Is Untamed on Netflix the perfect Yellowstone replacement? Here's what we think

Netflix's latest Western saga Untamed is penned by American Primeval creator Mark L. Smith, which also ruled the platform's charts upon its debut.

Smith, who is a known screenwriter for films like The Revenant, is a seasoned expert on Westerners and brought life to one of the most brutal and grizzly tales of survival in the wild with American Primeval.

His latest miniseries, Untamed, is set in Yosemite National Park, another of the most beautiful and historically significant locations in the US, along with Yellowstone National Park. The primary location for Taylor Sheridan's breakthrough Western saga, Yellowstone, Smith's latest is quite similar to the flagship in many ways.

Fans looking for a Yellowstone replacement might find Untamed's natural landscapes and the wildlife brutality similar, but the miniseries is more of an amalgamation of Yellowstone and True Detective.

While Sheridan's saga was a twisty family saga through and through, Smith's latest is a deadly murder mystery and crime thriller.

Here are the similarities and differences between Untamed and Yellowstone.

*Disclaimer- This article is based on the author's opinion. Reader discretion is advised.*

Untamed and Yellowstone: Exploring their similarities and differences

Sheridan's Yellowstone will always be credited as a breakthrough series, which revived the Western genre and paved the way for shows like American Primeval and Untamed on Netflix.

While fans of Yellowstone might find some solace in Netflix's latest miniseries, as it mimics the tone and style, you will find no twisty family drama and a rivalry to preserve one's land. Untamed and Yellowstone are both set in real and beautiful locations in the US, which brings home the fact that Wilderness operates on its own laws.

Much like Kevin Costner's John Dutton, Eric Bana's Kyle Turner also understands that their beautiful and natural landscapes can be equally ferocious and that wildlife is unforgiving. However, both shows take very different approaches to bring this fact home. While the Dutton drama is rooted more in family and legacy, Bana's show is centred more on the brutality of this nature, as depicted by the many dead bodies found in the Yosemite National Park.

The protagonists of both dramas operate on a very different set of rules. While John Dutton is the uncrowned king of the Dutton ranch, who breaks every possible law to preserve his family's legacy and the honour of his land, Kyle Turner is a man of the law. Both protagonists share a very different relationship to their respective surroundings, albeit the similarities in the surroundings itself.

Untamed catches on to the Western spirit of Yellowstone

Beneath the rusty surfaces and the beauty of the Yosemite National Park, Untamed is quite different from Yellowstone in its genre. However, the series rightly captures the spirit of Sheridan's series and is a true homage to the Western genre.

The breathtaking views and scenery of Netflix's latest miniseries are like a relief to sore eyes for fans missing the beauty of Yellowstone. Both Westerners capture the brutality and beauty of two of the most historically significant and real locations in the US.

Like the Yellowstone National Park, which is a living and breathing character in itself in Sheridan's saga, Smith uses the Yosemite National Park to set up his crime thriller, as he explained in an interview with Netflix's Tudum:

“Everyone thinks of Yosemite as this beautiful place with all the vistas and all the scenery, but we were trying to touch on the dangers that are just beyond that. I love stripping all the cheats away, stripping all the more modern tools that people can use. It really gets down to the character and what they can find within themselves.”

While both Yosemite and Yellowstone throw the same brutalities in their protagonists' paths, they take a very different approach to interact with them, which makes all the difference in the end.

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