pressure cooker disguised as paradise.
The dead woman, Lucy, is eventually revealed to be the hidden daughter of Kyle’s boss, Paul Souter (played by Sam Neill), the product of an affair he’d buried deep. In trying to keep his past concealed, Souter goes so far as to commit murder, showing how far people in power will go to protect their reputations.
But it’s not just Souter hiding secrets. Kyle himself is a man unraveling. The loss of his son, Caleb, has left him hollowed out, haunted, literally. Throughout the series, Kyle has imagined conversations with Caleb, moments that are both heartbreaking and eerie.
These interactions anchor the emotional tone of the show, reminding us that grief isn’t something you get over. It’s something you carry, like a wound that keeps bleeding under the surface.
Grief That Grows Teeth
At the heart of Untamed is the complex emotional weight of grief. Kyle’s ex-wife, Jill (Rosemarie DeWitt), copes with their son’s death in her own way by seeking vigilante justice.
When she takes matters into her own hands, it becomes clear that her actions only deepen their shared pain. Her betrayal of Kyle’s trust, while motivated by love and rage, fractures them beyond repair.
This theme of moral grayness is where Untamed gets its emotional punch. Characters aren’t good or bad, they’re hurt, scared, desperate. The park, with all its natural beauty, becomes a haunting mirror for these internal battles.
Kyle drinks heavily. His career teeters on collapse. His colleagues question his judgment. And still, he keeps returning to the trees, the rocks, the memories of Caleb that seem to live there.
Untamed Netflix Review: Moments That Linger
A few moments in Untamed stand out for their intensity. Aside from the gut-punch of the opening scene, there’s an incredible sequence where Naya Vasquez, an LAPD cop turned park ranger, investigates a suspicious area and falls into an underground tunnel.
As water begins to rush in, she has a full-blown panic attack, claustrophobic, raw, and deeply human. Kyle arrives in time and talks her through it, showing a rare moment of connection between two wounded people.
Naya (played by Lily Santiago) is a strong secondary character. A survivor of domestic violence, she’s trying to rebuild her life in a new environment with her son. Her journey parallels Kyle’s in some ways, they’re both trying to heal in a space that demands solitude but offers no real escape
A Slow Burn Worth the Watch?
While the plot of Untamed isn’t groundbreaking, it’s the tone and emotional resonance that give it weight. The pacing is slow, so if you’re looking for constant twists or high-speed chases, this may not be your show. But if you appreciate character-driven mysteries with emotional depth, it’s worth the six-episode ride.
The acting is solid across the board, with Eric Bana delivering a layered performance as a man grieving, unraveling, and still trying to do what’s right even when that means doing it alone.
Final Thoughts: Pain, Beauty, and the Cost of Justice
Untamed is, at its core, a story about what grief does to people. It’s not loud or explosive, it’s about the kind of pain that simmers under the surface. The kind that drives people to drink, to lie, to murder, and sometimes, to face the darkest parts of themselves.
Yes, it’s framed as a murder mystery but the real story is Kyle Turner’s quiet descent into sorrow, guilt, and the vast emotional wilderness he can’t quite escape. The series asks: What do we do with grief when justice fails? And who do we become when the people we trust let us down?
On the surface, it’s a slow-burn thriller. But underneath, it’s a meditation on loss.
It’s a solid 7 out of 10, moody, emotional, and visually stunning, even if it doesn’t break new ground narratively. Still, for fans of melancholic mysteries and character-driven drama, Untamed offers a quiet, haunting kind of catharsis.
Still craving more emotionally complex thrillers?
Check out our first impressions of Department Q—another series that explores guilt and grief in gripping ways.
And don’t miss our The Secrets We Keep review for a chilling dive into trauma, memory, and the secrets we carry.
Watched Untamed? Let’s talk in the comments: Did you feel for Kyle? Or would you have made the same choices as Jill?
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