American Primeval delves into the early days of the American frontier, exploring the lives of settlers and American Indians and the conflicts that arise as they navigate the harsh and unforgiving landscape. American Primeval (S1:E1-3) Review If you were hoping for a wholly original take on the American Frontier genre, American Primeval may not be for you. Everything from its washed-out and gray-blue color palette to its archetypal characters has been done and done. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s terrible. Rather, the first three episodes of American Primeval do a decent job of entertaining despite, and even possibly thanks to its reliance on what came before. Although, it’s relatively clear that director Peter Berg, best known for his character roles in a slew of films and TV programs over the last 40 years, doesn’t have a strong stylistic vision of his own.  he does a fair approximation of those others who do. It’s such that, while you may not be particularly surprised by the narrative or wowed by beautifully framed vignettes that are beautifully framed because they are beautiful instead of meaningful, episodes are easily digestible with enough Cowboys and Indians to keep action fans happy, including a handful of surprisingly well done action sequences, and sufficient interpersonal drama and spur rattling for the Western aficionados to enjoy, all wrapped up in a well-paced 48-60 minutes each. The cast also does a very nice job with the material, especially considering that the been-there-done-that-script doesn’t exactly scream “groundbreaking.” Often with a program of this caliber, the “talent” is peppered with the noticeably weak and inexperienced, but the casting directors for American Primeval should be applauded. The least skilled performer(s) still manage to maintain a distraction-free focus while the program’s leads sell their repeated blunders or tough posturing with aplomb in excess of even the shakier scripted moments. Betty Gilpin, who plays the lead female role as well as the two children “in her care” are arguably the strongest performers, never over or underplaying the sometimes inconsistent script. However, it’s Taylor Kitsch who is most surprising as the quiet and damaged stranger. Like the rest of the program, he doesn’t give us anything that we haven’t seen before, but strong, brooding, and mostly silent seem to be his sweet spot. All in all, while the first half of American Primeval isn’t going to usurp the great Westerns like Lonesome Dove and Unforgiven, and there’s still plenty of time for everything to go South, there are certainly a lot worse things one could watch. WOKE ELEMENTS Big Heepum BS A Shashone Chief, a secondary character who only appears for a few brief scenes, happens to be a woman. Even for the Shashone, who were known for allowing women to hold significant roles in decision making, this is pushing it. What’s more, is that the scale of the incongruity is only magnified by its being the series only conceit to wokeness (at least for the first three episodes). There is one short scene which depicts what might be construed as an attempt of the writers to dip their toes into the stereotypical one sided anti-white, pro American Indian narrative loved by the Left. However, to me it seemed less a commentary than a bit of clichéd and unimaginative writing. Mormon Bates While the program could attempt to lay waste to the Mormon faith, it instead does a fair job of indicting the evil Mormon characters as evil despite their faith rather than as a symptom of it. That said, any real world historical ambiguity about Brigham Young’s possible role in the Mountain Meadows Massacre is Left for scholarly debate elsewhere. In this he is an evil man motivated by his twisted perspective of his religion. Whether or not this constitutes being woke is debatable. On the one hand, aspects of Mormonism divert so sufficiently from both Catholicism and Protestantism that the Catholic Church has declared Mormon baptisms to be non-Christian and many from both groups believe that far too many LDS beliefs are incompatible with historic Christian Faith. Where the debate falls is in whether or not the writers knew of this schism. If they did, than it is possible that they believed they were not falling back onto the woke trope of portraying those of Christian Faith as the villains. One last thing. So far, the program has also contained “good” Mormons. The only surviving “good” male Mormon seems to have lost his mind a bit. What’s Not Woke There are good guys, villains, and the gray depicted in mostly equal measures from the various demographics represented in the program.  The post American Primeval (season 1) first appeared on Worth it or Woke.