‘Untamed’ (2025) Limited Series Review – Eric Bana Shines In Your Next Great Netflix Mystery Binge

Let’s get right to the point: Untamed will never be showered with Emmy or Golden Globe nominations. In a week when the Emmys reminded us we’re living in the Golden Age of television—with standout series like Andor, The Bear, Adolescence, The Penguin, and Severance—Untamed won’t move the needle. However, it is a show made for mainstream audiences, delivering a taut, intelligent, and atmospheric mystery thriller that will keep viewers glued to their seats with intrigue and suspense.

How many shows claim to deliver on these promises but never come close to their goals? If you love the art of television, you also must embrace “genre” series. That is the brilliance of Untamed. The final product is a Netflix original series that feels like an adaptation of a great summer popcorn mystery novel, brought to a slow-burning boil on your small screen.

However, what sets Untamed apart from most genre streaming series is the brooding and vulnerable performance by its star, Eric Bana, who perhaps delivers one of the best performances of his career—a reminder of when he first broke onto the scene with his scene-stealing turn in Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down and his unheralded work in Steven Spielberg’s Munich. Magnetic and in one key scene, profoundly moving, you cannot take your eyes off of him.

The story follows Kyle Turner, an agent with the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch, who works on criminal investigations. (So basically, Turner would have been John Dutton’s worst nightmare.) He is called up to the top of the mountain when a couple of climbers on the side of El Capitan have an unlikely encounter with a woman falling from the cliff. Miraculously, both survive, with the body of the young woman tied up in their ropes.

Personally, I would have cut the cord and let the woman’s dead body fall with a horrendous splat to the bottom of the mountainside. (Watch the howlingly bad Chris O’Donnell movie Vertical Limit to see what I’m talking about.) Turner is called to the scene. He notices the young woman has a gunshot wound on her leg and no shoes. This doesn’t look like a suicide. Certainly not a tourist who got too close to the edge. He has a revelation that perhaps she was being hunted.

Untamed comes from Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) and Elle Smith (The Marsh King’s Daughter), who have had mixed success on the big screen but recently hit their stride with the Netflix series American Primeval. Their latest effort is a character-driven drama filled with eye-opening surprises at every turn. The writing is sharp and cleverly layered, delivering a straightforward whodunit with depth and nuance. What makes the series especially compelling is that the characters’ backstories are just as intriguing as the central plot.

Filming in Yosemite adds a haunting quality, where mysteries vanish into the dense forest, never to be solved. Cinematographers Michael McDonough and Brendan Uegama bring a cinematic, ominous atmosphere to the series that lingers long after each episode. Combined with deeply felt subplots—where local mysteries and emotional wounds surface, and isolation gives way to psychological tension and healing through confrontation—the series becomes a taut thriller that intensifies with each passing episode.

However, as the series progresses, it’s the human element—particularly the dynamic between Bana’s Turner and his ex-wife Jill (played wonderfully by Rosemarie DeWitt)—that goes deeper than we could have imagined. A pivotal scene between them, especially from Bana’s side, tackles a subject they’ve long tried to avoid. In that moment, Bana reveals a rare vulnerability we haven’t seen from him before.

The Smiths skillfully distract the viewer from where the story is headed. Though the main villain is a bit obvious, cutting the intrigue of the story, it is done so well that you forgive the trope almost entirely. That’s because a secondary plot reveal is just as powerful, which is a testament to its effectiveness. There are numerous twists, turns, and suspects. Then, folding in a visceral setting that keeps the audience on the edge of their seats.

However, Untamed is elevated and worth watching for Eric Bana’s performance. Bana has carved out a niche for himself since reaching dizzying heights in the early 2000s. For example, playing weathered and righteous detectives, most notably as Aaron Falk in the acclaimed The Dry and its sequel, Force of Nature: The Dry 2. A tense and atmospheric thriller elevated by Bana’s brooding and vulnerable performance. This is your next great Netflix mystery binge, featuring emotional weight and striking visuals that linger after the credits roll.

The entire season of Untamed is now available to stream exclusively on Netflix.